beijing -- 5/1/2026

01 May 2026

beijing -- 5/1/2026

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Today's selection -- from Design of Cities by Edmund N. Bacon. The design of Beijing, or as it was once called by Westerners, Peking.

“Possibly the greatest single work of man on the face of the earth is Peking. This Chinese city, designed as the domicile of the Emperor, was intended to mark the center of the universe. The city is deeply enmeshed in ritualistic formulae and religious concepts which do not concern us now. Nevertheless, it is so brilliant in design that it provides a rich storehouse of ideas for the city of today.

“The old Chinese drawing, and the photograph of the Altar of Heaven, at left, and the curved canal in the Forbidden City, on the opposite page, give some indication of the experience of progressing along a Chinese movement axis. In full play are all the elements of space design that we have been discussing, from the analysis of the Guardi drawing on pages 24 to 27, to this point. If we study this progression in terms of the impact on the sensibilities of the participator as he moves through these spaces, the true nature of the design can be felt. Here are the joy of ascent and descent, the recession planes and the penetration in depth. In the roofs and the columns arc concavity and convexity. This is architecture that connects with the ground by multiple platforms and that cuts the sky in a never-ending series of undulating lines and curving shapes as the points in space move across one another in the view of the participator progressing up the central way.

“More clearly than elsewhere, the design is the sequence of progression. The buildings are all of a uniform modular system, the proportion and dimensions of structures increasing with the number of bays, according to definite rules of progression. With such rules the designer is forced to depend on means other than aggrandizement of architectural mass for effect.

“The picture of the Altar of Heaven, opposite, shows in pure form the use of architecture to modulate the experience of progression through space. The central axial movement is contained and directed not by architectural mass but by the design of the paving in a simple earth plane. The act of progressing into a more intensely sacred space is achieved, not by a wall which encloses a space, but by a free-standing gateway astride the paved articulated line of movement, its only function being to demarcate a point in movement or a moment in time in a chain of movement-experience.

“The Altar of Heaven itself, the most sacred place in China, where twice annually the Emperor made sacrifice, is the purest possible space experience. The three cylinders, each defined by one of the three tiers of ascending balustrades, set into motion vertical shafts of space articulation. The climax of the experience is the point of meeting of the stairway and the sky.

Temple of Heaven on an 1898 postcard

“The full-bodied 'baroque' form of the curving canal in the outer court of the Forbidden City, the 'River of Golden Water,' right, punctuated by the bulbous tops of the marble balustrades which line it, shows that within the rigid discipline of a traditional system of architecture, such as the Chinese imposed upon themselves, there was adequate room for rich expression, here, appropriately, in the realm of land design.

“The central design structure of Peking, emphasized in the total plan of the city, is shown opposite. The approach from the south across the plain leads to the central gateway in the great wall, which opens upon the paved way between the Temple of Agriculture to the left and the Temple of Heaven to the right. The design of these spaces, in turn, is excellently related to the central movement system, providing a series of perpendicular and parallel modulations in reference to it.

“The fundamental character of Peking is expressed by the central movement through four areas, each of which has its own particular color. The southern rectangle, with its enclosing walls, the Outer City, has buildings with black roofs. These prepare the eye for the fresh experience, after penetrating the wall surrounding the hollow square, the Inner City, of the brilliant blue-purple tile roofs and red doors with gold ornaments. Next comes the gate to the Imperial City, outlined in green. The rhythm of space contraction and expansion intensifies until the space is reached before the Wu Měn or Meridian Gate (shown on pages 244 and 245), heralding the Forbidden City, the home of the Emperor of China.

“From this point the experience of entering into the outer court with its curved canal, and finally the central court with the Throne Halls, is one of unbelievable color intensity. The yellow and gold roofs surrounding the blue sky create a sensation of architectural power which has no parallel. The progression moves across the northern leg of the moat enclosing the Forbidden City and up Coal Hill and down again, and on to the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower, where it expires before the northern city wall is reached.

“In actual fact, the size and mass of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, shown in the color photo on page 244, is no greater than that of many of the buildings encountered on the three-mile progression up the main axis from the outer gate. The principle of dominant mass, central to most Western monumental civic designs, is totally absent. Indeed, the Hall of Supreme Harmony is invisible except when seen from the central courtyard.

“The power of the experience lies in the utilization of anticipation and fulfillment, in the setting up of a rhythm of experiences in time, a sequence of sensation that keeps mounting in intensity. Space and color are the major modulators, and the climax is indeed an adequate one for the center of the kingdom.

The plan of Peking is probably the only plan of any city that can be enlarged from scale to scale, and yet at each scale, whatever its extent, can hold together as a total design. At each level the city asserts its own design coherence but contains within itself the seeds of a different design order that will emerge as dominant if the scale is enlarged or reduced.

“The drawing at left is an enlargement of the central axial element shown in the plan on the previous page. This extends from the gate at the entrance to the Imperial City to Coal Hill, which lies north of the Imperial Palace. As one moves through archways into walled courts and back into archways again, there is a clear rhythmic modulation of the northern axial movement based on openings and closings of space, with a systematic intensification of the rhythm as the throne is approached.

“There are cross axes and side units which counterfoil the central design. Although there is heavy axial balance, there is not a rigid axial symmetry; the balancing buildings may be quite different in design, and, beyond their formality in the central spaces, the water courses are allowed to meander freely within the formal areas.

“The rectangular moat enclosing the Forbidden City decisively cuts it off from the remainder of the urban complex, and provides a rich color element in its reflection of the red walls and yellowroofed pavilions along it.

“The enlargement, shown here at right, of the central palace space from the plan opposite provides a rich and superbly modulated design which has its own coherent qualities. The visitor to this area would have passed through the Meridian Gate, across the 'River of Golden Water' on one of the five bridges, and arrived at the Gate of Supreme Harmony shown at the bottom of this plan.

“The central system of design consists of three principal pavilions, the Hall of Supreme Harmony to the south, the Hall of Protecting Harmony to the north, and the square hall between, set on an H-shaped mound which is built in three tiers, each with its rich balustrade of white marble, punctuated by great gold-plated urns. The space in which the mound is located is divided into three zones by walls which cut across the mound. The earth forms, which are basic to the whole design, and the space modulation determined by the planes of the walls, each have their own independent but interrelated existence.

“Peking emphasizes the dominance of land-form design in great and extensive work. The levels of the land, the cutting of the land by channels of water, and the creation of land mounds at the climax, determine the architecture of the city. While the planes of the walls define space areas, the buildings, minor in mass, create points of repose and accomplishment.”