Destruction angers heritage campaigners

Developers in China have demolished the Beijing home of revered architect couple Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin.

The courtyard house was the scene of much of the pair’s work in the 1930s and is believed to have been torn down last week.

The home was partially knocked down back in 2009 but its complete destruction had been staved off by heritage campaigners.

But it was left to heritage protection activist Zeng Yizhi to alert authorities that the home had now vanished. He told China Daily: “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.”

The home knocked down was in Beizongbu Hutong – hutong are lanes of old-fashioned low rise homes (pictured) that have been disappearing at the rate of 600 a year since the 1990s, fuelling fears from campaigners that the old city is quickly disappearing as developers rush to overhaul the capital.

The couple designed the national emblem of the People’s Republic of China and worked on the Monument to the People’s Heroes in Tiananmen Square.

Lin died in 1955, and her husband Liang died in 1972.

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