DANIEL LIBESKIND

丹尼尔·里伯斯金(Daniel Libeskind)

ON THE TOUR MONTPARNASSE, PARIS

巴黎蒙帕纳斯大楼

“It’s legendary for being the most hated building in Paris. I want to defend it not because it’s a particularly beautiful tower, but because of the idea it represents. Parisians panicked when they saw it, and when they abandoned the tower they also abandoned the idea of a high-density sustainable city. Because they exiled all future highrises to some far neighborhood like La Défense, they were segregating growth. Parisians reacted aesthetically, as they are wont to do, but they failed to consider the consequences of what it means to be a vital, living city versus a museum city. People sentimentalize their notions of the city, but with the carbon footprint, the waste of resources, our shrinking capacity, we have no choice but to build good high-rise buildings that are affordable. It’s not by coincidence that people are going to London now not just for work but for the available space. No young company can afford Paris. Maybe Tour Montparnasse is not a work of genius, but it signified a notion of what the city of the future will have to be.”

“它是出了名了巴黎最遭恨建筑。我之所以想为它辩护，不是因为它是个分外漂亮的大厦，而是因为它所代表的理念。巴黎人被它吓懵了，但当他们抛弃这座大厦时，他们也抛弃了高密度可持续城市的观念。他们把所有的摩天大楼都驱逐到拉德芳斯之类的偏远城区，这是要决绝于发展。巴黎人做出了一种审美反应，他们一直是这样，但他们没有考虑过，要成为一个有生气、有活力的城市，而不是博物馆城市，需要付出怎样的代价。人对城市的看法是情绪化的，但由于碳足迹、资源浪费和生产力的缩减，我们别无选择，必须去建造物美价廉的高楼大厦。现在，人们纷纷涌向伦敦，这并非偶然，他们不仅为了工作，也为了更多的空间。现在，年轻的企业没法承担在巴黎的开销。蒙帕纳斯大楼也许不是天才之作，但它象征着一个观念，就是未来的城市只能是这样。”

ZAHA HADID

扎哈·哈迪德(Zaha Hadid)

ON THE ORANGE COUNTY GOVERNMENT CENTER, GOSHEN, N.Y.

纽约州歌珊的奥兰治县政府中心

“The 1960s were a remarkable moment of social reform. The ideas of change, liberation and freedom were critical. Now people think public buildings should be more flowery, but these were times when people did tough projects. The complex is arranged as a sequence of interconnected indoor and outdoor public spaces that flow into each other. There is an integrity within the design that displays a commitment to engagement and connectivity. As a center for civic governance, it enacted democracy through spatial integration, not through the separation of elected representatives from their constituents. Many similar projects around the world have also suffered neglect; yet sensitive renovation and new programming reveal a profound lightness and generosity, creating exciting and popular spaces where people can connect. Rudolph’s work is pure, but the beauty is in its austerity. There are no additions to make it polite or cute. It is what it is.”

“1960年代是社会改革的一段格外出彩的时间。改变、解放和自由这些理念在那时异常重要。如今人们认为公共建筑应该更美观，但那时候人们是会去做一些艰难的项目的。整个综合体的布局是一系列相互驳接的室内和室外公共空间，彼此之间是流畅的。这个设计有种完整性，表达了保持参与和沟通的决心。作为公民治理的中心，它通过空间的整合来施行民主，而不是将民选议员和他们的选民隔离开来。世界各地的这类建筑里，有许多也已年久失修；然而细心的改造和新的项目安排可以展露出一种深邃的轻盈和宽容，创造出令人振奋和喜欢的空间，让民众可以在那里进行交流联络。鲁道夫的作品是纯粹的，但它的美感在于朴素。没有任何附加的东西，去把它变得客气或可爱一些。它就这样。”

ANNABELLE SELLDORF

安娜贝尔·塞尔多夫(Annabelle Selldorf)

ON THE EMPIRE STATE PLAZA, ALBANY

纽约州奥尔巴尼帝国广场

“Against my better judgment, I like this complex. It’s sculptural, architectural abstraction to the extreme. At a distance, the scale of the skyline exudes a sense of identity and strength for Albany, while at the pedestrian level the Plaza plays an important role in the community. I know that others find it too brutal or forbidding, but I think it’s beautiful in its monumentality and starkness. Monumentality always suggests supreme power, and that’s scary. I somehow think that if you could populate the Plaza with more gardens, and make it feel more part of everyday life — which they’ve tried to do with farmers’ markets and using the basin for ice skating — then it wouldn’t feel so hostile. Ultimately it has to do with the sense of feeling included and welcome. When life is allowed to enter, it makes a space feel alive. Then it becomes an outlet for the expression of our democratic values of assembly and freedom of speech.”

“我知道这不对，但我喜欢这个综合体。它把雕塑、建筑抽象做到了极致。在远处看，天际线的尺度流露出一种奥尔巴尼的身份和强韧，而在行人的层面上，广场在社区中扮演着一个重要角色。我知道所有人都觉得它太过粗野或冷峻，但我觉得它的美就体现在这种雄伟和严厉中。雄伟总是能暗示一种至高权力，令人生畏。有时候我在想，如果在广场里布置更多的花园，让它有更贴近百姓生活的感觉，这样就不会显得太不友好。而他们的确也曾尝试在那里开设临时的农产品市场，还有把水池改成溜冰场，归根结底是要有一种容纳和欢迎的感觉。一旦生命得以进入，一个空间就活了。然后它就可以用来表达我们主张集会和言论自由的民主价值观。”

ADA TOLLA

阿达·托拉(Ada Tolla)，LOT-EK联合创始人

ON VELE DI SCAMPIA, NAPLES, ITALY

意大利那不勒斯的斯坎皮亚帆城

“If somebody put this complex in front of me right now without adding any context, any history, I would consider it a really strong piece of architecture. They are iconic buildings that embed the Modernist idea of the right to a home — a home for everyone. At the time it was conceived, the complex was very positive, optimistic and progressive. It embodies the idea of the megastructure as the mechanism that can solve the pressing problem of overpopulation and saturation of the city center. The urban planning for the development of the area also testifies to that optimism, with all the roads named after leftist, Socialist or Marxist Italian figures. The interior courtyard and shape of the sail combines the most humble and lively moment of Naples life — the vicolo (narrow street) — with the city’s opulent iconography of the water. But the complex was cursed. It wasn’t built as specified; value-engineering changed the structure and reduced the interior courtyards, therefore limiting the amount of light. None of the planned public spaces, amenities, schools or offices were ever constructed. The buildings were squatted even before completion. The Camorra installed gates and blocked the police from entering. For me it is important to recognize that the Vele is not a failure of the architecture, but rather a failure in execution and management. Demolition is often an attempt to sweep things under the carpet, and that doesn’t seem like the right way to learn from the past.”

“如果现在有人把这座建筑群摆在我面前，没有背景，没有历史，我会认为它是一个非常扎实的建筑项目。这些都是代表性的建筑，贯彻了居者有其屋的现代主义理念——一个为所有人准备的家。在最初构思的时候，这个群落是非常积极、乐观和先进的。它体现的观念是，巨型建筑这样的构造可以解决人口膨胀和市中心饱和所带来的紧迫问题。对这个区域的城市规划中也能体现这种乐观，所有的道路都是用意大利的左翼人士、社会主义或马克思主义者的名字命名的。内部的庭院和风帆造型将那不勒斯生活最鄙俗、鲜活的一面——vicolo（小巷）——和这座城市的丰饶海景结合了起来。但这座建筑群是受到诅咒的。它没能按照要求来建造；价值工程改变了构造，缩减了内部庭院，因此就限制了采光。规划中的公共空间、便利设施和学校、写字楼，一律没有建造。整个工程尚未完工就已被无家可归者私占。黑帮组织克莫拉(Camorra)给建筑群安装了大门，阻止警察入内。在我看来，应该认识到帆城不是一个建筑上的失败，而是执行和管理的失败。拆毁往往是为了把事情搪塞过去，似乎不是从过去吸取教训的好办法。”

NORMAN FOSTER

诺曼·福斯特(Norman Foster)

ON TEMPELHOF AIRPORT, BERLIN

柏林滕佩尔霍夫机场

“Tempelhof is one of the really great buildings of the modern age, and yet it is inevitable that it is not necessarily celebrated by everyone. Its architect, Ernst Sagebiel, studied under the Jewish master Erich Mendelsohn but later served the Nazis. It was adjacent to a concentration camp that held journalists, politicians, Jews and other so-called ‘undesirables,’ so it is redolent with all the most negative associations. Like a pendulum, it served the purposes of the fascist regime and then became a lifeline with the airlifts of 1948 and 1949 that delivered food to the people of West Berlin. The airport is full of contradictions and paradoxes. It has an austere facade, which is not so fascist, and could almost appear in Sweden. The back is a sweeping, cantilevered curve. It soars. If you were transported there and were to walk under that cantilever, you would be awestruck. The architecture is heroic, not in a pompous, empty, vacuous sense, but as engineering that really lifts the spirit. Monuments, if you trace their ancestry, can reveal disturbing things about the past. Nonetheless, they have enduring qualities which, viewed on their own merits, are perhaps an example to us.”

“滕佩尔霍夫是真正堪称伟大的现代建筑之一，然而它注定不会得到所有人的赞美。它的建筑师恩斯特·扎格比尔(Ernst Sagebiel)曾师从犹太建筑大师埃瑞许·孟德尔松(Erich Mendelsohn)，但后来为纳粹服务。它跟一个集中营紧挨着，里面关着记者、政治家、犹太人，以及其他“不可取的人”，所以一切负面的联想它全有了。它就像一个钟摆，先是作为法西斯政权的工具，后来在1948、49年又成了一条为西柏林人空运食物的生命线。这座机场充满了矛盾和吊诡。它的正面十分简朴，不太符合法西斯的风格，搬到瑞典去都没问题。背面是一个大弧度的悬挑结构。宛然兀立。如果你乘车来到那里，走在挑檐下，会感到敬畏。这是一座有英雄气概的建筑，不是自命不凡、空洞、虚妄的那种，而是一种真正能提振精神的工程。去追溯它们的起源背景就会发现，纪念建筑能揭示过去的一些令人不安的东西。然而，它们拥有恒久的品质，从其自身的品质来看，也许可以给我们树立一个典范。”

AMANDA LEVETE

阿曼达·勒威特(Amanda Levete)

ON THE BT TOWER, LONDON

伦敦英国电信塔

“What fascinates me is that in its time the BT Tower was a building that was entirely about its function as a telecommunications tower: Its purpose was its height. Now, without the satellite dishes, that purpose is redundant. It’s lost a lot of its visual and symbolic power. I was 10 when it was finished in 1965 and it was the tallest building in London for many years. It was a marker of arrival if you were coming from the north. That, in the context of London’s skyline now, is extraordinary. It was the first building with an observation deck — that way of engaging with the city was actually pioneered by the tower. It had a restaurant that wasn’t particularly expensive. High rises today are about exploiting the skyline for private gain. But Londoners are capable of being nostalgic too: We have a power station that is now a modern art gallery. I wonder if the satellites and antennae shouldn’t be reinstated to communicate its purpose as an enduring symbol of the moment in the 1960s when technology propelled Britain onto the international stage. It’s a reminder. It holds so much meaning in an elegant slender cylinder.”

“我觉得有意思的是，电信塔在当时纯粹就是为了实现作为电信通讯塔的功能：它的用途是它的高度。现在卫星天线已经拆除，那个用途就不存在了。它失去了很多视觉上的力量和权力象征。1965年，这座塔完工的时候我10岁，接下来很多年里它一直是伦敦最高建筑。如果你打北边过来，看到它就表示到伦敦了。在伦敦天际线里，这可是很不得了的。它是第一座有瞭望台的建筑——此类接触城市的方式其实就是这座塔开创的。它有一个不算特别昂贵的餐厅。今天的摩天大楼已经把天际线的资源用于牟取私利了。但伦敦人也是能够怀旧的：我们有一座电站，现在是个现代美术馆。我在想，是不是可以把天线重新装上，把它的用途转换为1960年代那个瞬间的恒久象征，当时的科技将英国推向了国际舞台。它是一个提示。这样一个纤柔的柱体，承载着太多的意义。”

VINCENT VAN DUYSEN

文森特·范·杜伊森(Vincent van Duysen)

ON CENTRE POMPIDOU, PARIS

巴黎蓬皮杜中心

“I admire its boldness and openness as a building that participates with — and is woven into — its city, its place, its time. It was without any respect for the environment, a cultural factory where you could observe important modern art collections, a superexpressive, very colorful, complex building. It was seen as a rejection of the neighborhood, the Marais, and of Paris itself. Paris stands for French stone and light gray rooftops and beautiful natural colors, and all of a sudden you have got this architectural machine. On the other hand, the building has this democratic purpose because it attracts how many millions every year, more than the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. I couldn’t take my eyes off it when I was studying architecture. It reversed the typical model of a museum into something that was engaging and inviting to the public. Architecture at that time needed to do things differently, like a shock. The shock liberates a lot of emotions and perceptions.”

“我钦佩它的勇敢与开放，这座建筑参与——和勾织——到了它所在的城市、地点和时间中。它完全不考虑环境，它是一座文化工厂，你到这里来，是来看重要的现代艺术收藏的，这是一个极富表现力的、非常多彩而复杂的建筑。它抛弃了自己所在的‘玛莱’区以及巴黎本身。巴黎的特征是法式的石头和浅灰色屋顶，美丽的自然色彩，可是突然之间冒出这么一台建筑机器。另一方面，它又有着一个民主意图，因为它每年会吸引数百万人前来。当年学建筑的时候，我对它很是痴迷。它推翻了典型意义上的博物馆形态，建立了一种让公众觉得亲近而诱人的模型。当时的建筑需要做一些不一样的事情，就像一次休克。能释放大量情感与知觉的休克。”