Chinese Architecture and dialogues with the west

A contribution to

The ‘Window of Shanghai’ Second Worldwide Writing Competition

Chinese Architecture and cultural dialogues with the west

an essay by

Nicholas Anastasopoulos

This essay represents some thoughts of the writer on Chinese culture, distinctions between the traditional, the historic, the ethnic, the vernacular and the contemporary as they apply to Chinese culture and architecture, as well as some questions in regards with our current understanding of sustainability and a possible role for China and the future

Blade Runner, a science fiction film that came out in 1982, presents a future scenario

for Los Angeles in 20191. In Blade Runner the replicants, which were robots virtually indistinguishable from adult humans, were the ones carrying the story forward being the main characters, but behind the main story several other parallel stories unfolded.

Among them, various co-existing ethnic communities thrive in pockets of makeshift commercial enterprise in a dense urban landscape of buildings downtown, humid streets with heavy traffic and dark dilapidated neighborhoods.

What struck me in this emblematic film back then and, I must admit it still does, is a vision of the future not as the banal Star Wars fairytale of extraterrestrials but, rather, a very plausible scenario of cities seen as intensified hubs of everyday human activities where cultural characteristics do not subside and fade, but instead they thrive.

Picture 1 Commercial electronic billboards Blade Runner truly represents an ingenious on high-rise building facades. Film still, Blade Runner, 1982. study on heterotopias. More and more today, various groups of populations characterized by common ethnic background, diverse interests, living conditions, motivations and ideologies formulate the condition of the metropolitan Multitude.2 Clearly, reality should not be mistaken to be a blueprint of what Blade Runner depicts. Nevertheless, there are Picture 2 Chinese Noodle food stalls. Film elements of the film’s future world that at times still, Blade Runner, 1982 seem quite close to the film’s prophetic vision, perhaps even commonplace in some of today’s contemporary cities and metropolises.

I recalled Blade Runner in order to make a point about present global changes in big cities across the world and the global Chinese presence in particular since in the backdrop of this cult Picture 3 Neon dragon signs at street level science fiction genre story the ethnic Chinese with. Film still, Blade Runner, 1982. element was the most prevalent.

1982, the date the film was released was also the date that China adopted its present constitution and springs thereafter forward into a new era.

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Blade Runner, 1982. An American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.

2 For a treatise on heterotopias, see Foucault, M., 1986, Of other spaces, Diacritics, 16(1), Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. For an analysis of the multitude, see Negri A., and Hardt M., 2004, Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire, New York: The Penguin Press.

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Nicholas Anastasopoulos

An introduction to Chinese culture and perception of reality

My first contact and interest in Chinese culture and architecture explorations of Chinatown in New York occurred in the ‘80s. My understanding of the world back then was the result of the rather limited knowledge of a young aspiring Greek architect. I had set about exploring the big Apple, having graduated from a two-year postgraduate program in architecture at Yale and I was living in an apartment at a southwestern neighborhood known as TriBeCa. Tri-Be-Ca which wasn’t quite as famous then as it is now is an acronym. It is composite word, an abbreviation of three words, of the orientation-based description of a place which is the Triangle-Below-Canal district. Canal Street indeed was, and most Picture 4 Vintage photo of early probably still remains, a significant boundary, Chinese settlers in Manhattan. NYC cutting horizontally the longitudinal body of the Chinatown historic archive. island of Manhattan from the East to the West.

I found a real-world “Blade Runner”-like metropolis in the downtown world of Manhattan, where the Chinese element extended below Canal street in Chinatown, a quarter of winding streets and brushed elbows with Little Italy, Jewish stores and Synagogues in the Lower East Side, Puerto Rican Casitas enclaves in Alphabetville and even a trace of Greek immigrant community represented by Saint Barbara church stronghold. Canal Street was also the central artery below which the Chinatown district of New York City flourished. Going to Chinatown, a ten minute walk from where I lived, it always felt as if I was suddenly being swept into another cultural universe, another continent and perhaps even another time. I was being surrounded by a culture of which I hardly knew anything, which nevertheless appeared incredibly enticing in every respect, extraordinarily rich and inviting to wander and explore.

Picture 5 A partial map of Manhattan's Chinatown Chinatown historic archive.

Picture 6 Vintage photos of early life in Chinatown, Lower Manhattan.

Chinatown historic archive.

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I spent many hours in Chinatown’s densely populated and full of life streets, wandering through the only irregular urban pattern in the grid of Manhattan exploring sights, people, taking in smells and tasting Chinese dishes.

Eventually, this part of downtown New York became a familiar and favorite hangout.

So much so, that I decided at one point to explore a bit further. For a while, I was intensely photographing elements in the neighborhood, so that I now boast a large collection of slides which I often go back to, in order to consult and enjoy. I first began by studying spatial manifestations of ethnicity in the urban body of the city.

Inevitably this project encompassed a broader spectrum of concerns of what is now known as cultural studies.

Picture 7 Employing architectural vocabularies to formulate an identity in cultural spaces and private businesses in Chinatown, NYC in the '80s.

I came to understand that Chinatown for the average New Yorker, as well as for the average tourist appeared to be “exotic”, vibrant and alive, dense and rich in a myriad ways, in about each and every aspect of life, but it always remained defiant in fully deciphering. The essential qualities of Chinese architecture and Chinese culture as perceived by my then “untrained” architect’s eye, someone who was working in standard architectural offices in New York, were quite hard to grasp. For me personally and for my Greek background specifically, not entirely fitting into either the “New Yorker” or the “tourist” category, this altogether unknown enclave, exuberant and at the same time inexplicably hermetic, only reinforced my interest and commitment to get closer to this universe.

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Architecture plays a fundamental role in signifying a culture, or any type of subject for that matter. Chinatowns in the Diaspora seem to be closely knit communities, which, like other ethnic diasporas, such as the Greek community in New York for example, tend to safeguard certain traditions of their own sometimes a lot better than in the homeland. Picture 8 Cross-section of a Song bracketTherefore, for some fields of research they provide ideal spaces for tracing the cultural and social evolution of certain peoples. One thing in common that ethnic communities in NYC all seem to invariably share is their reliance among other cultural aspects, to architectural elements which function as “vessels� of cultural referents and foster identity in an otherwise anonymous and multi-cultural metropolitan society.

arm, showing a single unit and a full unit.

Source: Chinese Traditional Architecture,, China Institute of America. p. 49

Chinese communities in the west expressed their identity through the formation of distinct neighborhoods that became the compact vessels of Chinese culture. It was there, where newcomers would find support and advice and where anyone could sell or buy products from the homeland, where it Picture 9 Formal and scenographic interpretation of the yingtsao Fashi order in was possible to find a good meal and to meet elements in Chinatown, NYC, circa 1980's with others.

Chinese architecture, for all its emblematic and consistent characteristics and all the fascination it exudes, still retains something impermeable and distant. In my urban explorations I gradually began understanding things that initially, for me had no meaning. I categorized elements, activities, buildings and typologies.

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Through this urban research for the first time I had the opportunity to be exposed to so many different cultures in such a relatively small area, all co-existing in apparent harmony was revelatory. Comparing the characteristics, differences and similarities of these quite different ethnic communities became a meaningful and rich experience. This activity which went past architecture, helped me develop Picture 10 Aspects of social spaces and cultural life in Chinatown, NYC, circa a solid understanding of the idea of cultural '80s. identity for a group of people and it also helped distinguish the authentic from the banal, the real from the mere faรงade.3 It gradually became quite clear for example, that the Chinese restaurants in the neighborhood could be distinguished into three main categories according to their target group.

Different signs were being deployed at restaurants addressing the non-Chinese, with a repertory of elements that the westerners expected, including typical calligraphy style lettering, an ethnic and old-fashioned exterior faรงade, a menu and a review from a food columnist.

The second type belonged to older generation Chinese and their own favorites with no-frills plain tables and chairs, standard fluorescent lightning, painted dragons, Chinese words (such as good fortune, or long life among others) and quite often an altar above the kitchen door with a minute figure in tribute to the kitchen god of the Buddhist tradition.

Picture 11 Convention and community spaces in Chinatown, NYC. circa 1980's

Picture 12 Packed audience attending a Chinese opera performance in Chinatown, NYC in the '80s.

The third type of places addressed the younger Chinese-American crowd, (a category styled after Hong Kong at the time), with usually larger, fancier and high-tech elements, such as cut mirrors on the wall, crystal chandeliers and lotus shaped lamps. Those restaurants were very big, Picture 13 Chinese opera performance in Chinatown, NYC. circa 1980's. addressing the new breed of modern Chinese.

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This involvement led to a very successful and acclaimed both by students and faculty seminar, conducted in 1986 at the School of Architecture and Environmental Design at Parsons School of Design in New York. It later affected me personally in extending my interest and appreciation of the richness, wisdom and depth of Chinese culture and led to the desire to acquire a deeper understanding in the formal qualities of Chinese architecture.

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21st century dialogues between Chinese and Western Architecture

In my lifetime, China has reinvented itself as a nation already in a formidable way.

In this process, contemporary architecture has been playing a major role in the emergence of both the physical and the symbolic identity of contemporary China.

The contributions of monumental architecture have always been of paramount importance in historic shifts of many societies. In this growing stage and roughly for the past two decades, China has been welcoming Western Architecture expertise, through the work of such well-known architects as Skidmore Owings and Merrill, Herzog and de Meuron, OMA, David Chipperfield, Steven Holl, Norman Foster, Arata Isozaki and many others, thus, justifying the concept of China as the world's newest architectural playground.

My introduction to the younger generation of Chinese Architects came recently through an installation I admired by Amateur Architecture Studio in Berlin. Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, the duo behind the firm’s name, are two Chinese architects who, through their installation and through their work, have been questioning fast-track globalized architecture, hence the name of their practice. They state that they wish to distinguish their work from the corporate anonymity and accompanying “professionalism” as the main code of conduct prevalent to the “star” architecture of the international architectural circuit. Their “Tile Theatre” installation at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, deploys approximately 60,000 traditionally manufactured Chinese roof tiles and other traditional materials, such as wood and bamboo. Their intention was to place the viewers’ attention to the disappearing tradition of making space, craft and architecture in contemporary China.

Picture 14 Amateur Architecture Studio’s Tile Theatre, “Architecture and Ideology Exhibition, HKW, 2012, Berlin.

Chinese contemporary architecture today seems to be quite active, exciting and in direct dialog with developments elsewhere, as a result of the intensive urbanization in process and the presence of several young Chinese architects who, along their western counterparts produce high quality designs.

Works by META-Project, (VANKE Water Tower Renovation, Shanyang, 2012, Beach Exhibit Centre Huludao, 2011, Mirror to Mirage-Omotesanto street Fashion Museum, Tokyo, 2010), SKEW Collaborative (Chinese Academy of Sciences IOT Center,2011, Wulumuqi Road Apartment, Shanghai, 2010), OPEN Architecture and Vector Architects, Beijing and Amateur Architecture Studio, Hangzhou, as well as urban planners such as RhineScheme (Society Hill Residences, etc) to name a few from a personal list of favorites, display an extraordinary compositional rigor, they ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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are prolific and talented. Many of the principals in these firms are young Chinese intellectuals holding degrees from prestigious Universities such as Harvard, Princeton and Columbia University in the US, having received an education of high standards, while they also have acquired a mentality and lifestyle closer to western standards, while a few also possess a remarkable ability to critically comment upon the process they are a part of. 4 Recent reconstruction has taken cities and Chinese society indeed by force, thoroughly transforming the urban fabric in a mighty way that has wiped out in many cases all evidence of previous stages of history. In his book entitled “The Craftsman”, Richard Sennett, an acclaimed contemporary philosopher, comments upon the dangers of rapid urbanization and development through the scene of a young archer’s lesson and his master’s advice: Don’t try to hit the target!’’ This bit of Zen advice seems so baffling that the young archer may be tempted to aim the arrow at the master. The master is not perverse: the author of The Art of Archery means ‘‘Don’t try so hard,’’ and he’s offering practical advice: if you try too hard, are too assertive, you will aim badly and hit the target erratically…

The Zen master’s advice could be applied to urbanism. Much twentieth-century urban planning proceeded on the principle: demolish all you can, grade it flat, and then build from scratch. The existing environment has been seen as standing in the way of the planner’s will.

This aggressive recipe has frequently proved disastrous, destroying many viable buildings as well as ways of life bedded into urban fabric.

The replacements for these destroyed buildings have also, too often, proved worse; big projects suffer from over determined, fit-for-purpose form; when history moves on, as it always does, tightly defined buildings can soon become obsolete.5

Sennett’s thoughts seem to eloquently put into context a serious dilemma of thinking about the new city and the future, as one ponders of tradition and history.

It is precisely at this juncture that the question relating to development, tradition and architecture occurs. Since redeveloping cities and intervening in historic centers is perhaps the most serious and complex of actions that we may think of, affecting people’s lives, economies, the environment and the future, we need to think of the role of architecture in the transformation of cities and countries and the processes through which this takes place. Still, architecture is but an instrument, used to achieve specific goals in a complex system of strategies and processes. In most cases, besides architects, this involves several industries and craftsmen of several trades, builders, real estate developers, investors, government officials, political will and communities. In that respect, the architectural discipline is often called upon, in order to produce some “signature” design, which provides added value to the real estate itself. This observation allows for an interesting contemplation of the 4

Information on Chinese architecture practices was drawn from http://www.chinese-architects.com/en/ and other sources on the internet, as well as from architecture exhibitions.

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Sennett, R., 2008, The Craftsman, New Haven & London: Yale University Press. P.214

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architectural profession vis-à -vis the so-called vernacular and the traditional, as well as the historic building production. Nevertheless, if we are to consider China’s history going back for more than two millennia, it is interesting to note that in China, as in some other societies, both the historiography of architecture and the architectural profession have a rather short life span which is probably not more than century-old.6

Picture 15 People on Fuxing Donglu, Shanghai, 1997. Commentary on a changing urban landscape and a demolition scene. Photographer Thomas Struth. Source: 13th Biennale of Architecture, Venice.

Picture 16 Bernard Tschumi designed a project entitled Factory 798 for Beijing attempting to negotiate a solution between demolition and preservation of the existing urban fabric. The concept is questionable, yet worthy of mention for its attempts to be realistic in offering a response to a call for massive redevelopment. (Source: http://www.tschumi.com/).

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Two records, the Yingzao fashi of the Song Dynasty (1100) and the Gongbu gongcheng zuofa zeli of the Qing dynasty (1734) appear to function as Building standards manuals in Chinese architecture.

They dominated the construction as it applied to craftsmen, responsible for the erection of buildings.

See Glann, E., Unfolding the Chinese Building Standards:Research on the Yingzao fashi, Chinese Traditional Architecture, 1984.

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Chinese vernacular: common and unique elements in world architecture

Vernacular

architecture represents condensed human wisdom and lessons learned over time. The vernacular idiom is a result of the constant interaction between man and nature, in terms of what is needed for man to survive and how this can be retrieved with the Picture 17 Vernacular Architecture recorded in human faculties and ingenuity from any Henan, Shansi, Shensi and Kansu provinces given region’s resources. The vernacular hollowed out from loess. The earth surface always represents a reference point reveals the atria of the houses below, which about our perceived connections contain vaulted ceiling rooms carved into the soil.

(Source: Architecture without Architects, Bernard between our past, present and future. In Rudofski). contrast with traditional or historic monumental architecture, the vernacular is often -and rightly sorelated more directly with the popular anonymous wisdom and less with the formal history often associated with the monumental scale of palaces and temples. An old catalog in my library Picture 18 The village of Ho Keou in Yunnan entitled “Architecture without province, built entirely on stilts, above water architects” which I still consult, of an level.(Source: Architecture without Architects, emblematic exhibition that took part in Bernard Rudofski).

New York in the 60’s cast light to the universal beauty of the vernacular everywhere. The catalog summarizes some principles found in vernacular architecture through various examples, perhaps many of them by now extinct.7 In the catalog, among several other photographs (all black and white) I have Picture 19Traditional Earth-brick building in been struck by some black and white Lehaina, Greece (source: El.Boulkogiannakia) photos depicting traditional Chinese regional typologies.

In one case we see communities and entire villages built underground and in another, on stilts. Both appear to be quite unique examples of man’s ingenuity in adjusting living and needs according to nature’s available resources.

This discussion focusing on the vernacular coincides with current interests of a significant percentage of research under way, as well as a growing number of concerned people in Europe, the US as well as other parts of the world, involving the use of natural materials in building.

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Rudofski Bernard, Architecture without Architects, 1964, New York: The Museum of Modern Art.

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Because of this current trend we tend to rediscover old time-honored traditions that seem to have distilled human wisdom and the essence of being in complete harmony with nature. Among others, building with clay is a practice that has seen a considerable rise in interest and popularity recently because it ensures a healthy environment and excellent insulation properties with the use of mud, a non-exhaustible and readily Picture 20 A fortress-like exterior of a Tulou structure: sparse openings on the upper floors available resource.

Chinese vernacular appears to have its share and a huge overhang for rain protection. (source: Wikipedia, retrieval date:25/7/2012) of earth building practices. This tradition along with specific cultural lifestyles has led to quite unique typologies observed in the buildings found in Huaiyuan (Nanjing Province) as well as Tulou (Jiangsu Province).8 They possess some formidable characteristics apparently providing a very pleasant environment with negligible needs for heating or cooling. These structures are quite remarkable and unique not only for their building materials and technique, but Picture 21 Tulou fortified rammed earth traditional residential architecture, Fujian Province (source: also for the cylindrical form and for the social Wikipedia, retrieval date:25/7/2012). organization they serve and the communities they house.

Some tulou structures have withstood more than 700 years of life.

I often ask myself questions relating to our goals, our perception of happiness and comfort and ultimately the meaning of life.

Does moving forward and projecting into the future necessarily mean a break with the past? Does it mean a thorough re-inventing Picture 22 Yuchang lou interior (source: of oneself? Or is this a confrontation that Wikipedia, retrieval date: 25/7/2012) and families demands a better informed more holistic clan inhabiting an interior, (source: Chinese Vernacular Dwelling, Shan Deqi, p. 122). outlook into the future?

How does one imagine oneself, or his successors for that matter in this equation? These are pressing and urgent questions we are faced with everywhere. Given China’s figures and size, their impact is undeniable. Thus, our hopes and expectations in China, as a nation of ancient wisdom and of an important role in the future are understandably high.

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Most large-scale tulou seen today were built in the traditional Chinese building method of a composite of earth, sand, and lime known as sanhetu rather than just earth.

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Chinese culture, sustainability of the future and future of sustanability

In a conversation I had with a Chinese friend academic I was offered an interesting viewpoint relating to the sentiment of the average Chinese person, which is a driving force that shapes the nation’s identity. It has to do with the need and desire to be in par with UN standards of living and the aspirations of the Chinese people for continuous improvement and material wealth, as well as the notions of development and progress. By now China is the largest developing country in the world and an emerging market economy of huge manufacturing and trade significance, promoting development and sharing well-being, cooperation and realization of common prosperity. The thirty year history of an extreme development process has produced formidable results benefitting many Chinese people. This prosperity has been achieved with heavy industry and the shift from an agrarian into a manufacturing and service oriented economy. Much of this transformation has occurred at the expense of the agricultural production, rural identity and traditional lifestyles and a huge consumer middle class has emerged, highly concentrated in some urban environments in the country. The rapid urbanization process of the Chinese landscape represents a shift of huge magnitude given the size of the Chinese population, which affects the entire planet in more than one ways. China adds 2 billion square meters of new buildings every year and is on track to build the equivalent of a second China in the next 20 years—a boom that accounts for about half of the annual new construction worldwide.9 This rapidly expanding urbanized middle class is now becoming dependent on supplies coming from afar and from industrialized mass production processes.

While China is re-inventing a western prototype which reflects a desire to meet living standards of the so called developed nations, it is becoming sorely understood by many in the west and worldwide, that the western lifestyle may be unsustainable. It is now widely accepted that we need to drastically and urgently change the course of things in the near future, as signs of climate change and exhaustion of resources are clear and solutions are urgently being sought out by nations, researchers and spiritual leaders out of this conundrum. Sustainability and resilience, two terms which have emerged as most significant and worthy of our attention, should serve as our shared guiding principles for future decision-making and strategy planning.

Sustainability is a term which applies to all things and human activities and describes the capacity to endure through renewal, maintenance, and sustenance or nourishment. For humans in social systems or ecosystems, sustainability is the longterm maintenance of responsibility, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of stewardship, the responsible management of resource use.

Resilience refers to the ability of a system, from individual people to whole economies, to hold together and maintain their ability to function in the face of change and shocks from the outside.10 9

Data from the China Sustainable Energy Program, 2012.

Hopkins, R., & Heinberg, R., 2008., The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience, Totnes: Chelsea Green Publishing.

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The concept of sustainability today takes an urgent meaning according to some, directly questioning the concept of growth, a credo of unprecedented credibility in post-war years. I view sustainable culture, economies and societies as those that have the capacity to survive indefinitely in the future without exerting irreversible damage to the environment and to the society, while acknowledging cultural heritage through the protection and enhancement of the traditional and the vernacular traditions.

Sustainable lifestyles are those that support sustainable cultures, economies and societies with respect to nutrition, energy consumption and general resource consumption through responsible use of resources and environmental management.

Sustainable architecture as a discipline is the kind of architecture which supports sustainable lifestyles and sustainable societies.

Sustainable principles put limitations and conditions on growth and exploitation of land and other natural resources. Given the earth’s growing population we are faced with some unresolved dilemmas concerning between high-density living and more free space and land or low density living and less free space.

At this critical crossroads, China as a leader could certainly play a most significant and decisive role, adopting a role of stewardship and setting the pace for the entire world, by leading the way towards developing new technologies, inventing and adopting new models of living, nothing short of imagining the future. The future of sustainability.

How could this be done?

This would be the challenge for China to develop and to show us the way.

Why is China best suited for this role?

Because it has proven to itself and to the world, being the most ancient civilization and having already thoroughly transformed itself twice, through the stages that the People’s Republic of China has undergone between 1949 to the present, that it is capable of doing so. Besides, an intrinsic element of Chinese culture and civilization is the belief that change within nature is a law of life, which we humans need to welcome and embrace.

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Conclusion

China is an important nation committed to responsible leadership and a global culture, economy and ecology. The depth of its civilization, its recent past, as well as its current achievement record, guarantees that it may play a significant role in our common future. Given its heritage and its current rapid development, China is at a crossroads and so is the planet. The criteria of local and global sustainability will define China’s future and the world’s future as well. China has an inexhaustible pool of intellectual resources and cultural values to draw from and the architectural paradigm, as described above mostly through a subjective and partial point of view, and China’s capacity to be an inspiration at many levels of human activity could serve as a model. Chinese traditions, vernacular wisdom, contemporary technological ingenuity and achievements in 21st century China point to the feasibility of such a hypothesis.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Ancient Chinese Architecture, ed. Cai Lili, Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 2002.

Building a Revolution, Chinese Architecture since 1980, Hong Kong University Press, 2006.

Cai Yanxin & Lu Bingjie, 2006, 11 Chinese Architecture, China Intercontinental Press.

Contemporary Architecture in China, 2011, Cultural China Series, Better Link Press.

Deqi, Shan, (trnsl. Wang Dehua), Chinese Vernacular Dwelling, China Intercontinental Press, 2004.

Dung Kai-cheung, Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City,Columbia University Press, 2012.

Jin Canrong, trans. Tu Xiliang, Big Power's Responsibility, China's Perspective, 211, Beijing: China Renmin University Press.

Hongxun, Yang, The Classical Gardens of China, History and Design Techniques, Van Nostrand-Rheinhold, NY, 1982.

Hopkins, R., & Heinberg, R., 2008., The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience, Totnes: Chelsea Green Publishing.

Lin, Jan. Reconstructing Chinatown: Ethnic Enclave, Global Change. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.

Rudofsky, Bernard, Architecture without Architects, Doubleday, The Museum of Modern Art, NY, 1964 Shatzman Steinhardt, Xinian, Fu, Glahn, Else, Thorp, Robert, Juliano, Annette, Nancy, Chinese Traditional Architecture, China Institute in America, 1984.

Shen Yantai & Wang Changqing, Life in Hutong, 1997, Through Intricate Alleys in Beijing, Beijing: Foreign Language Press. 3rd edition 2009.

Yanxin, Cai & Bingjie, Lu, (trnsl. Andrea Lee & Selina Lim), Chinese Architecture, China Intercontinental Press, 2006.

Note: where sources are not mentioned, photos are made by the writer. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 14 Nicholas Anastasopoulos