Abstract
Qianlong Jingcheng Quantu, the oldest map of Beijing drawn in the Qianlong period (1750), depicts various institutional facilities and Beijing courtyard houses known as siheyuan in the inner city of Beijin. The city is composed of innumerable siheyuans and facilities built in siheyuan type architecture. This siheyuan type is related to the pattern of block division and its subdivision in the larger scheme of the city plan. Firstly, this paper, making an analysis of maps and literature, identifies a chronological order in the development of the street patterns, and then considers the connection of the siheyuan type with respect to the size of residential plots. The research then discusses the transformation process of the Beijing courtyard residences that occurred through the subsequent subdivision of the initial dwelling plots. This paper, thus, aims to illustrate the historical formation and transformation of physical environment of the Inner City of Beijing that may serve as an important basis to develop guidelines to the conservation of the historic environment of Beijing.
