Demolition of house where Liang Sicheng and his wife Lin Huiyin once worked has horrified heritage experts
Their appreciation of China's ancient buildings and their devotion to preserving its heritage made them two of the country's most revered architects.
But now the home where Liang Sicheng and his wife Lin Huiyin once worked lies in rubble ? having fallen prey to the development they feared would destroy their city's ancient streets.
The demolition has horrified heritage experts. Liang is known as the father of modern Chinese architecture, and much of his and Lin's most important work was carried out while they were living in the courtyard house in Beizongbu Hutong in the 1930s.
It was knocked down by developers over the lunar New Year, despite the fact it is rare for labourers to work during the festival, raising suspicions that the company hoped to avoid publicity.
A Beijing official told state news agency Xinhua the firm wanted to prevent the residence being harmed during last week's holiday, apparently referring to the fireworks which are let off.
Other Chinese media quoted an unidentified developer as saying that the demolition was "in preparation for maintaining the heritage site" because the buildings were in bad condition.
But heritage protection activist Zeng Yizhi ? who alerted city officials to the demolition ? said they should have repaired the buildings.
"Liang and Lin made such a great contribution to the protection of Chinese ancient buildings. If their home can be torn down, then developers can do the same thing to hundreds of other ancient houses in the country," he told China Daily.
He Shuzhong, founder of the Beijing Cultural Heritage centre, said the early 20th century building was the intersection between the study and preservation of cultural relics, as pioneered by the couple, and the dangers posed by rapid urban development.
Last year, China's top cultural heritage official warned that high speed development had been a disaster for conservation.
Experts and campaigners are also angry because they hoped they had staved off the threat to Liang and Lin's home in 2009, when the district government approved its destruction and it was partially knocked down.
Following a public outcry, the state administration of cultural heritage intervened and the site was designated a permanent cultural relic, meaning official approval was required for demolition.
He said the one positive aspect of the affair was that it had roused an unprecedented level of public interest, debate and civic participation.
Liang and Lin wrote a seminal work on Chinese architecture, listed relics in need of protection during wartime, designed the national emblem of the People's Republic of China and worked on the Monument to the People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square.
Liang and his colleague Chen Zhanxiang urged the Communist government to build an entirely new city when it decided to make Beijing the capital of the new republic. He believed it was the best way to preserve its ancient buildings.
But officials rejected that plan and most of the old city has vanished forever.
According to journalist and heritage expert Wang Jun, China had 7,000 hutong ? lanes of old-fashioned low-rise homes ? in 1949 and 3,000 in the 1980s. Since the late 1990s they have vanished at a rate of around 600 a year.
Chinese media named the developers of the Beizongbu site as Fuheng Real Estate, a subsidiary of state-owned China Resources.
An employee at the China Resources Group said it was a holding company and the matter should be raised with the China Resources Land Company. A staff member at the subsidiary said she would call back but did not do so.
The city administration of cultural heritage said it would not comment as the Dongcheng district cultural committee was responsible for the case. Officials there did not answer calls.
But district heritage officials admitted that the demolition had not been approved by the city-level authorities, Xinhua reported.
Dongcheng officials told reporters they had ordered developers to rebuild the house ? a measure dismissed by campaigners as meaningless.
"Building a replica only makes things worse. So I suggest that the government build a monument or a park on the original site in memory of Liang and Lin," Chen Zhihua, a professor at Tsinghua University's school of architecture and a former student of the couple, told China Daily.
Lin died in 1955 after an illness. Liang was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution and died in 1972.
His second wife Lin Zhu said she was very sorry to hear of the demolition.
"I don't think his contribution and work is being properly valued and respected," she said, adding that Liang's later home on the Tsinghua University campus was also worth preserving but was in poor condition at present.
Additional research by Han Cheng
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/30/chinese-developers-demolish-home-architect
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