The project is a local cultural center located in Gulou area in the old city center of Beijing, China. This urban intervention establishes a series of harmonious relationships between the city and the architecture, between the urban and the autonomous and between the old and the new . The pattern of the city's fabric, the local traditions, and the basic ways of life serve to guide the spatial organization and the development of architectural elements. The building is dematerialized. Paintings and diagrams are abstracted from the physical reality of the building. Drawings and models are made to further present the spatial orders and conditions. The containment of the architecure has always drawn as much attention from me as on the building itself. This thesis is more about searching for the intangible contained by physical elements. / Master of Architecture

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With Chinas recent and quick uprising coming as a surprise for many of 'us' in the so-called western world, the changes and effects of the recent developments must have also been a big surprise for many of those most effected by the change – the Chinese people. Then, at the turn of the century, China's bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing has brought further changes; the winning has finally propelled Beijing's speed of change to previously unknown proportions. Today, the government pushes to finish many projects in time for 2008 and institutionalises the Olympic Games as an excuse for the need to further changes. The structure of the whole city ap- pears to being changed in only a few years. Beijing, originally a city with countless one storey buildings and only a few high-rise buildings is being changed into a city with skyscrapers. Changes that are enforced at this speed, I thought, must have a strong effect on the people's mind.Such fast changes have surely effected me, in a sense that I was simultaneously shocked and as- tounded whenever I came back to Beijing. For this project however, I was interested to find out what the locals think and how they describe these changes. I was interested to learn about the effects of such fast changes on Beijing‘s society and decided to focus on the social effects caused by Beijing‘s change of style in today‘s city planning and how people refer to them. My key- and research-question of this project work, was thus to investigate the following:How are the people affected by the city's development and how do they refer to the fast changes? Can the locals still identify with their own city and do they still feel at home?In writing (this thesis) and in a documentary film ( http://www.cycleofchange.tv )

China has become one of the world’s economic engines. One major driving force is the rapid urbanization. Such fast development results in resource and energy depletion, pollution and environmental deterioration. The government has recently endorsed green buildings and urged ministries to work out a national action plan. It is predicted that green building will be the next big thing in China. But before importing any foreign green technology and green designs, is there something to be learned from the Chinese ancestors? In the long history of China, the Chinese have always employed a system of construction with the influences of geography, climate, culture, philosophy, economy and politics deeply rooted in China, making the Chinese traditional architecture distinct. Embedded in the formation of the city, siheyuan 四合院, the courtyard house in Beijing was one exceptional dwelling example that inherited the quintessence of the thousand years of building experiences and knowledge of the ancestors. This traditional urban type not only celebrated the rich and unique cultural heritage of China, it also played an important role in maximizing the natural forces to create a pleasant and comfortable environment for living. Population growth, political and economic reforms over time however have drastically changed the fate of this historical heritage. Especially under the pressure of the fast development and economic boom after the introduction of the Open Door Policy in 1978, the traditional courtyards were the first to be demolished due to the lack of modern facilities and the inability to accommodate the growing population. They were often replaced by apartment blocks and high-rise towers – imported types based on planning regulations developed in the West, outside the cultural and environmental milieu of Beijing. As a result, the city is now filled with many energy intensive buildings that eat away both the “city’s essence” and the valuable natural resources. With the current policy and ambition of China, the teardown courtyard sites within the old city wall that are still waiting for development offer the potential to address the remediation and reinterpretation of the traditional typology in a contemporary city. The thesis investigates the essences of the traditional courtyard house and explores the way to apply such qualities to the design of a new courtyard typology in contemporary Beijing. The proposal anticipates a holistic approach on both environmental, social, cultural and economic level, so as to carry out preservation that manifests in experience rather than physical restoration, and to create a project that is truly sustainable.

China has become one of the world’s economic engines. One major driving force is the rapid urbanization. Such fast development results in resource and energy depletion, pollution and environmental deterioration. The government has recently endorsed green buildings and urged ministries to work out a national action plan. It is predicted that green building will be the next big thing in China. But before importing any foreign green technology and green designs, is there something to be learned from the Chinese ancestors? In the long history of China, the Chinese have always employed a system of construction with the influences of geography, climate, culture, philosophy, economy and politics deeply rooted in China, making the Chinese traditional architecture distinct. Embedded in the formation of the city, siheyuan 四合院, the courtyard house in Beijing was one exceptional dwelling example that inherited the quintessence of the thousand years of building experiences and knowledge of the ancestors. This traditional urban type not only celebrated the rich and unique cultural heritage of China, it also played an important role in maximizing the natural forces to create a pleasant and comfortable environment for living. Population growth, political and economic reforms over time however have drastically changed the fate of this historical heritage. Especially under the pressure of the fast development and economic boom after the introduction of the Open Door Policy in 1978, the traditional courtyards were the first to be demolished due to the lack of modern facilities and the inability to accommodate the growing population. They were often replaced by apartment blocks and high-rise towers – imported types based on planning regulations developed in the West, outside the cultural and environmental milieu of Beijing. As a result, the city is now filled with many energy intensive buildings that eat away both the “city’s essence” and the valuable natural resources. With the current policy and ambition of China, the teardown courtyard sites within the old city wall that are still waiting for development offer the potential to address the remediation and reinterpretation of the traditional typology in a contemporary city. The thesis investigates the essences of the traditional courtyard house and explores the way to apply such qualities to the design of a new courtyard typology in contemporary Beijing. The proposal anticipates a holistic approach on both environmental, social, cultural and economic level, so as to carry out preservation that manifests in experience rather than physical restoration, and to create a project that is truly sustainable.

The aim of my PhD project has been to understand how Hutong residents' ideas about living space have been different from those living in the high-rise compound and how their concept of living space has been changed by both internal and external factors, meaning additional affiliated functions and governmental city-planning. I conducted my fieldwork in Beijing between July 2009 and September 2012: fourteen months in total, interspersed with trips to St. Andrews. I spent ten months from July 2009 to May 2010 living in a Hutong called Xingfu Street (the word translates as ‘happiness'). Then I moved into a high-rise apartment outside the inner city, called Suojiafen Compound, for a further four months. This study concerns space in the contemporary city of Beijing: how space is humanly built and transformed, classified and differentiated, and most importantly how space is perceived and experienced. In the end I have developed the concept “overlapped” space as a way to detect the “personality” of space in both Hutong and high-rise apartment: how they differentiated from each other and how they have been transformed in different way by the residents inside.