Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyse the features of plan type and space composition of the Siheyuan(courtyard house) which is one of the most remarkable types of the traditional dwellings in China. With the passage of time this house developed into one of the chinese house style. The technique of Siheyuan's spatial composition goes so far back in the New Stone Age. The relics of this are the colony layout, the system of four sides, the layout type of a palace, the picture of lacquered ware, the pictured brick, the earthenware of house type, the cave painting, the paintings of painters and others. The fundamental spatial conception of it arranges one or more courtyards to compose, sometimes in a very complex way, a general walled compound. The main longitudinal axis is mainly north-south, but the chief buildings, or halls are always placed transversely to it. These rectangular buildings mayor may not connect, by means of open galleries variously planned, with rows of smaller buildings flanking the courtyards on both sides. On this system, enlargement is never carried out by adding to height, but by continual duplication of existing units, and growth in breadth or preferably depth. The need for family security is thought to have led to the development of this rectangular houses with walls mainly blank on the outside, defensible entrances, and public service facilities in the center of the houses.