I wouldn’t have these kinds of issues if I was living in an apartment. ZAO/standardarchitecture refer to the re-imagined courtyard as a ‘flexible living room,’ creating a semi-public space that can be used both by the hostel and the neighboring community. 2 - HUTONGS AND SIHEYUAN HOUSES, THE SOUL OF BEIJING, 4 - BEIJING MODERNIZATION AND THE DESTRUCTION AND DISAPPEARENCE OF HUTONG, 7 - MY IMPRESSIONS AFTER YEARS SPENT EXPLORING THE HUTONGS, 9 - HUTONGS IN CONCLUSION… IF IT IS POSSIBLE TO MAKE ONE, HUTONGS AND SIHEYUAN HOUSES, THE SOUL OF BEIJING, BEIJING MODERNIZATION AND THE DESTRUCTION AND DISAPPEARENCE OF HUTONG, MY IMPRESSIONS AFTER YEARS SPENT EXPLORING THE HUTONGS, HUTONGS IN CONCLUSION… IF IT IS POSSIBLE TO MAKE ONE, VISITING THE TRADITIONAL HAKKA HOUSES IN SHENZHEN, EXPLORING LIJIASHAN, YAODONG CAVE VILLAGE FROM LOESS PLATEAU, BASHA VILLAGE, HOME OF THE LAST GUNMEN OF CHINA, ZHAOXING VILLAGE: THE HEART OF DONG ETHNIC MINORITY, PHOTOJOURNAL OF HUANGGANG, AUTHENTIC DONG VILLAGE FROM GUIZHOU PROVINCE, DIKENGYUAN: SUNKEN COURTYARD HOUSES FROM THE LOESS PLATEAU, EXPLORING GUIZHOU ETHNIC MINORITIES: QUENIAO MIAO VILLAGE, MY 10 DAYS, FIRST TIME TO SOUTH KOREA ITINERARY. Jan 26, 2020 - Explore Wei Ming's board "Hutong beijing" on Pinterest. The irreversible damage was partially halted in 2003 with the drafting of a protection plan for 25 areas which survived the massive hutong destruction. While the courtyard houses usually hide behind walls, the type of doorway gives away who lived behind it with height of the gate, the quality of the decoration and sometimes a pair of stone lions standing guard. With the Cultural Revolution that China experienced beginning in 1949, the urban pattern inside the second ring road started to drastically change. Walking through a hutong, visitors can find messy greengrocers alternating with small local shops for basic necessities, where a little bit of everything can be found. The capital was meant to be built according to a scheme that symbolizes the aspiration of order, balance, and harmony, which are the cornerstones of Chinese civilization. Tables, chairs, or any type of furniture, fixed with chains not to be taken away, because everything that is left unattended (and still looks decent) in a hutong can be found by a new owner very quickly. It is quite fascinating to think that the oldest hutongs have been there for almost 600 years, and many of their paths never really changed since the foundation of Beijing. And this explains why many of the younger generations born in hutongs prefer to move into modern apartment buildings, which are so much more hassle-free. Laundry is drying everywhere, hanging from light poles. Many hutongs were also shaded by several big trees, planted at the side of the street or inside the courtyards. What I like about living in the hutongs is the human centered lifestyle and the feeling of being close to people. Super interesting story about the hutongs! Thanks! They go from a simple grey to highly decorated, so it's worth looking up wherever you are in a hutong. lions standing guard. The alleyways are usually pretty narrow (apparently there is one, where not even two people can pass through at the same time), therefore most hutongs are car-free. Many doors and windows were then opened, drastically changing the appearance of the hutongs. Dozens of food and coffee chains, western restaurants, clothes and souvenir shops, and bars are populating the hutongs of these areas, creating a tension between the growing tourist demand and the local ecosystem, a process that sometimes triggers the need to “clean up” the surroundings. market behind it" (sacu, the hutongs and quadrangles of Beijing). Some other times gentrification is also happening through the commercial development of many hutongs, especially in the neighborhoods around Gulou and Houhai Lake.Dilapidated hutongs became part of the government’s development plans, turning into shopping streets (to mention the most famous: Nanluoguxiang, which in 2006 was completely transformed from a very laid back local alley into a bustling and overcrowded tourist attraction, as a part of the face lifting plan of Beijing for the 2008 Olympics). The most ancient hutong neighborhoods are localized in the central districts of Dongcheng and Xicheng, in the area today inside the Second ring road.The Second ring road runs along the path left empty by the demolition of the City Walls, which enclosed Beijing since the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). In the hutongs, people meet, stop, and chat. In this book, it is stated that "in designing a capital city, the architect should lay it out The way to experience the hutongs is to walk or bike, as there is not enough space for cars to comfortably pass without clogging the entire lane. rickshaw?”. Hutongs are one of the most valuable and delicate parts of Beijing for all the things they stand for: the memory and the heritage of a glorious secular past, what remains of decades of local culture born from the years of the Cultural Revolutions, and the extreme challenge to adapt to the modern capital city that stands just few hundreds meters away, at the other side of the second ring road. The situation worsened with the tremendous earthquake of Tanshan in 1976 in the nearby Hebei Province. By that time, a huge number of academic and literates desperately called for an action to stop the destruction of the old city pattern and its traditional lifestyles. In a recent interview, Zhang Ke has argued that “the subtle complexity of the hutong as an authentic urban space has been overlooked by both developers … and by the defenders of picturesque historic preservation.” ZAO/standardarchitecture’s research-based approach to redefining the hutong for 21st-century Beijing navigates the middle-ground between housing expansion and heritage preservation. Today, there are just a few hundred left, placed under a special conservation plan, which still sometimes doesn’t prevent their sudden demolition.Recognized by many local people (especially the older generations) as the real home of the capital’s folk culture, nobody can say they truly experienced Beijing without exploring what is left of the old hutong neighborhoods. The carvings tell stories from nature and mythology, forming their own history book on every roof. These shelters became a permanent part of the siheyuan houses until today. Because even if these ancient neighborhoods are now under protection, buildings can actually still be demolished and rebuilt, as long as they keep the traditional typology and appearance.Within a few days, the urban tissue is wounded and healed, and in this way the old city continues to regenerate itself. It must be said that many old existing hutongs still struggle to adapt to the needs of a modern city, suffering from overcrowding, lacking the appropriate sewer system and private toilets and showers, parking spots, fire prevention measures, and legal licenses for many local businesses that spontaneously pop out. When the sun goes down, elderly women meet and dance together where the sidewalk is wider, sometimes waving colorful fans to pumping techno music, sometimes slow dancing in couples (practices that have been discouraged by the city government in an attempt to establish some public order).The elderly take their animals for a walk or a ride, be they little dogs or caged birds. I believe that the identity of the city cannot be fully understood without exploring the hutongs: the beautiful mess resulting from the charming, unpolished and precarious lifestyle of the hutongs is one of the most precious treasures of Old Beijing. Some of those secular trees are part of Old Beijing’s treasures, under protection together with the houses. In the Micro Hutong series, Zhang Ke and ZAO/standardarchitecture have explored complex tensions between social density, cultural heritage, and adaptive re-use in Beijing’s traditional hutongs. Back in ancient times, Beijing was a totally different city from any other in the world, especially compared with the big cities of the West. A beautifully textured concrete façade houses the intimate spaces of the hostel, with large, timber-framed glazed panels connecting interior spaces to the courtyard. Situated in proximity to Tiananmen Square, hutong neighborhoods occupy valuable land assets in China’s capital, yet many have fallen into disuse and dereliction in recent times. Without the existence of strict regulations to protect the cultural heritage of the courtyard houses, entire portions of the old urban pattern were wiped away, giving space to new high-rise residential and business districts, shopping malls, and wide roads, forever erasing thousands of hutongs and traditional siheyuan. Old Beijing was planned based on this book and even the recent constructions in the city reflect this concept. The Micro Hutong hostel represents the latest iteration in this series and evidences materiality that is sensitive to the aged fabric of the hutong. around the forbidden city anyways, so we climbed on our new friend Jinjing's rickshaw. See more ideas about Beijing, China architecture, Hutong beijing. Built in hutong blocks, Old Beijing was indeed a compartmentalized city, whose main streets features were walls and gates. Internships in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning and Interior Design. Architect and travel enthusiast who loves exploring regional, traditional and vernacular architecture. Consequently, this brought a drastic fragmentation of the ancient courtyards homes, now occupied by entire families living in one room. I must admit, my life is not always comfortable. Entire collections of decrepit and ramshackle bicycles, tricycles, carts, tuk-tuks, or electric scooters. Destroying the hutongs means killing a part of Beijing’s soul; not only destroying the architectural typology –the siheyuan– that for a century was the home of the Beijing population. “Do you want to do a Hutong Tour on my Next to it, a tiny baozi shop, where piles of steaming dumpling baskets are cooked before dawn, ready for the breakfast of the early morning workers. ZAO/standardarchitecture’s approach to the hutong has been to reimagine the courtyards, characteristic of these spaces, as ‘generators of program.’. The hutong’s alleys are therefore really old: the term “hutong” appears for the first time in Yuan’s dynasty records (1267 – 1369). In fact, most of the ancient cities and towns that have survived until today have grown naturally and somewhat spontaneously over the centuries in large part, but not Beijing. But Beijing architecture firm People's Architecture Office (PAO) has devised a solution for delivering upgrades while retaining the traditional character of the hutong homes. We turned around a corner while Jinjing yelled: “Corner! This caused a housing shortage that was partially handled by relocating the new urban immigrants in the siheyuan courtyard houses, that  were in great condition at that time and owned by single families for centuries. ZAO/standardarchitecture’s design methodology has involved redefining the interface between the hutong buildings and their urban context. In recent decades, many of Beijing’s hutongs have been demolished due to urban infrastructure projects and increased demands for high-density housing. Sometimes they dine outside, grilling some barbecue skewers. At the same time, together with the new factories, lots of new ‘modern’ residential complexes for the new working class were built in the city center, forever erasing entire hutong neighborhoods.