Characteristics of residential buildings in Beijing

The quadrangles in Beijing, which began in the12nd century, meet the requirements of the patriarchal clan system in feudal society and are a century-old traditional living form in Beijing.

Four in one is that there are houses in the southeast, northwest and northwest, with neat layout and bright courtyard, which makes people feel quiet and comfortable and live in their own rooms in an orderly way, which is convenient for work and rest.

Once upon a time, Beijingers paid attention to many houses. As the saying goes, money can't live in the southeast room. It is not warm in winter and not cold in summer. Everyone is happy to live in a house on the north side of the road, with neat yards at all corners. They don't like falling down the steps, saying it's jumping into a pit (stupid ...). There are four sayings in Beijing: it is better to live in front of the temple than behind it, and it is better to live behind the temple than to live with friends.

Pine and cypress trees and poplars can't be planted in the yard, because they are planted in secluded houses. It doesn't matter now. You can plant it as you like, hehe.

The quadrangles in Beijing are divided into large, medium and small specifications.

Big quadrangle: the main room is the front porch and the back building, and there is a building behind it. There is a flower hanging door in the middle of the flower wall in the south of the east and west wing, and there are four wooden screens in the door. There are verandahs on the east and west wings, which communicate with the hanging flower gate. Some flower walls are on both sides of the hanging door, with two or three leaking windows.

Between the main room and the wing room, there is a round moon door, which can lead from the aisle to the backyard, and some have a hall.

There is a flower wall in the east and west of the outer court, with a moon gate in the middle, a wooden screen painted green on all sides, and Chinese characters of the Red Cross on it, with "moving wall calligraphy" in the east and "Xiyuan calligraphy" in the west. You can go to the Cross Courtyard from this gate.

There is a gable corridor in the south room, which is connected by gables. In this way, several courtyards have been formed, which are connected from east to west and from north to south. The most typical big quadrangles in Beijing are Nawangfu (in Goldfish Hutong) and Gongwangfu (Shichahai West Street) in Qing Dynasty, which are spectacular and have gardens.

Siheyuan generally has five or seven main rooms, with wooden partitions or floors, and some main rooms and wing rooms have porches.

The five rooms are three main rooms and two wing rooms, and the wing room is a single door, so-called "three ears".

Seven rooms, between the main room and the wing, there are two suites (opened on the gables) communicating with the main room. There are three east and west wings, and there is an aisle between the wings, which can lead to the backyard.

There is a courtyard wall on the south side of the east and west wing, which divides the courtyard into an inner courtyard and an outer courtyard, both of which are brick fields. After the rain, there is no water. There is a moon gate in the middle of the courtyard wall. In order not to let people in the outer courtyard see the inner courtyard at a glance, a brick or wooden screen wall was erected behind the moon gate. Some put a few pots of flowers in the yard, put a big fish tank, put up a roof in summer and enjoy the cool in the yard.

Old Beijingers say: ceiling, fish tank, pomegranate tree. This is the scene of quadrangles in summer.

In the outer court, everything has one or two deer tops. The house at the top of the deer is a little smaller than the wing. Is it for kitchen or for servants?

In the pattern of south room and seven rooms, one room in the east is a doorway, the other room in the west is a concierge, and the door opens on the west wall of the doorway.

Make a garage or a side door in the west.

The whole house, pay attention to grinding bricks to sew, yellow pine wooden frame, double eaves of wind and fire, square brick floor in the house, bright windows. Except for the deer roof, wing and garage, all windows are supported from the top and removed from the bottom. The so-called "upper support and lower support" means that there are two windows pasted with Korean paper on it, and the outside one can be supported by two thin iron bars. In summer, the windows inside are ventilated with cool cloth. In winter, the one outside will be exhausted and sheltered from the wind and cold. The window at the bottom is a whole piece of big glass. There is also a window guard outside. Hang it at night and take it off in the morning.

This quadrangle was distributed to several families after liberation. After liberation, most residents in Beijing lived in such houses. Now the population of Beijing is increasing year by year, and everyone is happy to live in a building. There are fewer and fewer such houses. ...

Small quadrangle, this kind of quadrangle has a simple layout. Generally, there are three rooms in the north house (also called the first room), and there are partitions in the house, which are divided into one bright and two dark or two dark and one bright. There are two east wing rooms and three south wing rooms (also called inverted seats), all of which are tile houses with brick roofs and roofs. There are also some small quadrangles with chessboard centers, or gray stalks.

It is very suitable for families of two or three generations to live in a small single-family courtyard. Parents live in the main room (upper room, upper room), the younger generation lives in the wing room, and the south room serves as the living room and the back study room. There is a brick cross road in the yard, which leads to the doors of four rooms, east, west, north and south, and there are steps in front of the door.

Street gates are all in the southeast, and rarely open in the south, because the temple gates are all in the middle of the south, all of which are the gates of Qingshui Ridge. The two street doors facing the customs have a small iron ring for knocking at the door.