As China is eager to show its national pride through mega and iconic architecture, housing as architecture on the other hand, takes form into mega and iconic as well. However, through the housing history in China, housing architecture has always been underappreciated. Housing to human relationship is always passive. Particularly in the 20th century, it is clear that housing has become a tool that highly manipulated by the government. Until the recent Chinese reform, the ODHR in the 90s seemed to break out this norm and aimed to restore the Chinese tradition, but ended unsuccessfully because of the powerful collaboration between the profit-driven developers and the nationality-driven government.
The passivity of housing being a tool and the government’s interest over mega and iconic architecture have clearly illustrated people’s lack of appreciation on common architecture. Housing over the 5000 years in Chinese history has not evolved that much which disabled people’s appreciation on common architecture. And this is ultimate reason for the ODHR as well as the preservation failure in China, as people seem not to understand the value of history.
Regardless whatever style or form it takes today in housing architecture, the traditional courtyard houses on one hand have either been museuminized or left dilapidated. The traditional urban fabric is gone along with the tradition,
This thesis, based on the analysis of Chinese housing architecture will touch upon the issue of preservation and combine it into new housing typology in the arena of Beijing. Aiming to revive the housing architecture, this thesis combines the notion of critical architecture and the integrated preservation method in order to provide a solution for future housing development.
The passivity of housing being a tool and the government’s interest over mega and iconic architecture have clearly illustrated people’s lack of appreciation on common architecture. Housing over the 5000 years in Chinese history has not evolved that much which disabled people’s appreciation on common architecture. And this is ultimate reason for the ODHR as well as the preservation failure in China, as people seem not to understand the value of history.
Regardless whatever style or form it takes today in housing architecture, the traditional courtyard houses on one hand have either been museuminized or left dilapidated. The traditional urban fabric is gone along with the tradition,
This thesis, based on the analysis of Chinese housing architecture will touch upon the issue of preservation and combine it into new housing typology in the arena of Beijing. Aiming to revive the housing architecture, this thesis combines the notion of critical architecture and the integrated preservation method in order to provide a solution for future housing development.
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