Main Building as a Central Courtyard Pattern in Lasem, Central Java, Indonesia Mutiawati Mandaka * , Tarcicius Yoyok Wahyu Subroto , Wiendu Nuryanti , Dyah Titisari Widyastuti Department of Architecture, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia Corresponding Author Email: mutia.mandaka@mail.ugm.ac.id https://doi.org/10.18280/ijsdp.180805 ABSTRACT Received: 18 February 2023 Revised: 20 June 2023 Accepted: 27 June 2023 Available online: 29 August 2023 Lasem, a city of a thousand gates often referred to as "Petit Chinois" by foreign tourists, possesses extraordinary historical heritage as the former capital, making it a Heritage City. This is one of the reasons for choosing Lasem as a research study location. This article contributes by identifying typical spatial patterns in Lasem. In this study, the focus of observation is Chinese settlements located in Babagan Village, Soditan Village, Karangturi Village, and Gedongmulyo Village, where these areas are the locations for the development of Chinese settlements in Lasem. This paper aims to understand the development of the typology of Chinese residential courtyards in Lasem and their survival to the present day, so that they can become part of the national cultural heritage. The research method used is descriptive qualitative, involving literature studies, field surveys, and analysis using graph access. The results found that the typology of the morphological floor plans of the Chinese settlement houses in Lasem differs in accessgraphy from their country of origin. Courtyards, which serve as building shafts in their home country, are not found in the houses of the Lasem Chinese settlements. The courtyards in the Chinese settlements of Lasem are precisely positioned around the main building. The uniqueness of the typology of the Chinese settlement courtyards in Lasem is the result of the space occupied by humans to survive and the community's attachment to their place of residence. Keywords: courtyard, Chinese settlement, typology, Lasem 1. INTRODUCTION Courtyards are part of traditional Chinese houses and are surrounded by buildings. They are used in China as a model of the artificial environment, including urban planning, urban parks, and residential houses [1]. Courtyard houses are the basic units of the city, and almost everyone, from emperors to commoners, lived in them, although there were strict class differences between residences. Courtyard houses were designed to cater to large families of three or four generations [2]. A Siheyuan is a Chinese quadrangle, which is an architectural complex with walls, courtyard houses, one main entrance gate, and at least one or more courtyards surrounded by one-story buildings. A house with a courtyard in it represents a form of China’s traditional house. These courtyard houses are among the oldest existing houses, apart from those in Africa, the Middle East, India, the Mediterranean region, Rome, and Greece [2]. Based on data from archaeologists, the earliest excavated houses in China belonged to the Yangshao culture (5000-3000 BC) [3]. This culture was discovered in Mianchi County (Henan province) in 1921. This courtyard-shaped house was designed for reasons of climatic factors and environmental conditions as well as socio-cultural considerations [4]. Thus, with the surrounding walls in the house, it becomes a place for residents to seek shelter from hot, cold, rainy, and sunny weather. In addition, this courtyard house is designed to seek Chinese harmony. In Chinese architecture, the theory of Feng Shui ("Wind and Water") is utilized to direct wind and water to perfection, and this is evident in traditional courtyard houses, which are able to channel wind and collect qi. As noted in the ten books on life houses, no matter how good the interior of a house is, if the overall shape of the house is not profitable, it remains unprofitable [5]. Therefore, the outer shape of the building must also be appropriately considered. The Siheyuan house was originally designed to accommodate a large family. Further development allowed it to house up to three to four generations. The Siheyuan has characteristics such as a hierarchical structure, bilateral symmetry, a center or central axis, and tends to be closed [6]. The front yard of the house typically measures between 15 m – 25 m in width and 25 m – 50 m in depth. There are five basic types of Siheyuan houses in Beijing: 1) A one-yard house (sometimes a "three-sided cage" is called a siheyuan without facing the north of the hall); 2) Two-yard house (small); 3) Three-yard house (standard); 4) Four-yard house (large); 5) Five-yard house with garden (large). Other, less common types include: one main yard and one secondary yard (kuayuan) complex courtyards built side by side, and two or multi-group yards built side by side. In feudal China, some large families had two brothers living in the same house. So they constructed two compounds side by side with the same or similar size and layout, yet independently connected [5]. International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning Vol. 18, No. 8, August, 2023, pp. 2349-2355 Journal homepage: http://iieta.org/journals/ijsdp 2349