Some of these courtyard houses were predictably just demolished, which left an empty site for denser, taller architecture to be built up. Those in those open courtyards I was talking about became packed with these new buildings. And residents just sort of negotiated this mishmash of remaining voids so that everybody could have at least some narrow path into and out of the complex to get to their house. The Houtong alleys were running alongside these big residential blocks. They basically had to make more Houtongs to reach everything inside.
We’re kicking off the new year at 99pi with a fresh installment of mini-stories, including: what lies at the intersection of a street and a road; the most unlikely of theme parks; and the evolution of ancient alleyways in Beijing, China.
Mini-Stories: Volume