THE COURTYARD TRADITION

The courtyard is at the center of the Chinese tradition of dwellings, and in a sense the surrounding wings of the house, looking into the courtyard, were subordinated to it. A substantial dwelling would have a series of courtyards, increasing in privacy and intimacy away from the main street entrance. Modern houses offer less spatial opportunity for this, but nonetheless the key two features of a courtyard are, first, its enclosing character that creates privacy and tranquility and, second, its role of bringing a miniature version of nature into the home. Plants, water and stone all play a part in this. Interior courtyards in traditional Chinese houses tend to exhibit the vernacular, with brick, cobblestone and cement paving stones common choices to create the ambience of a courtyard, and with furnishings and decorative touches that might include carved window latticework, rustic bamboo and drum stool seating and a neutral and natural palette with occasionally a touch of red. A simple bench under a decorative framework, as in the village house below, allows a feeling of serenity and contemplation. As urban living grew in the nineteenth century, home owners were compelled to adapt to the noisier and more crowded conditions, as we can see in the examples on the facing page.

A bench with projecting backrest opens onto a courtyard garden in a house in the traditional village of Hongcun, Anhui Province.

A view from the living room to the courtyard, with French windows opened, in a late nineteenth-century shikumen (stone gate house) in Shanghai. The large gate that gives this kind of house its name is on the far side of the courtyard.

Low bamboo chairs in the courtyard of the Shikumen Wulixiang in Xintiandi, Shanghai.

Casual seating in the central courtyard of a restored hutong dwelling in Beijing, with a table set for tea.

Another, larger Beijing hutong dwelling, with semi-open walkways around each courtyard, fitted with occasional seating.