LiMa architecture – the chinese Hutong

Hutong Hofgarten

Hutongs are traditional Asian residential areas. The word “hutong” is of Mongolian origin(hottog) and means “spring”. People built along a water source. The hutong consisted of narrow streets and dwellings with a shared courtyard that could be entered through a gate. Several families could live in such a hutong. The old people sat in the courtyard, the children ran around, young women did the housework, you could hear the quarrels in the neighboring family, the clattering of cooking utensils. It was a private – public life.

Peking – Hutong

Today, these ground-floor hutongs have to make way for urban modernization projects that provide multi-storey buildings with more apartments.

LiMa Wohnhof Berlin – the multi-storey huton with courtyard balconies and roof gardens in the modern city of the 21st century