ABSTRACT
This chapter explains courtyard housing in its historic and symbolic context to explore the architectural and spatial design elements of classical Chinese courtyard houses in Beijing and Suzhou, and to investigate the cultural continuity of the renewed/new courtyard housing. It consists of 11 sections: exterior form, exterior walls, gate and access, windows, courtyards and gardens, roofs, interior space, floor levels, furniture styles and materials, facility provision, and building materials and construction quality. The chapter examines environmental quality, and space and construction quality of classical Chinese courtyard houses, particularly the Beijing and Suzhou types. Beijing's basic urban unit was the classical courtyard house in the residential quarters of the old city. Urban form determined the shape and size of siheyuan. Traditional Suzhou houses often had both courtyards and lightwells, and in certain parts of southern China, the tiny open spaces of lightwells were still referred to as courtyards.
