It was the end of October in the mountains in Austria. I was there on a field trip with my architecture students from Zurich. And when we reached a high valley, I surprised them with the news that there was no hut or hotel booked for the night. It was not a mistake. It was totally on purpose. The challenge was to build our own shelter with whatever we could find. And we all survived. It was cold, it was really tough ... and it was a great learning experience to discover that there are a lot of resources given by nature for free, and all that we need is our sensitivity to see them ... and our creativity to use them.
時間是十月底, 地點在奧地利的山區。 我和我的建築系學生 從蘇黎世到那裡做實地考察。 當我們抵達一處高山谷, 我告訴他們, 這裡沒有小屋或飯店可以過夜的消息 讓他們吃了一驚。 那並不是個失誤。 我完全是故意的。 我們的挑戰就是要用任何 能找到的東西來建立自己的庇護所。 我們都存活下來了。 當時很冷,情況非常艱困… 那是一次很棒的學習經驗, 他們發現原來大自然 免費提供了許多的資源, 我們所需要的,就是對這些資源 要有足夠的敏感度... 及使用它們的創意。
I found myself in a similar situation. When I was an architecture student about 13 years ago, I went to Bangladesh to a remote village called Rudrapur with the aim to design and build a school as my thesis project. I had lived in that village before when I was 19 and a volunteer at Dipshikha, a Bangladeshi NGO for rural development. And what I had learned from them was that the most sustainable strategy for sustainable development is to cherish and to use your very own resources and potential, and not get dependent on external factors. And this is what I tried to do with my architecture as well.
我發現我自己也曾經 遇過類似的狀況。 大約十三年前, 我還是建築系學生時, 我前往孟加拉共和國 一個叫做魯達普爾的偏遠村落, 主要目的是去設計並建立一所學校, 作為我的論文專案。 我十九歲時住過那個村落, 當時我是孟加拉的 鄉村發展非政府組織 「迪普西卡」的志工。 我從他們身上學到的是, 最永續的永續發展策略 就是珍惜和使用 你自己的資源和潛能, 不要去依賴外部因子。 這也是當時我嘗試要做的建築風格。
In terms of suitable building materials for my school, I didn't have to look far. They were right under my feet: mud, earth, dirt, clay, however you call it ... and bamboo that was growing all around. Electricity in remote Bangladesh is rare, but we didn't need it. We had human energy and the people were happy to have the work. Tools were an issue, too, but we had these guys, water buffalos. We had also tried a bit cows, but interestingly, they were too intelligent. They were always stepping in the holes of the previous round. They wouldn't mix the mud, the straw --
用當地適當的建材來蓋我的學校, 不需要捨近求遠。 它們就在我腳下: 泥巴、泥土、土壤,看你怎麼稱呼它… 還有長滿地的竹子。 孟加拉共和國的偏遠地區, 「電力」很稀有, 但我們並不需要。 我們有「人力」, 人們都開心地做著這工作。 工具也是個問題, 但我們有這些伙伴, 水牛。 我們也試過用乳牛, 但有趣的是,牠們太聰明。 牠們老是去踩上一圈走過的洞。 牠們不願意混合泥巴、稻草…
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
the sand, which are the ingredients in the walls. And except a small team of consultants like my partner for realization, Eike Roswag, and my basket-weaver cousin, Emmanuel, it was all built by craftsmen from the village. And this is the METI school after six months of construction.
沙子,這些都是 牆壁要用的混合原料。 除了一個小型的顧問團隊, 比如我的實現搭擋艾克洛斯瓦、 以及我那位織籃子的表兄伊曼紐爾, 學校全由村落的工匠建造。 這是 METI 學校 在建設六個月後的樣子。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Load-bearing earth walls that really ground the school, and large bamboo structures that bring the lightness in. That's the classroom on the ground floor. Attached to it are the caves. They're for reading, for snuggling, for solo work, for meditation, for playing ... and the classroom on the top.
承重用的泥土牆 強化了學校的結構基礎, 大型的竹子結構讓重量變得很輕。 這是一樓的教室。 洞穴跟它接在一起。 其用途是閱讀、小歇、單獨工作、 冥想、玩樂… 這是頂樓的教室。
The children all signed with their names in Bengali the doors, and they did not only sign, they also helped building the school. And I'm sure you all had your hands in mud or clay before. It's wonderful to touch. I love it. The children loved it. And can you imagine the feeling of a small boy or a girl or an illiterate day laborer standing in front of that school building and knowing that you built this out of the ordinary bamboo and just the dirt underneath your feet, using nothing but your hands? That gives such an enormous boost of trust and confidence in yourself and the community.
孩子們都把他們的 孟加拉語名字簽在門上, 他們不只簽名,還協助建立學校。 我相信各位都曾把手 放到泥巴或泥土中過。 我很愛那種美好的觸感。 孩子們也很愛。 各位能否想像,當這些小男生、 小女孩、未受過教育的零工們, 當他們站在這棟建築物前面時, 心中理解,這間學校是靠普通的竹子、 腳下的泥巴和我自己的雙手 從無到有,所建立起來的那份感動? 那會大大提升你對 你自己以及這個社區 的信任和信心。
And in the material. Especially mud has a very poor image. When we think of mud, we think of dirt -- it's ugly, it's nondurable -- and this is the image I want to change. In fact, it's the 11th rainy season for this school now, really harsh, horizontal monsoon rains, and the walls are standing strong.
還有對材料運用的自信。 特別是我們對泥巴的印象 非常糟糕。 當我們想到泥巴時, 我們會想到汙物── 它很醜陋,它不耐久── 我想要改變我們對泥巴的印象。 事實上,這間學校現在已經 經歷了第十一個雨季了, 非常嚴酷的強烈季風雨, 而牆壁現在依舊穩固地屹立著。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
So how does it work? First rule, a good foundation that keeps the wall dry from the ground, and second rule, a good roof that protects from the top, and third rule, erosion control. Mud walls need speed breakers so that the rainwater cannot run down the wall fast, and these speed breakers could be lines of bamboo or stones or straw mixed into the mud, just like a hill needs trees or rocks in order to prevent erosion. It works just the same way. And people always ask me if I have to add cement to the mud, and the answer is no. There is no stabilizer, no coating on these walls, only in the foundation. So this is the close-up of the wall after 10 rainy seasons, and as much as I grew a bit older, the wall got some wrinkles as well. The edges my not be as sharp as before, but it still looks pretty good, and if it needs repairing, it is really easy to do. You just take the broken part, make it wet, and put it back on the wall, and it will look the same as before. Wish that would work on me, too.
所以是怎麼做到的? 規則一,要有好的地基來讓 牆壁保持乾燥不受地面影響, 規則二,有要好的屋頂, 從上方做保護, 規則三,侵蝕控制。 泥巴牆需要有減速的凸障, 這樣雨水才不會快速地 延牆壁流下, 可以用成排的竹子 來做這些減速凸障, 或是把石頭或稻草混合到泥巴當中, 就像山丘需要有樹木 或石頭才能避免侵蝕。 道理是一樣的。 人們總會問我, 我是否有在泥巴中加水泥, 答案是:沒有。 這些牆壁沒有穩定劑、沒有塗層, 只有地基才有。 這是牆壁的近距離照片, 在十個雨季之後, 就像我變老了一樣, 牆上也有了皺紋。 牆角可能沒有像以前那麼筆直, 但看起來狀況還不錯, 如果它需要維修, 也非常容易辦到。 只要針對壞掉的部份, 把它弄濕,再補土回牆壁上即可, 它就會看起來跟以前一樣了。 真希望我也可以這樣。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Yeah, and the great thing is, if an earth wall is not needed anymore, it can go back to the ground it came from, turn into a garden, or get fully recycled without any loss of quality. There's no other material that can do this, and this is why mud is so excellent in terms of environmental performance.
而很棒的一點是, 如果不再需要泥土牆了, 它就可以回到它所屬的地方:地上, 轉變成一個花園, 或是可以完全回收使用, 品質不受任何影響。 沒有其他材料能做到這點, 那就是為什麼泥巴的 環保表現能如此出色。
What about the economic sustainability? When we built the school, I practically lived on the construction site, and in the evening, I used to go with the workers to the market, and I could see how they spent their money. And they would buy the vegetables from their neighbors, they would get a new haircut or a new blouse from the tailor. And because the main part of the building budget was spent on craftsmanship, the school wasn't just a building, it became a real catalyst for local development, and that made me happy. If I had designed the school in cement and steel, this money would have been exported and lost for those families.
那麼經濟永續性又如何呢? 當我們建造這間學校時, 我可以說是住在工地裡, 晚上,我會和工人一起去市場, 我可以看到他們如何花錢。 他們會向鄰居買蔬菜, 他們會去剪個新髮型 或是向裁縫師買件新上衣。 因為建設預算的主要部份 都花在工匠師傅的手藝上, 這間學校不只是一棟建築, 它更是當地發展的催化劑, 那讓我很開心。 如果我用水泥和鋼鐵 來設計這間學校, 這筆錢就會被出口, 那些家庭就無法受惠。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
The building budget at that time was 35,000 euros -- it's probably doubled by now -- and this is a lot of money for that region, and especially because this money is working within the community and rotating fast, and not on the stock market. So when it comes to the economic sustainability of my project, my main question is, who gets the profit?
當時的建築預算是 35,000 歐元, 現在大概要兩倍的價錢, 對那個區域來說,這是筆很大的錢, 特別是,這筆錢留在社區中, 快速流轉, 而不是流入股票市場。 所以每當我談到專案的經濟永續性, 我主要的問題會先問:誰獲利?
How many of you in here have some experience living in a mud house? Chris Anderson, where is your hand?
在座各位有多少人 有住過泥巴房子? 克里斯安德森,你該舉個手吧?
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
You? OK.
你有?好。
Yeah. It seems totally out of our focus, but approximately three billion people all around the planet are living in earth houses, and it is a traditional building material in Europe just as much as in Africa.
是啊。 我們大概不在乎這個, 但地球上大約有三十億人 都住在泥土房中, 它是種傳統的建築材料, 不僅在非洲,在歐洲也差不多如此。
Strangely enough, mud is not considered worthy of being studied at universities ... so I brought the dirt to Harvard,
非常奇怪的是, 在大學中,泥巴並不被 認為是值得研究的。 所以,我把泥巴拿去哈佛,
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
precisely 60 tons of dirt right in front of the main facade of the Graduate School of Design. Students and faculty rolled up their sleeves, got their hands dirty and transformed the front into a warm place for people to gather. Children would climb the structures, skaters would ride the ramp, students having lunch breaks, and it was particularly fascinating to see how many people were touching the wall, and we usually don't go around cities caressing our facades, right?
精確地說,是把 60 噸的泥巴, 通通都放在設計研究所的正前方。 學生和教職員捲起袖子, 把手弄髒(親手去做), 把前面區域轉變成 讓人們聚聚的溫暖地方。 孩子可以攀爬構造體, 玩滑板車的人可以使用斜坡滑板, 學生在這裡吃中餐, 特別棒的是,你可以看到 很多人在觸碰牆面, 我們通常不會在城市裡 到處撫摸建築物外牆,對吧?
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Of course, this was a small-scale project, but in terms of awareness-building and in terms of education, it was like an acupuncture trigger point. And in fact, in more and more countries, load-bearing earthen structures are not allowed to be built anymore although they're traditional and have lasted for hundreds of years, and not because the material is weak, but because there are no architects and engineers who know how to deal with that material. So education on all levels, for craftsmen, engineers and architects, is really strongly needed. Equally important is technological development, like prefabrication developed by my colleague Martin Rauch, who is an Austrian artist and expert in earthen structures. And he has created technologies for rammed earth elements, for prefabrication of rammed earth elements that include insulation, wall heatings and coolings and all sorts of electrical fittings that can be layered to multistoried buildings, and this is important in order to scale up and in order to [speed] up the processes, like in the Ricola Herb Center in Switzerland.
當然,這是個小規模的專案, 但就建材認知層面及教育層面來說, 它就像是針灸的激痛點。 事實上,在越來越多的國家中, 已經不再允許用泥土作為承重結構了, 雖然它們是傳統做法 且已經被用了數百年, 並非因為這種材料太脆弱, 而是因為沒有建築師和工程師 知道要如何處理這種材料了。 所以在各層級上的教育, 對工匠、工程師、建築師的教育, 是非常必要的。 技術的發展也是同等重要, 像是我同事馬丁拉奇的預鑄工法, 他是澳洲的藝術家和泥土結構專家。 他創造了夯土技術、 土壤的預鑄工法, 讓牆體有隔熱、保溫與散熱的功能, 以及各類預埋的電路配管, 這些都可以運用在多層建築上, 這些對放大建築規模、 加速建築流程是很重要的, 就像在瑞士的利口樂香草中心。
And finally, we need good built projects that prove you can build with an ancient material in a very modern way. It is not a matter of how old a material is; it's a matter of our creative ability to use it today. These, for example, are three hostels that I did in China in the village Baoxi, about six hours by bus from Shanghai. The outside shape is woven bamboo, and the inside core is stones and rammed earth. And it is a traditional building material. Even large parts of the Great Wall of China have been built with rammed earth, but it's getting replaced by concrete.
最後,我們需要好的建築專案, 來證明我們能將古老的材料 運用在現代建築上。 重點不在材料有多古老; 而是我們現今運用 這些建材的創意能力。 比如,這三間旅館, 是我在中國的寶溪村做的, 從上海搭公車過去大約要六小時。 外牆是用竹子編的, 內在的核心是石頭和夯土。 竹子是一種傳統建材。 甚至中國長城都有很大部份 是用夯土做的, 但它們後來被混凝土取代。
And this trend is happening very fast. Within only a couple of years, China has consumed more cement than the United States in the entire 20th century. And this trend of replacing natural building materials with materials that require a lot of energy, that are energy-intensive, and that emit CO2 is really clearly contributing to climate change. And we have alternatives, such as mud, stones, timber, bamboo, earth, that are totally effective options for all sorts of purposes.
這個趨勢發展很快。 僅在幾年內, 中國消耗的水泥量 已經超越了美國在二十世紀的總量。 這個取代天然建材的趨勢 需要消耗許多能量的材料、 能量密集的材料、 排放二氧化碳的材料, 很顯然會造成氣候改變。 我們有替代方案, 比如泥巴、石頭、木材、竹子、泥土, 都是很有效益的選擇, 各種目的皆可使用。
This, for example, is an office building that we did for Omicron Electronics in Austria. Mud is healthy for the planet, but also for the human bodies, and the material is low-tech, but the performance is high-tech. The earth walls keep the highly sophisticated tools in the building safe by naturally regulating moisture.
比如,我們為澳洲歐米克朗電子儀器 建造了一棟辦公室大樓。 對地球以及對人體來說, 泥巴都是健康的, 材料是低科技的, 但成效卻是高科技的。 泥土牆能以天然方式調節濕度, 讓放在建築物內的 高度精密工具都很安全。
And this wall in my own home is our humidfier. We love our six tons of dirt at home not only because it's healthy and sustainable. Its archaic warmth is touching deep within.
這是我自己家中的牆, 是我們的加濕器。 我們很愛家裡的六噸泥巴, 不僅是因為它很健康且永續, 它的古式溫暖能深深觸及內心。
My personal dream is to build a mud skyscraper right in Manhattan.
我個人的夢想是要在曼哈頓 建造一棟泥巴摩天大樓。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Yeah.
是啊。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
And this dream isn't so crazy if you think of the mud city of Shibam in Yemen that was built in the 16th century and has lasted now for 500 years. What was possible that long ago is possible today as well, and we can apply all our technical know-how to these ancient materials so that it meets our needs and our dreams.
這夢想並不算瘋狂, 想想葉門希巴姆的泥巴城市, 它是在十六世紀建造的, 至今已有五百年。 那麼久以前就有可能做到的事, 在現今也是可能的, 我們能把我們所有的技術知識 用到這些古老材料上, 讓它們能符合我們的需求及夢想。
All around us, and just below our feet ... are wonderful natural building materials. Let's use them. And I deeply believe our homes, our work spaces, our cities would become more healthy and sustainable and more humane and beautiful.
在我們周圍, 在我們腳下 是美好的天然建材。 我們來運用它們。 我深深相信, 我們的家、我們的 工作場所、我們的城市 會變得更健康及永續、 更有人性、 更美麗。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)