03-From passion for things to the things themselves-3.doc

From passion for things to the things themselves从对事物的热情回归事物本身 (从热情到事物本身)It is important to me to reflect about architecture, to step back from my daily work and take a look at what I am doing and why I am doing it. I love doing this, and I think I need it, too. I do not work towards architecture from a theoretically defined point of departure, for I am committed to making architecture, to building, to an ideal of perfection, just as in my boyhood I used to make things according to my ideas, things that had to be just right, for reasons which I do not really understand. It was always there, this deeply personal feeling for the things I made for myself and I never thought of it as being anything special. It was just there.反思建筑学对我来说很重要，从日常工作往回走几步，看看我正在做什么，为什么在做。我喜欢这么做，而且认为需要这么做。我并不以理论界定的起点出发设计建筑，因为我致力于创造（设计）建筑、建造、创造完美事物的理想，就像儿时我总是制造符合自己想法的东西一样，必须恰到好处，因为那些我并不真正理解的原因。它总是在那儿，这种对为自己做的东西的深刻个人感觉，我从不认为它有什么特殊。它只是在那儿。Today, I am aware that my work as an architect is largely a quest for this early passion, this obsession, and an attempt to understand it better and to refine it. And when I reflect on whether I have since added new images and passions to the old ones, and whether I have learned something in my training and practice, I realize that in some way I seem always to have known the intuitive core of new discoveries.今天，我意识到作为一个建筑师，我的工作很大程度上是在寻求这种早年的热情、这种执着，并且尝试更好地理解它、精炼它。当我反省我是否对旧有事物增加了新的图像和热情，是否在学习和实践中学到了什么，我认识到，在某些方面我似乎总是已经知道了新发现的直观核心。Places场所I live and work in the Graubnden in a farming village surrounded by mountains. I sometimes wonder whether this has influenced my work, and the thought that it probably has is not unpleasant.我工作并生活在格劳宾登州（Graubnden）一个群山环抱的村庄。有时我会想，是不是这个影响了我的工作。“或许是”的想法并不坏。Would the buildings I design look different if, instead of living in Graubnden, I had spent the past 25 years in the landscape of my youth on the northern foothills of the Jura mountains, with their roiling hills and beech woods and the familiar, reassuring vicinity of the urbane city of Basel?如果不是在格劳宾登，我就在我年轻时所在的Jura山北部的丘陵地区生活了25年。那里有令人激动的山和山毛榉森林，还有熟悉可靠的文雅之城巴塞尔（Basel）。这样，我设计的房子看起来会不同吗？As soon as I begin to think about this question. I realize that my work has been influenced by many places.一开始思考这个问题，我就意识到我的工作（作品）受到了许多地方的影响。When I concentrate on a specific site or place for which I am going to design a building, when I try to plumb its depths, its form, its history, and its sensuous qualities, images of other places start to invade this process of precise observation: images of places that I know and that once impressed me, images of ordinary or special places that I carry with me as inner visions of specific moods and qualities; images of architectural situations, which emanate from the world of art, of films, theater or literature.当我集中注意力在要设计房子的特殊场地（site）或场所（place）时，如果我试图探究它的深度、形式、历史和感官特性，其它的图像开始涌入这个精确的观察过程：我所知道的、曾给我留下印象的场所的图像，有着特殊情绪和品质、作为我内心景象跟随着我的平常或特别的场所的图像；艺术、电影、戏剧或文学中的建筑场景的图像。Sometimes they come to me unbidden, these images of places that are frequently at first glance inappropriate or alien, images of places of many different origins. At other times I summon them. I need them, for it is only when I confront and compare the essentials of different places, when I allow similar, related, or maybe alien elements to cast their light on the place of my intervention that the focused, multifaceted image of the local essence of the site emerges, a vision that reveals connections, exposes lines of force and creates excitement. It is now that the fertile, creative ground appears, and the network of possible approaches to the specific place emerges and triggers the processes and decisions of design. So I immerse myself in the place and try to inhabit it in my imagination, and at the same time I look beyond it at the world of my other places.有时，它们不请自来，这些场所的图像乍看起来常常不相称或相反，是许多不同起源（原点）的场所的图像。在其它时候，我招集（收集）它们。我需要它们，因为只有当我面临并对比不同场所的本质（要点）时，当我允许（许可）相似的、相关的或者相反的元素（要素）将它们的光芒投射到我所介入的场所（场地）上时，场地当地基本的许多方面的图像才浮现出来，一个揭示关系，表达受力的线（揭露力量的诗句），并创造愉悦的景象。就在此刻，丰饶的、创造性的沃土显现了，通往特殊场所的可能途径的网络出现了，引发了设计的过程和抉择。这样，我让自己沉浸于场地，并试图在想象中栖居于此，同时，从我的其它场所远观它。When I come across a building that has developed a special presence in connection with the place it stands in, I sometimes feel that it is imbued with an inner tension that refers to something over and above the place itself.当见到一栋与它所在的场地有关、设计得很特别房子，我有时会觉得它充满了一种内部张力，这张力谈到一些关于场地自身的事情。It seems to be part of the essence of its place, and at the same time it speaks of the world as a whole.它看起来像是其场所的基本（本质）部分，同时表明这个世界是一个整体。When an architectural design draws solely from tradition and only repeats the dictates of its site, I sense a lack of a genuine concern with the world and the emanations of contemporary life. If a work of architecture speaks only of contemporary trends and sophisticated visions without triggering vibrations in its place, this work is not anchored in its site, and I miss the specific gravity of the ground it stands on.当一个建筑设计单单从传统吸取养分，只是重复其场地的指令，我认为这缺乏对世界和当代生活真正的关心。如果一个建筑作品只谈及当代的时尚和复杂的视觉，而没有在其场所引起共鸣，这个作品就没有被锚定在它的场地上，我也错过了它所在的土地的特殊引力。Observations观察1 We were standing around the drawing table talking about a project by an architect whom we all hold in high regard. I considered the project interesting in many ways. I mentioned several of its specific qualities and added that some time previously I had laid aside my positive prejudice, which sprang from my high estimation of the architect, and taken an unbiased look at the project. And I had come to the conclusion that, as a whole, l did not really like it. We discussed the possible reasons for my impression and came up with a few details without arriving at a valid conclusion. And then one of the younger members of the group, a talented and usually rationally minded architect, said: It is an interesting building for all sorts of theoretical and practical reasons. The trouble is, it has no soul.1 我们站在绘图桌周围，讨论一个我们都非常尊敬的建筑师的方案。我认为这个方案从很多方面都很有意思。我说起它的几个特殊的品质，我接着说，以前有时我放弃自己实际的偏见是源于对这个建筑师的高度尊重，同时也公平地看待这个方案。我已经得出这样的结论：总的来说，我并不真正喜欢它。我们讨论起让我有这种印象的可能原因，并提出一些并没有得出结论的细节。这时，一个比较年轻的成员，一个有才华并总是理性思考的建筑师，说：“因为各种理论和实践的原因，这是一个有意思的房子。问题是：它没有灵魂。”Some weeks later, I was sitting outdoors drinking coffee with my wife and discussing the issue of buildings with a soul. We talked about several works of architecture that we knew, and described them to each other. And when we recalled buildings that had the characteristics we were looking for and pinpointed their special qualities, we became aware that there are buildings that we love. And whereas we knew almost at once which ones belonged to the special category in which we were interested, we found it difficult to find a common denominator for their qualities. Our attempt to generalize seemed to rob the individual buildings of their splendor.几周后，我和我妻子坐在室外，边喝咖啡边谈论着有灵魂的房子。我们讨论了我们知道并互相描述过的几个建筑作品。当回忆有着我们寻找并精确识别其特殊品质的特征时，我们开始意识到那些是我们喜欢的房子。然而，我们几乎立刻知道了哪些属于我们感兴趣的特殊种类，我们发现很难为它们的品质找到一个共同的标准。我们对概括的努力看起来剥夺了这些建筑单体的光彩。But the subject continued to prey on my mind, and l resolved to try and write some brief descriptions of architectural situations that I love, fragmentary approaches based on personal experiences that have a connection with my work, and in so doing to move within the same mental framework in which I think when I am concerned with generating the essentials of a work of my own.可是，这个问题持续侵占我的思想，我决定尝试写一些关于我喜欢的建筑境遇的简短描述，基于与我工作有关的个人经历的片段的方法。这样，当我参与生成我最近的作品的要点（实质）时，我才能在我赖以思考的思维结构中游移。2 The main rooms of the small mountain hotel overlooked the valley on the broad side of the long building. It had two adjacent wood-paneled reception rooms on the ground floor, both of them accessible from the corridor and connected by a door. The smaller of them looked like a comfortable place in which to sit and read, and the larger one, with five well-placed tables, was clearly the place in which meals were served. On the first floor there were bedrooms with deep, shady wooden balconies, on the second floor more bedrooms opening onto terraces.2 这个小小的山地旅馆的主要房间俯瞰着山谷，山谷在这长长的建筑宽阔的一边。旅馆在首层有两个相邻的镶木板的接待室，都可以从走廊方便到达，两间房通过一扇门相连。其中小一点的那个看起来像一个可以用来坐和阅读的舒适场所，大一点的那个有五张精心布置的桌子，很显然是用餐的地方。二层有一些客房，有深深的、有荫的木阳台，在三层有更多的客房，它们都向露台开敞。I would enjoy looking at the open sky from the upper rooms, I thought, as we approached the hotel for the first time. But the thought of staying in one of the first floor rooms and reading or writing in the intimate atmosphere of the shady balcony in the late afternoon seemed no less inviting.当我们第一次到达这个旅馆时，我想，我应该会很享受从楼上的房间看着开敞的天空。可是，呆在二楼的房间，在有树荫的阳台那私密的气氛中读书、写作的想法似乎也不乏吸引。There was an opening in the wall at the foot of the staircase leading from the upper floors to the entrance. A serving hatch. In the early afternoons it held fruit flans and white plates for the guests. The smell of the fresh flans took us by surprise as we came down the stairs, and kitchen noises issued from the half-open door of the opposite room.在楼梯间墙角有一个开口，从上层通向入口。一个服务出口。在午后，放置为客人准备的水果馅饼和白盘子。当我们走下楼梯时，新鲜馅饼的香味使我们惊喜，厨房的噪音从对面房间半开的门里传出来。After a day or two we knew our way around. There were deck chairs stacked along the side of the hotel, which adjoins the meadow. A little way away, in the half shadow at the edge of the wood, we noticed a woman sitting in a deck chair, reading. We picked up two of the chairs and looked for a spot of our own. During the day we usually drank our coffee at one of the wooden folding tables on the narrow veranda at the front. They were hinged at regular intervals along the front parapet. Good places to sit, these small tables clinging to the edge of the veranda; the sill was just the right height for use as an elbow rest.一两天后，我们熟悉了周围的路。沿旅馆一侧叠放着折叠躺椅，旅馆毗邻着牧场。不远处，在树林边缘的树荫里，我们注意到一个妇人坐在躺椅上看书。我们拿起两个椅子，为自己找了一个地方。白天，我们总是在前面狭窄的走廊上放的木折叠桌喝咖啡。木桌被以通常的间距铰接在前栏板（低墙）上。这是很好的小坐之处，这些小木桌依靠（依附）在走廊的边缘；窗台恰好是一个可以休息肘部的高度。Conversations with the other guests usually took place at dusk at the other veranda tables, placed in a row against the facade and protected from the weather by the projecting upper floors. The French window to the veranda was opened after the evening meal; we all stretched our legs and looked out over the valley, and then sat with a drink by the wall that was still warm from the days sunshine. Once, after the evening meal, we were invited to sit at the large corner table at the far end of the veranda near the entrance. During the day, that spot always seemed to be used by the regulars of the house. I never sat in this niche, which caught the morning sun at the other end of the veranda. On sunny mornings there was usually someone already sitting there, reading.与其他旅客的交谈常常发生在黄昏其它走廊的桌旁。那些桌子对着正面被放成一排，出挑的上层楼板保护它们免受天气之损。对着走廊的落地长窗在晚餐后被打开；我们都伸展腿，向外看看山谷，然后拿着饮料靠墙坐下，因为白天的太阳，墙体仍然温暖。一次，晚饭之后，我们被邀请坐在入口附近走廊尽端那张大转角桌（corner table）。白天，那个地方似乎总是房子的老顾客（自家人）使用。走廊另一端还能捕捉到早晨的阳光，我从未在那个舒适的地方（niche）坐过。阳光明媚的早晨，总是早已有人坐在那儿看书了。When I think about buildings that provide me with natural spatial conditions appropriate to the place, to the daily routine, my activities and the way I am feeling, when I conjure up mental pictures of works of architecture that give me space to live and seem to anticipate and satisfy my needs, this mountain hotel always comes to mind. It was designed by a painter for himself and his guests.当我思考“能给我适于场地，适于日常事物，适于我的活动和感受方式的自然空间环境”的房子时，当我召唤（conjure up）“给我居住空间，就像预见并满足了我的需求”的建筑作品的思维景象时，这个山地旅馆总是出现在我的脑海。是一个画家为他和他的客人们设计的。3 Our first impression of the outside of the restaurant made us hopeful that we had found something better than the other places along the main road of the tourist village. We were not disappointed. Entering through the narrow porch, which, as it turned out, was built from the inside behind the main door like a wooden shed, we found ourselves in a large, high-ceilinged, hall-like room, its walls and ceiling lined with dark, mat, gleaming wood: regularly placed frames and panels, wainscoting, cornices, indented joists resting on brackets with ornamental scrolls.3 餐馆外表面给我们的第一印象使我们满怀希望：我们已经找到了比沿着旅者之村主路的其它地方更好的。我们没有失望。穿过狭窄的门廊（走廊）（门廊在像木棚一样的正门后，是从里往外建起来的）进来，我们发现自己身在一个巨大的、天花很高、像大厅一样的房间，它的墙和天花板排列着深色、亚光、若隐若现的木头：被规律布置的框架和面板、壁板、檐口、有卷形装饰的托架上搭着的齿状托架。The atmosphere of the room seemed dark, even gloomy, until our eyes grew accustomed to the light. The gloom soon gave way to a mood of gentleness. The daylight entering through the tall, rhythmically placed windows lit up certain sections of the room, while other parts, which did not benefit from the reflection of the light from the paneling, lay withdrawn in half-shadow.这间房间的气氛似乎很隐秘，甚至阴沉，直到我们的眼睛习惯了这里的光线。过了一会，这阴暗让步于柔和的情绪。日光通过有节奏地设置的高窗照进来，照亮了房间的某些部分，而其它部分不能受益于面板的反光，孤独地呆在阴影里。As soon as I entered the room my eye was caught by an extension in the center of the long outer wall, a semi-circular bulge large enough to accommodate five tables along the curved wall by the windows. The floor of the room-height niche was on a slightly higher level than the rest of the hall. No doubt about it, I thought, this was where I wanted to sit. Two of the tables were still free. The people sitting there, doubtless ordinary guests of the restaurant, had a privileged air about them.我一进入这间房，眼睛立刻被在长长的外墙中心的一个加建部分所吸引，一个半圆的突出部分大得足够容纳五张桌子，沿着窗边的曲墙。这个地方（niche）层高和其它部分一样高，地面则高一点。勿庸置疑，我想，这是我想坐的地方。其中的两张桌子还是空的。人们坐在那里（无疑都是平常的客人），有一种有特权的神情。We hesitated and finally decided on a table in the almost empty main part of the hall. Yet we hesitated again, and instead of sitting down we went in search of service. After a while a girl appeared through a door in the paneling of the inner wall and led us to a table in the niche. We sat down. The slight feeling of irritation occasioned by our arrival soon abated. We lit our first cigarettes and ordered some wine.我们犹豫了，最后决定坐在厅里几乎空着的主要部分的一张桌子。可我们又犹豫了，没有坐下来，而是去请求服务。过了一会儿，一个女孩从一扇门里出来（门在有面板的内墙上），把我们引到那个地方（niche）。我们坐下。被我们的到来引起的抱怨很快缓和了。我们拿出第一支香烟，并要了些酒。At the next table two women were holding an animated conversation. One of them was speaking American, the other Swiss German. Neither of them spoke a word in the others language. The voices of the people in the group at the next table but one sounded pleasantly far away. I looked around and gradually absorbed the mood. I felt at ease sitting in the light of one of the windows, which now seemed taller than ever, and looking into the darkened expanse of the hall. The other guests, busy with their conversations and their meals, also seemed happy to be sitting there; they behaved naturally, undisturbed by other peoples presence, with an unconstrained considerateness for their fellow guests which lent them an air of dignity. Occupied as I was with my own activities, my gaze nevertheless alighted occasionally on other faces, and I realized that I liked the feeling of their proximity - in this room in which we all looked our best.临桌有两个女人正愉快地交谈。她们一个说美语，一个说瑞士德语，交谈过程中，没有一个人说另一个的语言。接着那桌有一群人，但声音听起来像一个人在很远说话。我看看四周，逐渐接受（absorbed）了这种状态（情绪）。我坐在一扇窗的阳光下，感到很自在（安逸），（那扇窗现在看起来比已往都高）。我看着厅里被变暗的广阔区域。其他客人忙于他们的谈话和食物，似乎很高兴能坐在那儿；他们举止自然，没有受到其他人在场的干扰，对同来的客人自发的体谅给了他们高贵的风度。Occupied as I was with my own activities,我的视线偶尔落在其他人脸上，我认识到我喜欢他们的亲近的感觉在这个房间，我们看起来都是最好的状态。4 Driving along a road on the coast of California, we finally arrived at the school that was listed in the architectural guide: a sprawling complex or pavilions spread out over a large expanse of flat land high over the Pacific. Barely any trees, karstic rock thrusting through the turf, a few houses in the immediate vicinity. The rows of tall, single-storey buildings with flat, projecting roofs were connected by asphalt paths covered by concrete slabs on steel columns, and the regular arrangement of the paths and pavilions which appeared to accommodate the classrooms was periodically interrupted by buildings with a special function at which we could only guess. It was during the school holidays, and the complex was deserted. The windows were set high up in the walls and it was hard to see into the classrooms. We came across a large metal door to a side courtyard which seemed to belong to one of the classrooms. It was slightly open, and we managed to catch a glimpse of a room with desks and a blackboard. It was plainly furnished. The walls and the floor showed signs of intensive use, and the daylight entering through the high windows lent the room an atmosphere that was both concentrated and gentle.4 我们沿着加利福尼亚海滨的道路前行，最后到达建筑指南上的那个学校：一个不规则伸展的综合体，或说是在太平洋上一块平坦的高地上展开的建筑群（pavilions）。几乎没有树，喀斯特岩石在草皮上延伸，一些住宅就在旁边。一排排高高的、出挑平顶的单层建筑被用沥青小路联系起来，用钢柱支撑的混凝土厚板遮在路上方，小路和看起来是容纳教室的建筑的规则排列被一些房子周期性地打断，我们猜测这些房子有特殊的功能。当时学校正在放假，综合体空无一人。窗被高高地置于墙的高处，很难看到教室的内部。我们偶然看见一扇巨大的金属门，通向一个侧院，这院子看起来属于其中一个教室。门微开着，我们瞥见一个有课桌和黑板的房间。它被有计划地布置了家具（It was plainly furnished）。墙面和地面给了房间一种既专注又文雅的气氛。Protection from the sun, shelter from the wind and rain, an intelligent approach to the issue of lighting, I thought, and I was aware that I had by no means grasped all the specific qualities of this architecture - the straightforward simplicity of its structure, for example, which was reminiscent of industrial precast concrete constructions, or its spaciousness, or its lack of the pedantic refinements that abound in schools in Switzerland.免受日晒，遮风避雨，巧妙的采光方式，我想；我明白我绝没有领会这个建筑所有的特殊品质它的结构直接、朴素（例如，使人联想到预制混凝土建筑），还有它的空间感，还有对瑞士大量学校都存在的教条的精巧的缺乏。My visit had been worthwhile. Once again, I resolved to begin my work with the simple, practical things, to make these things big and good and beautiful, to make them the starting point of the specific form, like a master builder who understands his mtier.我们的参观是值得的。我又一次决定从简单、实际的东西开始做设计。让这些事物变大、变好、变美，让它们变成特殊形式的起点，就像能理解他的职业的工长一样。5 At the age of eighteen, when I was approaching the end of my apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker, I made my first self-designed pieces of furniture. The master cabinetmaker or the client determined the form of most or the furniture made in our shop, and I seldom liked it. I did not even like the wood we used for the best pieces: walnut. I chose light-colored ash for my bed and cupboard, and I made them so that they looked good on all sides, with the same wood and the same car