Every weekend for as long as I can remember, my father would get up on a Saturday, put on a worn sweatshirt and he'd scrape away at the squeaky old wheel of a house that we lived in. I wouldn't even call it restoration; it was a ritual, catharsis. He would spend all year scraping paint with this old heat gun and a spackle knife, and then he would repaint where he scraped, only to begin again the following year. Scraping and re-scraping, painting and repainting: the work of an old house is never meant to be done.
在我記憶中的每一個週末, 我父親會在週六起床後, 穿上他的舊運動衫, 並且著手刮除 我們老房子外的油漆。 我不會稱之整修, 這是一種儀式,一種淨化。 他一整年不斷用他的熱噴槍及刮刀 去刮除掉油漆, 並且重新粉刷他刮掉的部分, 年復一年日復一日。 無數次的刮漆及重漆, 老房子的打理工作永遠不會結束。
The day my father turned 52, I got a phone call. My mother was on the line to tell me that doctors had found a lump in his stomach -- terminal cancer, she told me, and he had been given only three weeks to live.
在我父親52歲時, 我接到了一通電話, 我母親在電話另一頭, 告訴我說醫生在父親的 胃中發現了一個腫塊, 是癌症末期, 父親可能活不過三週。
I immediately moved home to Poughkeepsie, New York, to sit with my father on death watch, not knowing what the next days would bring us. To keep myself distracted, I rolled up my sleeves, and I went about finishing what he could now no longer complete -- the restoration of our old home.
我立刻搬回在紐約波啟浦夕市, 陪伴父親過完最後的日子, 而我們不知道離別會在何時到來。 為了分散自己的注意力, 我捲起了袖管, 接手了父親再也無法完成的工作-- 老房子的整修
When that looming three-week deadline came and then went, he was still alive. And at three months, he joined me. We gutted and repainted the interior. At six months, the old windows were refinished, and at 18 months, the rotted porch was finally replaced.
慢慢地就快要到醫生宣布的三週, 接著.三週過去了, 父親依然活著。 而後又過了三個月, 父親加入了我。 我們重新改造並粉刷了房子內部。 六個月後,我們把老舊的窗戶換新, 十八個月後, 腐舊的走廊也完全換新了。
And there was my father, standing with me outside, admiring a day's work, hair on his head, fully in remission, when he turned to me and he said, "You know, Michael, this house saved my life."
我跟父親一起 站在房子外欣賞我們所完成的工作, 父親癌症時掉落的頭髮 也開始重新生長, 父親轉過頭看著我,並說: 「麥克。 這房子拯救了我的生命。」
So the following year, I decided to go to architecture school.
所以隔年,我決定進入建築專科學校。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
But there, I learned something different about buildings. Recognition seemed to come to those who prioritized novel and sculptural forms, like ribbons, or ... pickles?
但在那裡,我學到一些 跟建築物不太一樣的東西。 比較有名的像是 一些新穎的雕塑形式, 例如緞帶造型或... 醃黃瓜樣式?
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And I think this is supposed to be a snail.
然後我想這個應該是蝸牛。
Something about this bothered me. Why was it that the best architects, the greatest architecture -- all beautiful and visionary and innovative -- is also so rare, and seems to serve so very few? And more to the point: With all of this creative talent, what more could we do?
這類東西令我困惑。 為什麼這些最好的建築、偉大的建築 全都是漂亮、充滿幻想且標新立異的, 卻很稀少, 似乎只有少數人能夠享受到? 此外還有一點: 在這些有天分的創造之上, 我們還能做什麼?
Just as I was about to start my final exams, I decided to take a break from an all-nighter and go to a lecture by Dr. Paul Farmer, a leading health activist for the global poor. I was surprised to hear a doctor talking about architecture. Buildings are making people sicker, he said, and for the poorest in the world, this is causing epidemic-level problems. In this hospital in South Africa, patients that came in with, say, a broken leg, to wait in this unventilated hallway, walked out with a multidrug-resistant strand of tuberculosis. Simple designs for infection control had not been thought about, and people had died because of it.
正當逼近我期末考試時, 我決定從徹夜苦讀之中偷個閒, 去聽 Paul Farmer 醫生的演講, 他是一位抵抗世界飢荒的 健康活動家領袖。 聽到一位醫生討論建築 讓我非常驚訝。 他說:「建築物會讓人病得更嚴重。 在世界上最貧窮的地方, 這甚至會達到流行病的程度。」 在南非的醫院裡, 一位腿骨折的病人進到醫院, 在通風不好的大廳等待看診, 便會帶著具多種抗藥性的 結核病菌離開醫院。 沒有考量到感染控管的設計, 可能會讓人喪命。
"Where are the architects?" Paul said. If hospitals are making people sicker, where are the architects and designers to help us build and design hospitals that allow us to heal?
「建築師在哪裡?」Paul 問道。 如果醫院會讓人生病, 那麼有能力建造一座 助人恢復健康的醫院的 建築師及設計師們在哪裡呢?
That following summer, I was in the back of a Land Rover with a few classmates, bumping over the mountainous hillside of Rwanda. For the next year, I'd be living in Butaro in this old guesthouse, which was a jail after the genocide. I was there to design and build a new type of hospital with Dr. Farmer and his team. If hallways are making patients sicker, what if we could design a hospital that flips the hallways on the outside, and makes people walk in the exterior? If mechanical systems rarely work, what if we could design a hospital that could breathe through natural ventilation, and meanwhile reduce its environmental footprint?
在下一個暑假, 我與幾個同學坐在越野車上, 在盧安達的山岳間翻山越嶺。 次年,我住在 Butaro 醫院的老客房內, 這原本是一座種族屠殺後使用的監獄。 我在那與Farmer醫生及其團隊 一同設計並建造一種新形式的醫院。 如果醫院大廳會讓病人生病, 那我們是否可以設計一個大廳在外面的醫院, 讓人們走在外側? 如果機械系統幾乎無法運作, 那我們是否能設計一個 透過自然通風而呼吸, 並且減少生態足跡的醫院?
And what about the patients' experience? Evidence shows that a simple view of nature can radically improve health outcomes, So why couldn't we design a hospital where every patient had a window with a view? Simple, site-specific designs can make a hospital that heals.
而病人的體驗會如何呢? 證據顯示簡單的自然景觀 能從根本上促進人的健康。 所以我們何不就設計一間醫院, 讓每位病人都有能看見風景的窗戶。 簡單獨特的設計能讓醫院治癒病人。
Designing it is one thing; getting it built, we learned, is quite another.
設計是一回事, 而建造又是另一回事。
We worked with Bruce Nizeye, a brilliant engineer, and he thought about construction differently than I had been taught in school. When we had to excavate this enormous hilltop and a bulldozer was expensive and hard to get to site, Bruce suggested doing it by hand, using a method in Rwanda called "Ubudehe," which means "community works for the community." Hundreds of people came with shovels and hoes, and we excavated that hill in half the time and half the cost of that bulldozer. Instead of importing furniture, Bruce started a guild, and he brought in master carpenters to train others in how to make furniture by hand. And on this job site, 15 years after the Rwandan genocide, Bruce insisted that we bring on labor from all backgrounds, and that half of them be women.
我們和工程師 Bruce Nizeye一起工作, 一個傑出的工程師, 他對建築的思考方式 與我以前在學校所學完全不同。 當我們想要挖掘巨大的山頂, 發現挖土機太昂貴, 並且難以攀登上頂點, Bruce建議我們用手挖掘, 使用盧安達一個叫做「Ubedehe」方法, 意思即是為了社區的社區工作。 數百人帶著鏟子及鋤頭過來, 我們一同挖掘山丘。 只用了挖土機一半的時間和金錢。 Bruce帶來了木匠大師,並訓練其他人 自己手工製作家具 取代進口家具。 在工作場地, 經歷15年前的盧安達大屠殺後, Bruce堅持我們要 雇用各種背景的勞工, 而其中有一半以上是女人。
Bruce was using the process of building to heal, not just for those who were sick, but for the entire community as a whole. We call this the locally fabricated way of building, or "lo-fab," and it has four pillars: hire locally, source regionally, train where you can and most importantly, think about every design decision as an opportunity to invest in the dignity of the places where you serve. Think of it like the local food movement, but for architecture. And we're convinced that this way of building can be replicated across the world, and change the way we talk about and evaluate architecture.
Bruce利用建築的過程去治療人們, 不僅僅為了治療病人, 同時也是為了團結整個社區。 我們把這些建造方式稱作本地製造, 其具有四個支柱: 雇用當地人、 就地取材、 訓練當地人, 並且,最重要的, 將每一個設計當作一個機會 投資到你服務的這個地區。 想像這有如當地食物生產過程, 但是這是建築版本的。 而我們相信此種建築方法 能被複製到世界各地, 並且改變我們討論、評估建築的方式。
Using the lo-fab way of building, even aesthetic decisions can be designed to impact people's lives. In Butaro, we chose to use a local volcanic stone found in abundance within the area, but often considered a nuisance by farmers, and piled on the side of the road. We worked with these masons to cut these stones and form them into the walls of the hospital. And when they began on this corner and wrapped around the entire hospital, they were so good at putting these stones together, they asked us if they could take down the original wall and rebuild it. And you see what is possible. It's beautiful. And the beauty, to me, comes from the fact that I know that hands cut these stones, and they formed them into this thick wall, made only in this place with rocks from this soil.
利用本地生產的方式建築, 即使是從審美觀點來設計, 也能改變人們的生活。 在Butaro,我們選擇用當地火山岩, 它在當地很豐富, 但它卻被認為是麻煩事, 推擠在路邊。 我們與瓦泥匠們一起切割這些石塊, 並切做成醫院的牆。 他們從這個角落開始 環繞整座醫院, 這些石塊排列後看起來棒極了, 居民還問我們是否能 把原本的的舊牆也都重新建造 你可以看見這是可行的。 非常的漂亮。 對我來說,之所以美, 是因為我了解這是手工切割的石塊, 由人工打造成厚牆, 原料都是當地獨特的石材及土壤。
When you go outside today and you look at your built world, ask not only: "What is the environmental footprint?" -- an important question -- but what if we also asked, "What is the human handprint of those who made it?"
今日,當你走出戶外 看看人們建構出的世界 你不但要問說 什麼是環境足跡? 還應該要問 建造了它們的人類足跡是什麼?
We started a new practice based around these questions, and we tested it around the world. Like in Haiti, where we asked if a new hospital could help end the epidemic of cholera. In this 100-bed hospital, we designed a simple strategy to clean contaminated medical waste before it enters the water table, and our partners at Les Centres GHESKIO are already saving lives because of it.
我們依據這些問題開始了新的試驗, 並且在世界各地嘗試。 像在海地 我們想知道新型的醫院 是否能改善霍亂的流行, 在一個具百張病床規模的醫院, 我們設計了一個簡單的策略, 在醫療廢棄物進入水源之前, 能夠初步清潔它們, 我們在Les Centres GHESKIO的夥伴 已經因此拯救不少性命。
Or Malawi: we asked if a birthing center could radically reduce maternal and infant mortality. Malawi has one of the highest rates of maternal and infant death in the world. Using a simple strategy to be replicated nationally, we designed a birthing center that would attract women and their attendants to come to the hospital earlier and therefore have safer births.
或在馬拉威, 我們會問接生中心是否能從根本上 減少母親與嬰兒的死亡率。 馬拉威有著世界最高的母嬰死亡率。 我們使用一個簡單、可重複執行的策略, 設計一個生育中心 並且吸引女性同胞們 提早來到醫院, 如此可以安全的分娩。
Or in the Congo, where we asked if an educational center could also be used to protect endangered wildlife. Poaching for ivory and bushmeat is leading to global epidemic, disease transfer and war. In one of the hardest-to-reach places in the world, we used the mud and the dirt and the wood around us to construct a center that would show us ways to protect and conserve our rich biodiversity.
在剛果,我們想知道 教育中心是否也能發揮作用, 去保護瀕危的野生動物。 象牙或肉品的盜獵 將可能導致流行疾病及戰爭的蔓延。 在世界上最遙遠的地方, 我們使用身邊的泥巴、土及木頭 去建造保育中心。 這是一個保護生物多樣性的方法。
Even here in the US, we were asked to rethink the largest university for the deaf and hard of hearing in the world. The deaf community, through sign language, shows us the power of visual communication. We designed a campus that would awaken the ways in which we as humans all communicate, both verbally and nonverbally.
即使在美國本土, 我們也要被要求重新思考 在世界上最大的聾啞大學。 在聽障社區內,透過一些手語動作, 我們了解到了視覺溝通的力量。 我們設計的校園將會啟發 人類溝通方式, 包含了語言及非語言的溝通。
And even in Poughkeepsie, my hometown, we thought about old industrial infrastructure. We wondered: Could we use arts and culture and design to revitalize this city and other Rust Belt cities across our nation, and turn them into centers for innovation and growth? In each of these projects, we asked a simple question: What more can architecture do? And by asking that question, we were forced to consider how we could create jobs, how we could source regionally and how we could invest in the dignity of the communities in which we serve.
在我的家鄉,波啟浦夕市, 我們想到了工業的基礎建設。 我們想知道: 是否能透過藝術及文化設計 使國家內的沒落都市再度繁榮呢? 是否能將它們變成 創新及成長的中心呢? 在這些計畫中, 我們問了一個簡單的問題 建築還能夠多做些什麼? 透過這些問題, 我們被強迫思考如何創造工作、 如何就地取材、 如何投資在我們服務的社區。
I have learned that architecture can be a transformative engine for change.
我已經學到 建築可以成為改變契機的引擎。
About a year ago, I read an article about a tireless and intrepid civil rights leader named Bryan Stevenson.
大約一年前,我讀到一篇文章, 有關於不屈不撓、 勇敢無畏的民權領袖, 布萊恩·史蒂文森。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
And Bryan had a bold architectural vision. He and his team had been documenting the over 4,000 lynchings of African-Americans that have happened in the American South. And they had a plan to mark every county where these lynchings occurred, and build a national memorial to the victims of lynching in Montgomery, Alabama.
布萊恩有一個大膽的建築想法。 他及他的團隊紀錄了 在美國南部發生的 超過4000件對非裔美國人的私刑案件。 他們決定在阿拉巴馬州的蒙哥馬利, 標記每個發生過私刑的地區, 並建造國家紀念館哀悼這些受害者。
Countries like Germany and South Africa and, of course, Rwanda, have found it necessary to build memorials to reflect on the atrocities of their past, in order to heal their national psyche. We have yet to do this in the United States.
像是德國或南非這樣的國家, 當然還有盧安達, 都發現建造這樣的紀念館是必要的, 讓他們反思過去的暴行, 並撫平全體國民的傷痛。 我們尚未在美國做這樣的事。
So I sent a cold email to info@equaljusticeintiative.org: "Dear Bryan," it said, "I think your building project is maybe the most important project we could do in America and could change the way we think about racial injustice. By any chance, do you know who will design it?"
所以我寄了一封郵件給公平正義組織 寫道:「敬愛的布萊恩, 我認為你的建築計畫 說不定是美國最重要的計畫, 這將能改變我們對於種族不平等的看法。 順帶一提, 你知道由誰來設計這個建築嗎?」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Surprisingly, shockingly, Bryan got right back to me, and invited me down to meet with his team and talk to them. Needless to say, I canceled all my meetings and I jumped on a plane to Montgomery, Alabama. When I got there, Bryan and his team picked me up, and we walked around the city. And they took the time to point out the many markers that have been placed all over the city to the history of the Confederacy, and the very few that mark the history of slavery.
令人吃驚地, 布萊恩馬上回信給我, 並且邀請我去與他的團隊見面。 不由分說,我馬上取消所有會議 跳上飛機前往阿拉巴馬州的蒙哥馬利。 當我到達時, 布萊恩及其團隊帶我在城市參觀。 他們花了一番時間, 去指出放置於城市各處, 關於南部聯邦政府的歷史標記, 但對於奴隸相關歷史的標記很少。
And then he walked me to a hill. It overlooked the whole city. He pointed out the river and the train tracks where the largest domestic slave-trading port in America had once prospered. And then to the Capitol rotunda, where George Wallace had stood on its steps and proclaimed, "Segregation forever." And then to the very hill below us. He said, "Here we will build a new memorial that will change the identity of this city and of this nation."
接著他們帶我到一座山坡上, 讓我們可以俯瞰整個城市。 他指出一些河及鐵軌的位置, 和那些曾經是美國最大的奴隸交易地點。 然後我們到了國會圓頂大廈, 喬治·華萊士曾經站在這裡, 宣稱「永遠隔離。」 我們到了山丘下方, 布萊恩說:「我們將在這建立新的紀念館, 這將會改變這座城市及國家的面貌。」
Our two teams have worked together over the last year to design this memorial. The memorial will take us on a journey through a classical, almost familiar building type, like the Parthenon or the colonnade at the Vatican. But as we enter, the ground drops below us and our perception shifts, where we realize that these columns evoke the lynchings, which happened in the public square. And as we continue, we begin to understand the vast number of those who have yet to be put to rest. Their names will be engraved on the markers that hang above us. And just outside will be a field of identical columns. But these are temporary columns, waiting in purgatory, to be placed in the very counties where these lynchings occurred. Over the next few years, this site will bear witness, as each of these markers is claimed and visibly placed in those counties. Our nation will begin to heal from over a century of silence.
我們的兩支隊伍去年一起工作, 並建造了這座紀念館。 此紀念館將會帶我們踏上一趟旅程, 透過一個古典的、熟知的建築型態, 就像帕德嫩神廟或是梵蒂岡的柱子。 但我們進入後, 地板傾斜向下,我們看到的景象改變, 我們了解到,這些柱子點醒了我們 曾經在公共廣場發生的私刑。 我們繼續走下去, 我們開始了解到無數 未安息的人們。 他的名字會深深地刻在 掛於我們頭上方的標誌裡。 而在外面也會擺放相同的柱子。 這些柱子放在曾經發生私刑的地點, 記載了那些曾在煉獄中受苦的人們。 往後幾年, 這些景點是大家有目共睹的, 每一個景點都會在醒目的地方 述說著曾經發生在這個地區的事情。 在一個世紀的沉默之後, 這個國家的傷痕終於開始復原。
When we think about how it should be built, we were reminded of Ubudehe, the building process we learned about in Rwanda. We wondered if we could fill those very columns with the soil from the sites of where these killings occurred. Brian and his team have begun collecting that soil and preserving it in individual jars with family members, community leaders and descendants. The act of collecting soil itself has lead to a type of spiritual healing. It's an act of restorative justice.
當我們思考著如何建築, 我們想起了Ubudehe, 從盧安達學到的建築方式。 我們思考著是否 能用當年私刑地點的泥土 去填充這些柱子。 布萊恩及其團隊開始收集這些土壤, 並將之保存於瓶罐中, 讓他們和家人,領導人及後代子孫們在一起。 這個蒐集土壤的舉動本身 能帶來某種形式的精神慰藉。 這是一種修復式正義。
As one EJI team member noted in the collection of the soil from where Will McBride was lynched, "If Will McBride left one drop of sweat, one drop of blood, one hair follicle -- I pray that I dug it up, and that his whole body would be at peace."
就像一位EJI隊員 在蒐集Will McBride受私刑處的土壤時寫下: 「如果Will McBride曾落下一滴汗、 一滴血 或是一根頭髮 我希望我能將它挖出來, 那麼他也將能安息了吧。」
We plan to break ground on this memorial later this year, and it will be a place to finally speak of the unspeakable acts that have scarred this nation.
我們計畫在今年動土建造紀念館, 這將會是一個具敘事力的地方, 訴說著這個國家無法言喻的傷痕。
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When my father told me that day that this house -- our house -- had saved his life, what I didn't know was that he was referring to a much deeper relationship between architecture and ourselves. Buildings are not simply expressive sculptures. They make visible our personal and our collective aspirations as a society. Great architecture can give us hope. Great architecture can heal.
那天,當我爸爸告訴我,這間房子-- 我們的房子-- 曾經拯救他的生命, 而我卻不知道 他所要表達的是更深層的意義 是我們與建築物之間的關係。 建築物不僅僅是表達性的雕塑品。 它使我們個人或群體的志向 浮現於社會。 偉大的建築能給人們希望。 偉大的建築能治癒人們。
Thank you very much.
謝謝。
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