A neighbourhood building

somewhere in south east China, in the province of Fujian, the Hakka people (which originally immigrated from northern China in the 17th century) developed a particular architectural buildings called Tulou, literally meaning earthen structures. these houses, designed to be easily defensible, were often round in shape and internally divided into many compartments for food storage, living quarters, ancestral temple, armoury etc. the largest houses covered over 40,000 m². the external wall is typically 1m thick and the entire building could be up to four stories high. some say the houses were built completely according to the Feng Shui theories and that the round shape of the walls was not only for defensive reasons, but also to avoid corners - the favorite place of the bad spirits.