Siheyuan is a common style of Han Chinese housing, dated to Zhou Dynasty (1,100 – 256B.C.). It generally composes of enclosed square yard surrounded with houses on four or three sides.
Before we go into talking about the details about siheyuan, let’s enjoy a set of beautiful pictures of a typical siheyuan. This siheyuan is located close to Great Wall near Beijing. It belongs to IWNC.
In 1987, UNESCO enlisted the Forbidden City as “World Culture Heritage”. It is the biggest and best preserved royal palace. It is an exceptional ancient architecture masterpiece.
The Forbidden City is the largest siheyuan complex in the world, a premium practice of siheyuan style architecture, and also the best example of Chinese traditional housing.
Current condition in modern society
In modern society, along with the change of social and family structure, traditional siheyuan no longer fits the need of Chinese people. Limited space, lack of accessories, discreted family structure all make siheyuan less and less suitable for modern life.
In Beijing, there was a very good example project of siheyuan modernization in Nan-Chi-zi Area. Although the re-structuring and re-designing were very successful, the project is not promoted broadly for some reason. The old traditional siheyuans in Beijing continue to disappear every day in the “modern” concrete city.