Hidden behind the W3

The other day we walked home from school. It was not really intended, the car needed to be reviewed by some official ministry, and we could not find a cab. Slowly, we made our way to our Quadra 106.  The walk was much shorter than I had expected, even with my kids slowest speed and their numerous pauses for a newly found stick or rock or other natural treasure.
The layout of this area of the city intended to create spaces between the quadras where people could find services (like the little library or the police station) and move freely from one place to another.
From the school, we crossed the street and walked pass another kindergarden. Much discussions on why we could not go play in that playground. And a quick look at the colorful simple modern concrete block of its building.

One minute later, we were walking pass right beside these garage-door houses of the W3. In fact, only one row of these houses have their facade on the W3, and four or five more rows are lined behind the first one. Each of these two row of houses are facing each other, with their facade creating what could have been a civic street, but resembling more a display of garage door options of a catalogue. The back of these houses is occupied by private small courtyards of a few square meters - 20 or 25 m2 maybe - lined up against each other, caged-in by high wrought iron fences of different motives. What is really interesting is that the back of these rows. Instead of a tight layout of rows back to back against one another, the planners have allowed for a green space between the yards of each row, creating a great corridor of verdure, with large trees. It is particularly pleasant now with this heat.
The contrast between their closed facades, brut in style and furthter roughened up by graffitis; and the luxuriant green corridor is almost incompatible. And so different from the general feeling one has in the city; this is a place where walking is pleasant, welcomed, even encouraged - if only limited to the short length of a few blocks.

In fact, when it comes to lanes and alleys behind urban housing, I always found these spaces very inspiring and evocative. Daniel Toole, a Seattle architect who studied lanes extensively, qualifies lanes as "a refuge from the city". My personal love of alleys probably started in Montreal's lanes, les ruelles, so rich of unexplored potential, with layers of textures emerging from various owners, small renovations and other activities not usually meant to be on display. They are also at times dirty, as they were intended to be for garbage collection, a place to run electricity lines, an access to each house's individual parking space. In Montreal's collective imagery, the ruelle plays a important role, a place where kids play, learn to bike and where neighbors interact. Famous writers have set their stories in them, while some are now converted either in "green lanes" or pedestrian lanes.  

This book documented Montreal's lanes.
In Beijing, this semi-private/semi-public space was not exactly possible in the public housing projects, neither in the private ones, simply for their density and their scale. Yet the lanes of the old city, the Hutongs, were clearly potent with a life and an activity unique in the city, but in a different, more public way. In fact, the traditional Beijing houses were laid out back to back, leaving the front door as the mere access to the public sphere, a very narrow lane. The private activities that occur daily in front of these houses - whether it is drying laundry, playing cards, reading, napping, managing a renovation, stocking goods, or simply watching the lane's hustle bustle (lots of people do only that) - all could only happen because of the very tight layout of houses, one against another. These houses, with a set of unconnected rooms opening all to a peaceful courtyard, were meant originally for only one family. Over the years, they have slowly lost their center, as their courtyard has been taken over by invasive internal additions and populated by several families; they have been cannibalized from the inside. Consequently the lane becomes the breathing space of the residents.

The topic of hutongs are worth more than one post - hopefully later in my other blog. 
Yet, if Beijing's public space became more of a display of private uses due to the residents' lack of private spaces (as it is often typical in Asia), if Montreal's ruelles have a charm despite being a utilitarian space in the first place, the lanes of the W3 houses are different. The in-between backdoor space of the W3 row houses feels more intimate, despite their public condition. At the opposite of Montreal's alleys, the back of the every courtyards is exposed to the walkers, through high fences. The canopy of the trees, the lush plant carpet, the quasi absence of a hard path and the absence of other walkers makes you feel that a promenade is a bit an excursion in people's private lives. This is not an alley for services. It primary use is to be enjoyed. And it is a pleasant respire from the car oriented culture of the capital city.