View #20: A Narrow Space Between One-story Houses
Housing plots in the Old City of Quanzhou have often been passed down for many
generations within one family. During the process of inheritance, they
have become divided and subdivided, and narrow passages have emerged to allow
access to the inner courts. This view shows one such passage in an area where
the surrounding immediate structures are still one-story high, and where the
sense of crampedness is mitigated by the presence of trees (compare with
View #1 of a narrow passage between newer multi-story
houses).
The space here is a dead-end passage, and is not publicly used. Compare this with the Sequence of Spaces in Yu Xi Xiang, where ownership of a large courtyard house seems to have been abruptly taken from the original family and divided among a few unrelated families, with the result that many private and semi-private spaces have suddenly become quite public.
The view above shows the use of some of the most traditional and simple building materials, including:
- a one-story house with a granite base, brick trim and finer-finished stone on the front, and stucco over brick on the side
- a mortar-and-shard garden wall with a faded "swallowtail" brick corner
Note that here, as in View #1, the builders made an effort to embellish the street front while giving the less visible sides of the houses a plainer finish.
