Renovating Beijing’s Historic Homes@Arch

Tom Luckock is among a growing number of foreigners refurbishing Beijing's traditional houses with a modern sensibility.

Photo: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

The siheyuan is a traditional one-story courtyard home. Mr. Luckock, an Australian lawyer, began rebuilding his three years ago with his wife, Zhang Yue.

Photo: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

The couple's Chinese friends were flabbergasted, he said, by his desire to reuse old bricks, doors and wooden beams in the renovation of the 200-year-old building.

Photo: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

One of Beijing's many labyrinthine hutongs -- neighborhoods made up of alleys lined with courtyard houses that wind away from the boulevards and public squares.

Photo: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

Liu Heung Shing, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, owns a siheyuan off a hutong just north of the Forbidden City. "Chinese believe that in a siheyuan you can feel the spirit of the earth," he said, "because unlike in a high-rise apartment, you step on it every day."

Photo: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

Mr. Liu and his wife, Karen Smith, an English art historian, spent two years and more than $1 million buying and restoring the home.

Photo: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

Like many siheyuans, the house was in utter disrepair; after the 1949 revolution the Mao government turned most of them into group residences that soon became ramshackle slums, without heating, indoor plumbing or privacy. The couple incorporated modern amenities in the restoration.

Photo: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

Before beginning work, the couple had to persuade the former owner's maid and her family to vacate it, which they finally did, Mr. Liu said, after he and Ms. Smith bought them an apartment elsewhere in the city.

Photo: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

For Antonia Sampson, an English homemaker, rebuilding her siheyuan has meant "an enhanced relationship with Beijing," largely because of the communal life of her hutong.

Photo: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

Ms. Sampson and her husband, Charles, an advertising executive, bought the house in late 2006 and then hired an architect to help them remake it. "I wanted to honor the traditional premise while introducing modern comforts," said Ms. Sampson, 41, "but felt I couldn't do it myself."

Photo: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

To offer privacy yet allow for the courtyard's daylight to flow through the house, the architect designed sliding floor-to-ceiling windows screened by removable wooden grids.

Photo: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

@Source: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/07/24/garden/0724-BEIJING_index.html