By the end of 1985, the total floor area of urban housing in China amounted to some 2 billion sq. m, but only one-third of this was built before 1949. It is estimated that in the next 15 years (1986-2000) another 2 billion sq. m of urban housing will be built in China, which means a doubling of the present total floor area. So, by the year 2000, China will have 4 billion sq. m of urban housing floor area. If the pre-1949 buildings could still be standing, they would only take up one-sixth of the total. Of these old buildings less than one-tenth of the total floor area will be what can truly be taken as traditional Chinese dwellings (Fig. 1). This shows that at present, urban housing construction in China is proceeding at an unprecedented rate, doubling and redoubling itself with her city outlook inevitably undergoing a tremendous change. The courtyard house, a residential compound with buildings surrounding a courtyard on four or three sides, is a sort of housing pattern symbolic of the traditional Chinese way of living, but is now almost immersed in a sea of new buildings in most urban areas. In most provinces and municipalities, a great number of new urban housings are multi-storey apartments that were rapidly erected on more or less standardised designs, which are criticised by both laymen and architects for their stereotyped monotony in external form and space. In recent years, high-rise apartments have been springing up like mushrooms, especially in such metropolitan areas as Beijing and Shanghai. Some consider it as a symbol of China’s decisive step toward modernisation. Foreign friends often ask us such a question: “With such a unique architectural tradition of courtyard
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Oct 1, 1992
Open Access