The Influence of Beijing's Natural Conditions (Climate, Topography, etc.) on the Formation and Structure of the Courtyard

The siheyuan is the traditional residence of Beijing people, which has been initially formed since the Liao Dynasty, and has been gradually perfected through the generations, finally becoming a modern form of residence. The siheyuan is due to the Chinese concept of the unity of man and nature, the Chinese people live in the space, must contain a part of the so-called courtyard without a roof, so life is very close to nature.

Siho is the east, west, south and north of the four houses together, forming a "mouth" shape, that is, "courtyard", of course, the economic situation is a little worse, there is not to build a southern house, but also looked at the courtyard.

Beijing's dominant wind direction, the winter is the northwest wind, in order to protect the cold, the main house facing south, is inevitable. In addition, the Chinese cultural tradition is to face the south. There is an old saying in Beijing, "rich people do not live in the southeast room", the southeast room in the courtyard is generally used by people of lower status.

Beijing is a plain, in the imperial capital planning, basically is the delineation of the whole north-south axis, neighborhoods are basically the distribution of east-west, south-north, which is for the orientation of the courtyard, to create the conditions.

The courtyard's gate direction, is based on the neighborhood of the street, not necessarily all south, but there is a grade courtyard, from the gate is invisible inside, the gate towards the south, inside the "shadow wall" cover, the other direction of the gate, see one of the direction of the house's wall, may be decorated into the "shadow wall", the other direction of the door. The other direction of the door, see one of the houses facing the mountain wall, may be decorated as a "shadow wall" shape.

In the past, the grade of the courtyard is a symbol of status, in fact, all kinds of buildings in Beijing, most of the different levels of the courtyard, the princes and nobles did not get out of this routine.