I'd like to tell you a story about death and architecture.
Želela bih da vam ispričam priču o smrti i arhitekturi.
A hundred years ago, we tended to die of infectious diseases like pneumonia, that, if they took hold, would take us away quite quickly. We tended to die at home, in our own beds, looked after by family, although that was the default option because a lot of people lacked access to medical care.
Pre sto godina, umirali smo od zaraznih bolesti, poput upale pluća, koje su veoma brzo postajale fatalne, ukoliko bismo ih dobili. Umirali smo kod kuće, u svojim krevetima, dok je na nas pazila porodica, mada to je bila ustaljena praksa, pošto dosta ljudi nije imalo pristup medicinskoj nezi.
And then in the 20th century a lot of things changed. We developed new medicines like penicillin so we could treat those infectious diseases. New medical technologies like x-ray machines were invented. And because they were so big and expensive, we needed large, centralized buildings to keep them in, and they became our modern hospitals.
Onda se dosta toga promenilo u 20. veku. Razvili smo nove lekove, poput penicilina kako bismo lečili te zarazne bolesti. Izmišljene su nove medicinske tehnologije, poput rendgenskih zraka. A pošto su bile tako velike i skupe, za njih su nam bile potrebne velike, centralizovane zgrade koje su postale moderne bolnice.
After the Second World War, a lot of countries set up universal healthcare systems so that everyone who needed treatment could get it. The result was that lifespans extended from about 45 at the start of the century to almost double that today. The 20th century was this time of huge optimism about what science could offer, but with all of the focus on life, death was forgotten, even as our approach to death changed dramatically.
Nakon Drugog svetskog rata, mnoge zemlje su uspostavile jedinstvene sisteme zdravstvene nege tako da bi negu mogao da dobije svako kome je potrebna. Kao posledica toga, životni vek je porastao sa oko 45 na početku veka do skoro duplo više danas. 20. vek je bio vreme ogromnog optimizma u vezi sa tim šta nauka ima da ponudi, ali potpunim usredsređivanjem na život, zaboravili smo smrt, iako se naš pristup smrti promenio drastično.
Now, I'm an architect, and for the past year and a half I've been looking at these changes and at what they mean for architecture related to death and dying. We now tend to die of cancer and heart disease, and what that means is that many of us will have a long period of chronic illness at the end of our lives. During that period, we'll likely spend a lot of time in hospitals and hospices and care homes.
Ja sam arhitekta i proteklih godinu i po posmatrala sam ove promene i šta one znače za arhitekturu vezanu za smrt i umiranje. Sada umiremo od raka i bolesti srca i to znači da će mnogi od nas proći kroz dug period hronične bolesti pred kraj naših života. Tokom tog perioda, verovatno ćemo provesti dosta vremena u bolnicama i domovima za negu.
Now, we've all been in a modern hospital. You know those fluorescent lights and the endless corridors and those rows of uncomfortable chairs. Hospital architecture has earned its bad reputation. But the surprising thing is, it wasn't always like this.
Svi smo bili u modernoj bolnici. Znate ta fluorescentna svetla i beskrajne hodnike i redove neudobnih stolica. Arhitektura bolnica zaslužila je svoju lošu reputaciju. Ali iznenađujuće je to da nije bilo oduvek ovako.
This is L'Ospedale degli Innocenti, built in 1419 by Brunelleschi, who was one of the most famous and influential architects of his time. And when I look at this building and then think about hospitals today, what amazes me is this building's ambition. It's just a really great building. It has these courtyards in the middle so that all of the rooms have daylight and fresh air, and the rooms are big and they have high ceilings, so they just feel more comfortable to be in. And it's also beautiful. Somehow, we've forgotten that that's even possible for a hospital.
Ovo je "L'Ospedale degli Innocenti", koju je 1419. sagradio Bruneleski, koji je bio jedan od najpoznatijih i najuticajnijih arhitekata svog vremena. Kada pogledam ovu zgradu i razmislim o bolnicama danas, zapanjuje me ambicija ove zgrade. To je prosto sjajna zgrada. U sredini ima dvorišta tako da sve sobe imaju dnevnu svetlost i svež vazduh, a sobe su prostrane i imaju visoke plafone tako da je prosto udobnije boraviti u njima. Takođe je prelepa. Nekako smo zaboravili da to i može da bude slučaj sa bolnicom.
Now, if we want better buildings for dying, then we have to talk about it, but because we find the subject of death uncomfortable, we don't talk about it, and we don't question how we as a society approach death. One of the things that surprised me most in my research, though, is how changeable attitudes actually are. This is the first crematorium in the U.K., which was built in Woking in the 1870s. And when this was first built, there were protests in the local village. Cremation wasn't socially acceptable, and 99.8 percent of people got buried. And yet, only a hundred years later, three quarters of us get cremated. People are actually really open to changing things if they're given the chance to talk about them.
Ako želimo bolje zgrade u kojima se umire, onda moramo da pričamo o tome, ali pošto nam je tema smrti neprijatna, ne pričamo o tome i ne preispitujemo to kako mi kao društvo pristupamo smrti. Ipak, jedna od stvari koja me je najviše iznenadila u mom istraživanju je koliko su stavovi promenljivi. Ovo je prvi krematorijum u Ujedinjenom Kraljevstvu, koji je sagrađen u Voukingu 1870-tih. Kada je sagrađen, u lokalnom selu odvijali su se protesti. Kremiranje nije bilo društveno prihvatljivo i 99,8% ljudi je sahranjivano. Ipak, samo sto godina kasnije, tri četvrtine nas se kremira. Ljudi su zapravo prilično otvoreni za promene,
So this conversation about death and architecture
ukoliko imaju prilike da o njima pričaju.
was what I wanted to start when I did my first exhibition on it in Venice in June, which was called "Death in Venice." It was designed to be quite playful so that people would literally engage with it. This is one of our exhibits, which is an interactive map of London that shows just how much of the real estate in the city is given over to death and dying, and as you wave your hand across the map, the name of that piece of real estate, the building or cemetery, is revealed. Another of our exhibits was a series of postcards that people could take away with them. And they showed people's homes and hospitals and cemeteries and mortuaries, and they tell the story of the different spaces that we pass through on either side of death. We wanted to show that where we die is a key part of how we die.
Želela sam da započnem ovaj razgovor o smrti i arhitekturi kada sam uradila svoju prvu izložbu na tu temu u Veneciji u junu, koja se zvala "Smrt u Veneciji". Smišljena je da bude veoma razigrana kako bi ljudi bukvalno učestvovali u njoj. Ovo je jedna od naših izložbi koja je interaktivna mapa Londona gde se vidi koliko je zapravo nekretnina u gradu namenjeno smrti i umiranju, i kako prolazite rukom preko mape, otkriva se ime te nekretnine, zgrade ili groblja. Naša druga izložba predstavljala je niz razglednica koje su ljudi mogli da uzmu. Prikazivale su domove ljudi i bolnice i groblja i mrtvačnice i pričaju priču o različitim mestima kroz koja prolazimo sa obe strane smrti. Hteli smo da pokažemo da je to gde umiremo ključni deo toga kako umiremo.
Now, the strangest thing was the way that visitors reacted to the exhibition, especially the audio-visual works. We had people dancing and running and jumping as they tried to activate the exhibits in different ways, and at a certain point they would kind of stop and remember that they were in an exhibition about death, and that maybe that's not how you're supposed to act. But actually, I would question whether there is one way that you're supposed to act around death, and if there's not, I'd ask you to think about what you think a good death is, and what you think that architecture that supports a good death might be like, and mightn't it be a little less like this and a little more like this?
Najčudnije je bilo to kako su posetioci reagovali na izložbu, naročito na audio-vizuelna dela. Ljudi su plesali i trčali i skakali okolo u pokušaju da aktiviraju izložbu na različite načine i u nekom trenutku bi zastali i setili se da su na izložbi o smrti, i da možda ne bi trebalo tako da se ponašaju. Ali ja bih se zapravo pitala da li postoji samo jedan način na koji treba da se ponašate kod smrti, a ako ne postoji, pitala bih vas da razmislite o tome šta je dobra smrt i kako mislite da treba da izgleda arhitektura koja podržava dobru smrt i zar ne bi bila malo manje nalik na ovo, a malo više nalik na ovo?
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)