Category: visual analysis #2

The Demolition Process

http-//photo.chinadevelopment.com.cn/Uploads/Picture/2019-07-08/5d2298c69e396

This black and white photograph is captured near a demolished courtyard house. The photographer employs black and white style to contribute to a nostalgic and sympathetic emotion for the destroyed family history and residential area. The rule of thirds proportionally divides the photograph into three portions, and the spatial relationship of these three portions visualizes the demolition process for the courtyard houses and the contrast between courtyard houses and socialist-style apartments. 

Functioning as a transition phase between the ruins in the foreground and the socialist-style apartments in the background, the middle ground with the intact courtyard house narrates the unique features of the evanescent courtyard houses. The wooden door and the tree-dominated roofscape both represent the iconic architectural elements for the historic city of Beijing. The flat and horizontal layout of this courtyard house indicates its cultural function, as the shared courtyard and proximately constructed rooms would enhance the community spirit. However, one can barely feel reassured because of the closeness of this courtyard house to the ruins. This spatial layout indicates the imminent threat of demolition that will destroy this intact courtyard as well. 

The dispersed and scrambled bricks in the foreground signifies a demolished site of the courtyard houses. With similar appearance to a battleground, the original courtyard house is destroyed into ruins. The scattered objects on the ruins further evoke feelings of being conquered and helplessness. As the damaged sofas and broom disorderly lie on the ruins, they shed light on the desolate life fragment of the households that used to live in this courtyard. Through the focal point of a man biking pass the ruins, the photographer explores the relationship between him and the ruins. His lusterless clothes and sluggish gestures echo with the ruins. The man might be a resident, who used to live in the courtyard house with his family. Together with other potentially hidden objects under the bricks, the family stories and the identity of this man along with the courtyard house are forgotten and ignored by the state as it disregardfully destructs these courtyards. The foreground and the middle ground thus characterize the past, which gradually fades away under the blade of bulldozers. 

In the background, the socialist middle-rise apartments, replaced the demolished courtyard houses, appears to be monotonous and uniform as the windows and architectural structure for each floor look all the same. One can barely distinguish these apartments from buildings in other cities in China. Compared to the flat courtyard houses in the middle ground, these apartments are constructed vertically and separately. The ceiling and floor mark the interaction boundaries between residents. The increased density of rooms in apartment buildings isolates people from sharing public space so that the notion of common courtyards and Hutong is fading away. The skeleton branches without vividness in the background further depicts the stillness and lifelessness of the uniformly constructed apartment houses. The lack of proximity and identity features the socialist-style apartments. 

By utilizing the proportional composition with the nostalgic objects scattered on the ruins and the man as a focal point, this black and white photograph exposes the demolition process and the vanishing identity caused by the destruction of courtyards. Though the tone of this photograph is negative, I believe people in Beijing today has already realized the negative externality of courtyard houses’ demolition as more and more artists and architects are working together to restore the historical and cultural identity of courtyards.

Traditional or Modern: The Duality in Layering Courtyard

This is a picture of an architectural project called “Layering Courtyard” created by Archstudio. They renovated this old courtyard house from the Chinese Republican period into a boutique hotel that can also function as a meeting space. By modifying an old structure to satisfy the needs and aesthetics of modern standards, the architects seek to preserve the traditional city landscape while also welcoming outsiders to be part of the community of courtyard house. However, some might argue that the architects changed too many aspects of the building, and that it no longer has the same structural function as the original courtyard house. Either way, the architects clearly attempt to break the traditional norms through changes in the traditional landscape and various key elements of the building. ( ideas sound and clear)

The photograph showcases the front of the hotel in the foreground in contrast with the regular apartment buildings in the background. First of all, the different styles of the courtyard house and apartment building highlight the history and development of the city. In the foreground is the historical courtyard house, and in the back is the apartment building created out of the necessity of the growing city. They are of completely different materials: one is made out of traditional stone bricks and the other one is made out of steel and concrete. The tilted tiled roof in particular clashes with the box-shaped apartment buildings in the background. This contrast illustrates how much architecture has changed over the last century in China, reflecting the shift of Chinese political history (as well as landscape). All this contrast adds to the duality of having a brand-new hotel inside a 100-year-old building, right next to what is supposed to be the more modern apartment buildings.

As Treffinger mentions in his article about the new property, the architects did not follow the traditional square-shaped courtyard house. As we can see in the model for the hotel, a new building was added in what is supposed to be the open courtyard. A second floor is added on one of the original buildings, and a porch on the other.  Stone brick walls are replaced with glass walls and floor-to-ceiling windows to allow maximum view as well as natural light for the room. All these changes are to suit the needs of modern urban dwelling. A second floor and an extra building help to provide more square footage on the same piece of land. The glass walls visually integrate the three buildings to become one open space. However, this breaks the boundary between the interior and the exterior, because exterior can see into the interior, the privacy from the courtyard houses no longer holds. On the other hand, this can also be seen as an effort to encourage interior and exterior communication, whether it’s between a resident to another, or between humans and nature. Nevertheless, the architects choose to keep the original façade in the front of the building, therefore maintaining the barrier between the courtyard and the streets. Thus, even though the interior of the courtyard is completely different, Layering Courtyard still blends into the surroundings and serve as a contrast to the apartment buildings.

To summarize, the architects of Archstudio presents a possible future for the historical courtyard houses of Beijing by modifying the Layering Courtyard to suit contemporary needs and aesthetics, while still keeping the appearances of the outside of the building, which serves as a contrast to remind people of the drastic change in China during  the last century.

 

 

Sources Consulted:

Treffinger, Stephen. “Archstudio Updates a Century-Old Beijing Building Into Layering Courtyard Boutique Hotel.” Interior Design, Interior Design Magazine, 5 Apr. 2019, www.interiordesign.net/projects/16205-archstudio-updates-a-century-old-beijing-building-into-layering-courtyard-boutique-hotel/.