Creating a future for the homes of Beijing's past

The Neighborhood Warming Initiatives 2019, part of Beijing Design Week, is to focus on the renovation of hutong (alleyway lined with traditional residences in Beijing) and quadrangle courtyards and residents' participation in building management.

The event, between Sept 10-20, aims to preserve the local housing in historical and cultural blocks in a way that also satisfies modern lifestyle demands, its organizers said. They added it comprises nearly 100 activities such as exhibitions and forums.

The Master Zeng's Time Photo Studio invited 10 couples born in 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, and took wedding photos for them.

The studio activity also showcased designers' work for improving hutong residents' life quality and their emotional connections.

The reception room of Baitasi Block co-hosted an activity in cooperation with Beijing Pagoda Light International Youth Hostel, inviting visitors and local residents to interact by preparing Beijing and Western food.

The interaction activity can help tourists learn about culture and life in Beijing, an internationally acclaimed tourist destination, and promote neighborly relations in the new era, the organizers said.

The Beijing Green Corridors 2020 exhibitions have been held four times since 2016. This year's theme is landscape inside and outside Beijing.

The 2019 exhibitions displayed design results of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway green landscape; the historical Nanluoguxiang neighborhood, a busy south-north commercial area hidden among hutong; and the ancient Changxindian town in Beijing's Fengtai district.

Hutong is a cultural symbol of Beijing. There was an exhibition showing the daily life of Bing Yi, a modern artist, in hutong in Dongcheng district. By displaying how life in hutong brought vitality to her life and work, the exhibition aimed to introduce visitors to a new hutong lifestyle and to increase the use and social value of preserved residential blocks.

The initiatives are held in different venues in the Baitasi historical and cultural conservation area located in Xicheng district. They can be dated back to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

The area is home to a white pagoda in Miaoying Temple built in the Yuan Dynasty; a former residence of late renowned writer Lu Xun; a market selling flowers, birds, fish and insects; and quadrangle courtyards in a combination of Chinese and Western architectural art.

The area is in an old neighborhood and one of the few existing residential areas featuring low buildings in the ancient capital. It is seeking a new path for urban improvement and community revitalization, local people said.

The initiatives are part of the Baitasi Remade Plan to realize Beijing's overall plan for 2016-35.

The Baitasi plan aims to explore ways to improve the public environment and help regional revitalization.

Its purpose is to maintain the residential role of hutong and traditional quadrangle courtyards. Meanwhile, it is to create new cultural blocks featuring elements such as design, cultural creativity and exhibitions.

(China Daily 09/20/2019 page19)