I'd like to tell you a story about death and architecture.
我想跟大家讲述一个关于死亡和建筑的故事。
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.
一百年前,人类往往死于像肺炎这样的传染病, 一旦感染上这些疾病, 就会很快夺走我们的生命。 而我们往往死在自己的床上, 在家里由亲人照顾, 虽然这是一个默认选择, 因为许多人缺乏医疗护理。
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.
在20世纪,许多状况经已 发生不少改变。 我们发明了很多新药,例如盘尼西林, 因此可医治那些传染病。 也发明出一些新的医疗技术, 像 X 光机。 但是这些仪器体积太庞大且太昂贵, 它们需要安置在大型的中心建筑, 而这些建筑就变成现代的医院。
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.
二战之后, 许多国家设立普及的医疗保健系统, 以便大家需要治疗时也得到照顾, 结果是人类寿命从世纪初的约45岁 大幅提高至现今的近乎两倍。 20世纪是人类对科学发展 感到很乐观的时代, 但是由于对生命的关注, 卻忽略了死亡。 甚至我们应对死亡的方法 也发生巨大变化。
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.
现在我是一名建筑师, 过去的一年半,我一直在关注这些变化, 以及它们对那些跟死亡相关的建筑有何意义。 现在人类往往死于癌症及心脏疾病, 这意味着我们当中许多人 在生命最后一段时间 会长时间受慢性病的侵袭。 在那段时间里, 我们会大部分时间在医院、 疗养院及护理中心。
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.
现在我们都去过现代的医院。 你们看到那样的荧光灯、无尽的走廊, 及那几排一点也不舒服的椅子。 医院建筑的名声已经很坏。 但是奇妙的是,并不总是如此。
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.
这是1419年由Brunelleschi 兴建的孤儿院, Brunelleschi是他那个时代 其中一个最具影响力的建筑师。 当我看着这个建筑, 再想想我们今天的医院, 让我惊奇的是这栋建筑的追求, 这真是一个极棒的建筑。 在这中间有个庭院, 这样所有的房间都有阳光和新鲜空气, 这些房间很大,有很高的天花板, 住进去更舒服。 它也很美。 莫名其妙我们就忘了,这居然是医院。
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.
如果我们想在更好的建筑里离世, 我们要好好谈论它, 但是我们发现死亡的话题让人不舒服, 我们就不想谈, 我们都不去查问 我们作为一个社会怎样迎接死亡。 然而,在研究中最让我感到惊奇 的其中一件事, 就是态度实际是怎样变化的。 这是英国的第一个火葬场, 建于1870年代。 在它初建之时,当地村庄很多人抗议。 火葬并不被广泛接受, 99.8%的人选择埋葬。 但是,仅一百年后, 我们四分之三的死者选择火葬。 人类抱着开放态度来接受改变, 前提是有机会谈论它们。
So this conversation about death and architecture 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.
因此这个关于死亡和建筑的对话 就是我想要开始的,当我六月份第一次 在威尼斯举行展览, 名为「魂断威尼斯」。 这个展览还是相当好玩的, 所以大家都可以参与其中。 这是我们其中一个展览品, 一副交互式的伦敦地图, 展示这座城市里 留给死人或者垂死之人的房地产数量, 当你用手划过地图, 那个房地产、建筑物或 公墓的名字就会显现。 另一个展品是一系列明信片, 大家可以拿走的。 它们展示了众人的家园、医院、 公墓,以及停尸间, 他们讲述着 我们穿过死亡不同空间的故事。 我们想展示的是人类在哪里死亡, 就是大家怎样死亡的核心部分。
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?
最奇怪的事就是参观者们对这个展出的反应, 尤其是视听作品。 我们让众人跳跃、跑动、起舞, 通过不同方式活跃展出的氛围, 在一些特定的节点上,他们会停止, 记住他们在参观死亡展览, 也许那不是你们想去做的。 但实际上,我想要问一下, 是否有一种方式, 你们想要围绕死亡,采取一些行动, 如果没有,我就要你们好好想一想, 什么是好的死亡, 以及你们所认为支持好的死亡的 建筑应当是怎样的, 可不可以少一点像这样,多一点像这样?
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)