I'd like to tell you a story about death and architecture.
我想和各位講一個 關於死亡和跟建築風格的故事。
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, 人們多死於傳染性疾病,如肺炎 一旦病情蔓延, 很快就會奪走我們的生命。 我們往往選擇死在家裡, 臨終前,在自己的床上,受家人照顧, 雖然這是內定好的選擇 因為很多人缺乏醫療照護。
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.
接著到了二十世紀,一切大不同。 研發出新的藥物像是盤尼西林 所以我們可以治療傳染性疾病。 新的醫療科技, 像是 X 光機也在這時出現。 這些器材龐大且昂貴, 需要放置在寬敞集中的場所, 這些地方漸漸形成現代的醫院。
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.
第二次世界大戰之後, 許多國家建立全民醫療照護系統 任何有需要的人都能接受治療。 結果人們的壽命 在這個世紀初以來 人們的壽命從 45 歲 到現在幾乎增加了兩倍。 二十世是科學發展最為樂觀的時代, 人們一直關注壽命議題, 卻忽略死亡的議題, 甚至死亡的方法也有戲劇性的改變。
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.
既然,我是個建築師, 過去一年半來我關注這些改變 以及這些變化 對建築與死亡關連的意義。 現代人大多死於癌症或是心臟疾病, 也就是說, 大部分的人臨終前 會長時間面臨慢性疾病。 在這段期間, 我們大部份的時間在醫院裡、 安養院、居家照顧中心。
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.
我們去過現代化的醫院。 你知道那些日光燈和沒有盡頭的長廊 以及一排排坐起來不舒服的椅子。 醫院建築已擁有壞名聲。 但令人訝異的是 不是所有的醫院皆是如此。
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.
這是 1419 年由布魯內勒斯基 所建造的孤兒院, 他是當時最有名, 最有影響力的建築師之一。 當我看著這棟建築物 再想想現在的醫院建築, 令我驚訝的是 這棟建築物的偉大目標。 真是一座偉大的建築物。 中間有個庭院 所以每個房間 都有陽光和新鮮空氣, 房間很大,有很高的天花板, 住在裡面感到更加舒服。 這建築物也很美。 不知怎麼地, 我們忘了這是一家醫院。
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.
如果我們要死在比較好的地方, 那我們要來討論一下, 因為我們發現死亡這個議題 讓人感到不舒服, 我們就逃避不想談, 作為社會一份子 不去問死亡的方式。 在我的研究中, 最令我感到驚奇的一件事是 多變的態度實際上是如何變化的。 這是英國第一座火葬場, 於 1870 年建造於英國沃金。 在建造完成之初, 當地居民提出抗議。 火葬不為當時的社會所接受, 有 99.8% 的人選擇土葬。 100 年後的今天, 有四分之三的人選擇火葬。 事實上, 人們是以開放的心態面對改變 只要有機會去談論相關議題。
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.
所以我以死亡和建築的對談 作為起點, 六月我在威尼斯 舉辦我的第一場展覽, 稱為「魂斷威尼斯」 這展覽設計得相當活潑 所以人們可以真正融入其中。 這是我們其中之一的展覽, 是一個互動式的倫敦地圖 顯示倫敦市裡留給死人及垂死之人 地產的數量。 當你的手滑過地圖, 就可以看到地產,建築物及公墓的名稱。 另一個展覽品 是一系列的明信片 可以免費自行拿取。 還顯示房子和醫院 公墓和太平間的位置, 他們也講述不同空間, 穿越時空到死亡的故事。 我們要展示的是 人們在哪裡死亡 是我們如何死亡的核心部分。
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?
最奇怪的事情是 參觀者反應的方式, 特別是視聽教學產品。 我們讓參觀者跳舞、奔跑和跳躍, 有如試著以不同方式 與展出的產品互動, 在特定的時點上 參觀者會停止 記住他們是在參觀 一場有關死亡的展覽, 或許這不是你應該去做事。 事實上,我有個問題, 是否有一種方式 在死亡這個議題上, 有你應該去做的事, 若沒有,我要求你去想關於 什麼是好的死亡, 以及你想到的 好的死亡場所的建築物是什麼樣子, 可能不是很少像是這樣, 多一點像這個樣子?
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)