Reinventing Four-Sided CourtyardYear: 2023
Instructor: Junko Yamamoto
Role: Individual Work
Site: Beijing, China
At present, China is full of skyscrapers and uniform buildings, where each city lacks its own personality and connotation. A large number of historical and cultural relics have been demolished and western-style buildings with no Chinese characteristics and cultural background have been built. Beijing’s Four-sided Courtyard, a typical representative of traditional Chinese architecture typology, is undergoing a doubtful renewal and development phase. In the Beijing hutong alley, many of the Four-sided Courtyards have been “clean-up” (demolished) and “renovated” (adaptive reuse). By turning down buildings or just simply putting up a solid wall to cover the “holes in the wall” is clearly a detrimental and unsuccessful way of preserving culture. Moreover, the government started the historic building preservation plan, building new architectures that are just a straight replication of the traditional. The hutong alley becomes far less lively and the life in hutong is gradually being forgotten. Thus, architecture takes on an important role to bring back the culture with a new spirited expression.
The aim of this research is to explore intermediate and progressive preservation strategies that challenge the rigid conditions imposed by authorities. By employing materials as transitional interventions, the thesis seeks to generate socio-economic benefits while uncovering the narrative and essence of living through an exploration of regional material culture. Architectural material interventions with low economic costs facilitate flexible and gradual transitions for adaptive reuse in diverse circumstances. Cultural preservation and adaptive reuse do not always require extensive alterations to the original structure; instead, they can be addressed by employing material interventions at a micro-level that respond to different economic needs, offering alternative uses.