I'm a relationship builder. When you think of a relationship builder, don't you just automatically think "architect?" Probably not. That's because most people think architects design buildings and cities, but what we really design are relationships, because cities are about people. They're places where people come together for all kinds of exchange. And besides, skylines are highly specific urban habitats with their own insects, plants and animals, and even their own weather.
我是一位关系缔造者。 当你想到这个词, 你第一时间会不会想到建筑师? 可能不会吧。 因为一般人认为,建筑师 只会设计大楼或城市而已。 但我们实际上设计的就是关系。 因为城市离不开人, 是人们相聚做各种交换的地方。 此外,天际线能反映出城市 特有的居住生活型态, 独特的昆虫、植物和动物, 甚至城市本身的气候。
But today, urban habitats are out of balance. Climate change, together with political and economic troubles, are having an impact; they're adding up and stressing out cities and us, the people who live in them.
但时至今日,城市的 居住环境已失去平衡。 全球的气候变化, 伴随政治和经济问题, 正在冲击着我们的城市; 它们凝聚了庞大的压力 堆迭在城市和我们, 这些居住在城市里的居民身上。
For me, the field of ecology has provided important insight, because ecologists don't just look at individual species on their own, they look at the relationships between living things and their environment. They look at how all the diverse parts of the ecosystem are interconnected, and it's actually this balance, this web of life, that sustains life. My team and I have been applying insights from ecology to architecture to see how physical space can help build stronger relationships. The projects I'm going to show you today use the idea of building relationships as the key driver for design.
对我而言,生态学正好 提供了我一个重要的设计感悟, 因为生态学本身不会 只关注单一生物, 而是关注生态体系内所有的生物 以及周遭环境彼此间的关系。 它们会关注生态体系内 所有不同物种间的连结关系, 而实际上,均衡的生命网络, 才是永续生命的关键。 我和我的团队已经将 生态学的观察应用在建筑上, 用它来观察实体空间要如何设计 才能协助我们强化关系。 我今天要介绍的项目 都是以强化关系为 设计主轴的一些项目。
Here's an example of what I mean. Recently, we were asked to design a center for social justice leadership called the Arcus Center. They asked us for a building that could break down traditional barriers between different groups and in doing so, create possibilities for meaningful conversations around social justice. The students wanted a place for cultural exchange. They thought a place for preparing food together could do that. And they wanted to be welcoming to the outside community. They thought a fireplace could draw people in and help start conversations. And everybody wanted the work of social justice to be visible to the outside world. There really wasn't a precedent for this kind of space, so we looked around the globe and found examples of community meeting houses. Community meeting houses are places where there's very specific relationships between people, like this one in Mali, where the elders gather. The low roof keeps everybody seated and at equal eye level. It's very egalitarian. I mean, you can't stand up and take over the meeting. You'd actually bump your head.
这个案例可以 传达我要表达的概念: 最近我们被应邀设计 一个社会正义领导中心, 叫做阿克斯中心(Arcus Center); 他们要求我们设计一个 能打破不同族群间 传统隔阂的建筑物, 从而促进各方坦率交流 有关社会正义的话题。 学生们要求一个 有助于文化交流的地方, 他们认为一个共用厨房 能达成这个目的; 他们也希望这栋建筑物 也能受到外地居民的欢迎。 他们认为壁炉可以吸引他们进来, 并成为他们引发谈论的话题之一。 最终所有人都希望世界各地都能看到 他们社会正义项目的成果。 这类的建筑没有先例可循, 于是我们到世界各地 搜寻社区会议房屋的范例, 有些社区会议房屋的空间氛围 在呈现人际关系上 有着相当鲜明的特点, 像在马里的这个地方, 这里是长者聚会的地方, 低楼板的设计迫使每个人 只能坐着平视彼此。 它充满了平等主义的色彩。 我的意思是,你不能站起来主导会议, 站起来头就会撞到屋顶了。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
In meeting houses, there's always a central space where you can sit around a circle and see each other. So we designed a space just like that right in the middle of the Arcus Center, and we anchored it with a fireplace and a kitchen. It's pretty hard to get a kitchen and a fireplace in a building like this with the building codes, but it was so important to the concept, we got it done. And now the central space works for big social gatherings and a place to meet one-on-one for the very first time. It's almost like this three-way intersection that encourages bumping into people and starting a conversation. Now you can always pass the kitchen and see something going on. You can sit by the fireplace and share stories. You can study together in big groups or in small ones, because the architecture sets up these opportunities.
在会议房屋中都有一个中央空间, 可以让大家围坐成一圈,互相对望。 所以我们在阿克斯中心的正中央, 设计出了同样的空间, 并把壁炉和厨房固定在中央空间中。 可是依建筑条例, 要将壁炉和厨房设计到这栋建筑中 是很困难的, 但它是这栋建筑物的灵魂 , 我们最后实现了。 现在的中央空间提供了大型聚会 以及初次会面时,可单独谈话的地方, 它像个三叉路口, 鼓励人们不期而遇,进而交谈。 所以每当你走过厨房时, 一定可以看到正在进行的活动, 你可选择坐在壁炉前分享故事, 或者跟大伙儿或几个人一起研讨, 因为建筑物的布局 提供了这样的机会。
Even the construction is about building relationships. It's made of cordwood masonry, which is using logs the way you would use bricks. It's super low-tech and easy to do and anyone can do it -- and that's the entire point. The act of making is a social activity.
甚至在建造的过程中也隐含着 建立关系的意义: 它是积木式的木块 堆叠而成的建筑物, 用一块块木头像砖块般堆叠起来的。 技术水平要求不高,任何人都会做, 这也是设计的原意。 建造的过程本身就是一种社会运动。
And it's good for the planet, too: the trees absorbed carbon when they were growing up, and they gave off oxygen, and now that carbon is trapped inside the walls and it's not being released into the atmosphere. So making the walls is equivalent to taking cars right off the road. We chose the building method because it connects people to each other and to the environment.
这样的建筑方式 对我们的地球也是友善的: 树木在成长时吸二氧化碳, 吐出氧气。 现在,这些碳留存在墙壁中, 而不是释放到大气层中, 所以选用木头为建材等同于 减少汽车污染。 我们会选用这样的建造方式, 是因为它能联系人与人, 和人与大自然。
But is it working? Is it creating relationships and nurturing them? How can we know? Well, more and more people are coming here, for one, and as a result of the fireside chats and a full calendar of programming, people are applying for the Arcus Fellowships. In fact, applications have increased tenfold for the Arcus Fellowship since the building opened. It's working. It's bringing people together.
但这样有效吗? 它能创造并增进关系吗? 我们如何证实? 第一 ,越来越多人来阿克斯中心; 还有,得力于壁炉前交流的魅力, 以及全年度丰富的活动安排, 吸引了很多人申请成为阿克斯会员。 事实上,申请书的数量 从开放那天到现在 已增加了十倍。 它是有效的,也成功 拉近了人与人之间的距离。
So I've shown how architecture can connect people on this kind of horizontal campus scale. But we wondered if social relationships could be scaled up -- or rather, upward -- in tall buildings. Tall buildings don't necessarily lend themselves to being social buildings. They can seem isolating and inward. You might only see people in those awkward elevator rides. But in several major cities, I've been designing tall buildings that are based on creating relationships between people.
我向各位展示了, 建筑设计如何把人与人 在水平维度上连接起来。 但我们也反问自己, 人际关系的孕育是否也能应用于 高层建筑物中呢? 高层大楼本身就不是以交流作为目的。 它们看起来就是孤独和内敛的。 你可能会在搭电梯的这种尴尬场合中, 才会遇到其他人。 但我已经在几个大都市中, 设计了以强化关系为目的的高层大厦,
This is Aqua. It's a residential high-rise in Chicago aimed at young urban professionals and empty nesters, many of them new to the city. With over 700 apartments, we wanted to see if we could use architecture to help people get to know their neighbors, even when their homes are organized in the vertical dimension. So we invented a way to use balconies as the new social connectors. The shapes of the floor slabs vary slightly and they transition as you go up the tower. The result of this is that you can actually see people from your balcony. The balconies are misregistered. You can lean over your balcony and say, "Hey!" just like you would across the backyard. To make the balconies more comfortable for a longer period of time during the year, we studied the wind with digital simulations, so the effect of the balcony shapes breaks up the wind and confuses the wind and makes the balconies more comfortable and less windy.
像这个大楼叫做水厦。 它是一栋芝加哥的高层住宅, 对象是年轻的都市专业人士 和空巢老人, 很多住户还是第一次搬来芝加哥。 这栋大厦有超过700个公寓, 我们想要知道是否可以透过建筑设计 帮助居民建立起与邻居间的友谊, 即使他们的家都是纵向排列的。 所以我们发明了一种方法, 利用阳台做为新的社交连接器。 从一楼到顶楼,每层的楼板线条 都略有不同。 这样的设计结果是你可以在阳台上 看到其他人。 阳台是交错的。 你大可以在阳台上弯身大喊 “嗨!” 就好像你快要爬到对方的后花园一样。 为了让阳台更舒适, 并在全年延长享用阳台的时间, 我们用电脑模拟风向, 确定阳台的形状可以缓冲风力, 让风涡相冲, 使阳台更舒适并能减缓风力。
Now, just by being able to go outside on your balcony or on the third floor roof terrace, you can be connected to the outdoors, even when you're way above the ground plane. So the building acts to create community within the building and the city at the same time. It's working. And people are starting to meet each other on the building surface and we've heard --
你只要走到外面的阳台, 或站在第三层的楼顶台阶上, 你就能置身在户外当中, 即使你离地面很远。 这样的建筑模式 成功地建立起了邻里关系, 不管在大楼内,还是城市内, 它都是成功的。 大楼的住户开始 在墙外的阳台相遇, 我们还听过 ——
(Laughter)
(笑声)
they've even starting getting together as couples. But besides romantic relationships, the building has a positive social effect on the community, as evidenced by people starting groups together and starting big projects together, like this organic community garden on the building's roof terrace.
也有人因此相识而成为伴侣。 但是除了情侣关系, 这大楼确实可以把正能量 带到社区之中。 这一点可以从住户自发创立团体, 一起做些大项目来证明, 就像这个在大厦顶的 有机社区花园。
So I've shown how tall buildings can be social connectors, but what about public architecture? How can we create better social cohesion in public buildings and civic spaces, and why is it important? Public architecture is just not as successful if it comes from the top down.
我已经示范了高层大楼 真的可以成为社交枢纽。 可是公共建筑也可以吗? 我们如何在公共建筑与市民空间中 创造出更具凝聚力的 社交关系呢? 为什么这点很重要呢? 因为公共建筑如果是由 上层所决定的, 通常都不会成功。
About 15 years ago in Chicago, they started to replace old police stations, and they built this identical model all over the city. And even though they had good intentions of treating all neighborhoods equally, the communities didn't feel invested in the process or feel a sense of ownership of these buildings. It was equality in the sense that everybody gets the same police station, but it wasn't equity in the sense of responding to each community's individual needs. And equity is the key issue here.
大概在十五年前, 芝加哥政府开始重建老旧的公安局, 他们最后在整个城市里建造了 很多外形一模一样的公安局。 虽然政府用意是好的, 想平等对待每一个社区; 但社区居民都不觉得有参与感, 或是对这些建筑物没有归属感。 政府公平地给了每一个人 同样外貌的公安局, 但是从各个社区的 个别需求回应里, 呈现出来的却是不平等的。 而平等才是关键。
You know, in my field, there's a debate about whether architecture can even do anything to improve social relationships. But I believe that we need architecture and every tool in our tool kit to improve these relationships. In the US, policy reforms have been recommended in order to rebuild trust. But my team and I wondered if design and a more inclusive design process could help add something positive to this policy conversation. We asked ourselves simply: Can design help rebuild trust?
在建筑行业中, 对于到底建筑设计是否 能起到促进社会关系的功能, 仍有争议。 但我相信,我们可以利用建筑设计 和我们拥有的每一个工具, 来改善这些关系。 在美国,为了重建社会信任, 有些人建议要改革政策。 但是我和我的团队在想 是否设计本身和 包容性的设计过程 可以为政策对话带来实质的帮助。 我们问自己: 设计是否能重新修复信任?
So we reached out to community members and police officers in North Lawndale; it's a neighborhood in Chicago where the police station is perceived as a scary fortress surrounded by a parking lot. In North Lawndale, people are afraid of police and of going anywhere near the police station, even to report a crime. So we organized this brainstorming session with both groups participating, and we came up with this whole new idea for the police station. It's called "Polis Station." "Polis" is a Greek word that means a place with a sense of community. It's based on the idea that if you can increase opportunities for positive social interactions between police and community members, you can rebuild that relationship and activate the neighborhood at the same time.
我们联络了北隆戴尔区的 社区人员和警局官员; 该区位于芝加哥, 居民都视公安局为一座被停车场围绕的 可怕的堡垒。 在北隆戴尔,居民都很害怕警察, 甚至不敢走近警察局, 即使是去报案。 所以我们安排了一场由 警察和居民共同参与的 头脑风暴会议。 最后我们讨论出一个 关于警察局的全新概念: 我们称之为 “波乐司"(“Polis") 。 波乐司是希腊文: 意思是一个有社区意义的地方。 这个概念就是: 如果你能够增加警察和区民之间 正向的接触机会, 就可以重建友善的关系, 并同时让整个社区活跃起来。
Instead of the police station as a scary fortress, you get highly active spaces on the public side of the station -- places that spark conversation, like a barbershop, a coffee shop or sports courts as well. Both cops and kids said they love sports. These insights came directly from the community members and the police officers themselves, and as designers, our role was just to connect the dots and suggest the first step. So with the help of the city and the parks, we were able to raise funds and design and build a half-court, right on the police station parking lot.
警察局不再是一座 可怕的堡垒, 取而代之的是其中 生气勃勃的公共空间—— 一个能鼓励谈话的空间, 比如理发店,咖啡馆, 或者运动场。 警察和青年人都一致说 他们热爱运动。 这个概念是直接由社区居民 和警局官员们共同提出来的。 我们设计师的使命 就是把这些概念连贯起来, 协助把这些落实而已。 我们获得了城市和 公园相关部门的帮助, 得以筹款、设计、以及建造 一个小型篮球场, 就在警察局的停车场中。
It's a start. But is it rebuilding trust? The people in North Lawndale say the kids are using the courts every day and they even organize tournaments like this one shown here, and once in a while an officer joins in. But now, they even have basketballs inside the station that kids can borrow. And recently they've asked us to expand the courts and build a park on the site. And parents report something astonishing. Before, there was fear of going anywhere the station, and now they say there's a sense that the court is safer than other courts nearby, and they prefer their kids to play here.
这是一个起步。 但这是否真的能重建信任呢? 住在北隆戴尔区的居民说 小孩每天都在篮球场玩, 甚至还策划比赛 —— 就像视频所展示的那样, 偶尔会有警官参与。 现在,在警察局内也建了一个篮球场, 孩子们可以借用。 最近,他们请我们扩大 这些篮球场, 还打算盖一个公园在旁边。 父母亲们反馈了一些 让人惊讶的事情: 以往,大家都怕接近警察局,而如今 他们觉得这个篮球场 比附近的其它篮球场安全多了。 父母都很愿意让孩子们在这儿玩。
So maybe in the future, on the public side of the station, you might be able to drop in for a haircut at the barbershop or reserve the community room for a birthday party or renew your driver's license or get money out of an ATM. It can be a place for neighbors to meet each other and to get to know the officers, and vice versa. This is not a utopian fantasy. It's about how do you design to rebuild trust, trusting relationships?
所以,或许将来 在警察局内的公共区域, 你很可能来这儿的理发店剪个头发, 或预约公用礼堂来 举行生日派对, 或申请延长驾照等, 或在自动提款机取钱。 此处也可以是居民 互相见面的地方, 以及和警官互相认识的地方。 这绝对不是个乌托邦式的幻想。 关键是要懂得 如何用设计来重新建立起信任、 信任的关系。
You know, every city has parks, libraries, schools and other public buildings that have the potential to be reimagined as social connectors. But reimagining the buildings for the future is going to require engaging the people who live there. Engaging the public can be intimidating, and I've felt that, too. But maybe that's because in architecture school, we don't really learn how to engage the public in the act of design. We're taught to defend our design against criticism. But I think that can change, too.
众所周知,每个都市都有 公园、图书馆、学校,以及 其它公共设施, 这些都有可能成为社交连接器。 但要重新想像 未来的建筑如何重建, 首先必定要 让当地的民众参与。 让民众参与听起来或许有些吓人, 我本人也担心过。 或许是因为在上建筑学校时, 我们都没学过 如何引导市民参与设计。 我们只学到如何去 辩解市民对我们设计的批评。 但我相信这是可以改变的。
So if we can focus the design mind on creating positive, reinforcing relationships in architecture and through architecture, I believe we can do much more than create individual buildings. We can reduce the stress and the polarization in our urban habitats. We can create relationships. We can help steady this planet we all share.
只要我们一心关注如何利用设计 来创造正面、双赢的关系; 不管是建筑物本体 还是间接从中引发的, 我相信,除了外观设计, 建筑师是能创造很多利益的。 我们可以缓和城市居住地的压力 和两极分化状况。 我们可以建立更加美好的关系。 我们也可以帮助地球找回平衡。
See? Architects really are relationship builders.
看到了吗? 建筑师真的是关系的缔造者。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Thank you very much.
非常感谢。
(Applause)
(鼓掌声)