View #1: A Space Between Densified Lots
The self-building activities of residents is gradually transforming the Old City
of Quanzhou from an historically one-story environment to a denser city of higher
buildings. Unlike the larger cities, whose redevelopment is more comprehensively planned,
however, most of Quanzhou's rebuilding takes place within the constraints of existing patterns
of land occupation by individual households.
The result is often spaces between new multi-story buildings that are dark, tree-less and airless compared with equally narrow spaces between more traditional one-story houses or their gardens (see View #20 of a narrow passage in Wen Sheng Xiang). For more detail about the transformation of traditional housing types, and the resulting densification of the Old City, see Transitional and Hybrid Housing Forms in the pages on Common Housing Types. One particularly difficult issue is the lack of space to provide modern Infrastructure (note the water supply pipes running outside the buildings, above the pavement), an issue discussed under Urban Form in the Vocabulary of Vernacular Architecture pages.
The continuity of Quanzhou's household-based pattern of development has also allowed traditional building technologies to evolve more gradually than is the case in the comprehensively planned neighborhoods of larger cities. The view above shows two different houses using a variety of building materials, including:
- a masonry bearing-wall house with a granite base and side wall, granite quoining and "swallowtail" brick on the front facade;
- a house with a plain stuccoed side and glazed tile on its front (most likely covering a non-load-bearing wall of brick within a reinforced concrete frame (see View #3 showing such a structure both under construction and finally finished);
Note that the builders made an effort to embellish the street front while giving the less visible sides of the houses a plainer finish.
