On this planet today, there are about 50 cities that are larger than five million people. I'm going to share with you the story of one such city, a city of seven million people, but a city that's a temporary megacity, an ephemeral megacity. This is a city that is built for a Hindu religious festival called Kumbh Mela, which occurs every 12 years, in smaller editions every four years, and takes place at the confluence of the Ganges and the Yamuna rivers in India. And for this festival, about 100 million people congregate.
在現今的地球上, 大約有五十個超過五百萬人口的城市。 我接下來要向大家分享的, 是這其中的一個城市的故事, 這個城市有七百萬人, 但這個城市是一個臨時性的、 短期的超級城市。 它是為了舉行印度宗教節慶「大壺節」 所建造的城市, 大壺節每十二年舉辦一次, 每四年也有比較小規模的版本, 地點在印度恆河 與亞穆納河的匯流處。 大約有一億人 會為了這個節慶聚集。
The reason so many people congregate here, is the Hindus believe that during the festival, the cycle every 12 years, if you bathe at the confluence of these two great rivers you are freed from rebirth. It's a really compelling idea, you are liberated from life as we know it. And this is what attracts these millions. And an entire megacity is built to house them. Seven million people live there for the 55 days, and the other 100 million visit.
之所以有這麼多人聚集在此, 是因為印度人相信, 在這個節慶中, 在這十二年的循環中, 如果你在兩條大河的交匯處浸洗, 你就可以免於重生。 這是個非常動人的想法, 可以讓你從已知的生命中解放。 數百萬人就是被這一點吸引。 整個百萬人口大城市就是 為了容納他們而建造。 七百萬人,在那裡住五十五天, 另外還有一億人造訪。
These are images from the same spot that we took over the 10 weeks that it takes for the city to emerge. After the monsoon, as the waters of these rivers begin to recede and the sand banks expose themselves, it becomes the terrain for the city. And by the 15th of January, starting 15th of October to 15th of January, in these weeks an entire city emerges. A city that houses seven million people.
這些是同一個地點的影像 在十週的過程中拍攝的, 十週是造出這個城市 所需要的時間。 雨季之後, 這些河流的水位開始下降, 沙岸開始暴露出來, 就變成了這個城市的地面。 到了一月十五日, 從十月十五日到一月十五日, 整個城市在這段時間被打造出來。 這個城市能容納七百萬人。
What is fascinating is this city actually has all the characteristics of a real megacity: a grid is employed to lay the city out. The urban system is a grid and every street on this city goes across the river on a pontoon bridge. Incredibly resilient, because if there's an unseasonal downpour or if the river changes course, the urban system stays intact, the city adjusts itself to this terrain which can be volatile. It also replicates all forms of physical, as well as social, infrastructure. Water supply, sewage, electricity, there are 1,400 CCTV cameras that are used for security by an entire station that is set up. But also social infrastructure, like clinics, hospitals, all sorts of community services, that make this function like any real megacity would do. 10,500 sweepers are employed by the city. It has a governance system, a Mela Adhikari, or the commissioner of the festival, that ensures that land is allocated, there are systems for all of this, that the system of the city, the mobility, all works efficiently. You know, it was the cleanest and the most efficient Indian city I've lived in.
這個城市很炫的一點是 它真的擁有真正百萬人口 大城市的所有特性: 城市是用格狀的方式來安排。 都市系統是格狀的, 城市中的每一條街道 都會用浮橋的方式跨過河流。 非常的堅韌, 就算發生非季節性的 豪雨或者河流改道, 都市系統仍然可以保持完好無損, 這個城市會根據 多變的地形來自我調整。 它也複製了各種形式的 實體及社會基礎建設。 水供應、下水道、電力, 有一千四百台監視器確保安全, 全都靠一個建置的發電站。 還有社會基礎建設, 比如診所、醫院、 各種社區服務, 讓這個城市能像真正的 百萬人口大城市一樣運作。 城市僱用了一萬零五百名清潔工。 它有政府系統, 有一位 Mela Adhikari, 也就是節慶的長官, 他會確保土地有分配好, 該有的系統都有, 城市的系統、流動性, 都能高效運轉。 要知道,它是我所住過 最乾淨、最有效率的印度城市。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And that's what it looks like in comparison to Manhattan, 30 square kilometers, that's the scale of the city.
這是這個城市的樣子, 和曼哈頓做對照, 三十平方公里, 那是這個城市的規模。
And this is not an informal city or a pop-up city. This is a formal city, this is a state enterprise, the government sets this up. In today's world of neoliberalism and capitalism, where the state has devolved itself complete responsibility from making and designing cities, this is an incredible case. It's a deliberate, intentional city, a formal city.
它不是非正式的城市 或突然出現的城市。 它是正式的城市, 是一個國營企業, 是政府成立的。 在現今新自由主義 和資本主義的世界中, 當國家都把建造、 設計城市的責任轉移出去, 這個案例就顯得很了不起。 一個刻意打造的正式城市。
And it's a city that sits on the ground very lightly. It sits on the banks of these rivers. And it leaves very little mark. There are no foundations; fabric is used to build this entire city. What's also quite incredible is that there are five materials that are used to build this settlement for seven million people: eight-foot tall bamboo, string or rope, nails or screw and a skinning material. Could be corrugated metal, a fabric or plastic. And these materials come together and aggregate. It's like a kit of parts. And it's used all the way from a small tent, which might house five or six people, or a family, to temples that can house 500, sometimes 1,000 people. And this kit of parts, and this imagination of the city, allows it to be disassembled. And so at the end of the festival, within a week, the entire city is disassembled. These are again images from the same spot. And the terrain is offered back to the river, as with the monsoon the water swells again. And it's this sort of imagination as a kit of parts that allows this disassembly and the reabsorption of all this material. So the electricity poles go to little villages in the hinterland, the pontoon bridges are used in small towns, the material is all reabsorbed. Fascinating, it's amazing.
這個城市輕輕地座落在地表上。 它座落在這些河流的河岸上。 它留下極少的痕跡。 它沒有地基; 整個城市都是用織物來建造的。 還有一點也很了不起, 打造這個可以容納七百萬人的城市, 使用了五種材料: 八英呎高的竹子、繩子或繩索、 釘子或螺絲,及外皮材料。 可能是波浪板金屬、 織物、或是塑膠。 這些材料結合在一起。 就像是成套的組件。 它被用在各種地方, 從可以容納五、六人 或一個家庭的小帳篷, 到能容納五百甚至一千人的寺廟。 這個城市套件或城市的設計概念, 可以被拆解。 所以,在節慶結束時,在一週內, 整個城市就被拆除了。 這些也是同一個地點的影像。 當雨季來臨,水位再次上漲時, 整個地區就會再次被河流淹沒。 這種把城市幻變成成套組件的想像力, 讓它能被這樣拆解, 材料能被回收再利用。 電線桿被送到內陸的小村落, 浮橋被用在小鎮上, 所有材料得到回收再利用。 很棒,很了不起。
Now, you may embrace these Hindu beliefs or not. But you know, this is a stunning example, and it's worthy of reflection. Here, human beings spend an enormous amount of energy and imagination knowing that the city is going to reverse, it's going to be disassembled, it's going to disappear, it's the ephemeral megacity. And it has profound lessons to teach us. Lessons about how to touch the ground lightly, about reversibility, about disassembly. Rather amazing.
對這些印度信念, 你們可以相信或不信。 但,要知道,這是很出色的例子, 值得反思。 在這裡,人們投入 大量的精力和想像力, 知道這個城市 會被移轉它處再利用, 會被拆解、 消失, 它是短期的百萬人口大城市。 它給我們上了一堂寶貴的課。 教我們如何溫柔地對待地表、 如何回收再利用、 如何拆解。 相當驚人。
And you know, we are, as humans, obsessed with permanence. We resist change. It's an impulse that we all have. And we resist change in spite of the fact that change is perhaps the only constant in our lives. Everything has an expiry date, including Spaceship Earth, our planet.
要知道,我們人類迷戀永恆。 我們抗拒改變。 這是我們共有的天性。 我們抗拒改變, 儘管我們生命中 唯一不變的事實就是改變。 萬物都有過期的一天, 包括我們的星球,地球。
So what can we learn from these sorts of settlements? Burning Man, of course much smaller, but reversible. Or the thousands of markets for transaction, that appear around the globe in Asia, Latin America, Africa, this one in Mexico, where the parking lots are animated on the weekends, about 50,000 vendors, but on a temporal cycle. The farmer's market in the Americas: it's an amazing phenomenon, creates new chemistries, extends the margin of space that is unused or not used optimally, like parking lots, for example.
所以,我們從建造過程中學到什麼? 就如火人節,當然,它小很多, 但它是可逆的。 或是出現在全球各地的 數千個交易市場, 在亞洲、拉丁美洲、 非洲,這個則在墨西哥, 一到周末,停車場熱鬧滾滾, 容納了五萬個攤位, 也是週期性的臨時攤位。 美洲的農貿市場: 它是個很驚人的現象, 催化出新的化學作用, 把未利用或未充分利用的空間 再做延伸利用, 如停車場。
In my own city of Mumbai, where I practice as an architect and a planner, I see this in the everyday landscape. I call this the Kinetic City. It twitches like a live organism; it's not static. It changes every day, on sometimes predictable cycles. About six million people live in these kinds of temporary settlements. Like -- unfortunately, like refugee camps, the slums of Mumbai, the favelas of Latin America. Here, the temporary is becoming the new permanent. Here, urbanism is not about grand vision, it's about grand adjustment.
我是建築師和規劃師, 在孟買執業, 我每天都能看到這樣的景色, 我稱它為動態城市。 它像活組織一樣會抽動, 它不是靜止的。 它每天都會改變, 有時改變的循環是可預測的。 大約有六百萬人 住在這種臨時性居所。 就像——不幸的是,就像難民營, 孟買的貧民窟, 拉丁美洲的貧民區。 在這裡,臨時性變成了新的永恆。 在這裡城市化的重點不是宏大的遠景, 而是宏大的調整。
On the street in Mumbai, during the Ganesh festival, a transformation. A community hall is created for 10 days. Bollywood films are shown, thousands congregate for dinners and celebration. It's made out of paper-mache and plaster of Paris. Designed to be disassembled, and in 10 days, overnight, it disappears, and the street goes back to anonymity. Or our wonderful open spaces, we call them maidans. And it's used for this incredibly nuanced and complicated, fascinating Indian game, called cricket, which, I believe, the British invented.
象頭神節期間,在孟買的街道上, 會出現一種轉變。 一個為期 10 天的社區大堂 會被建造起來, 播放寶萊塢電影, 成千上萬的人聚在一起吃飯、慶祝。 這棟建築是用紙漿和熟石膏做成的。 設計成可拆解的, 十天後,過了一晚,它就消失了, 街道回歸平淡。 或者變成我們美好的開放空間, 我們稱為廣場。 它被用來舉行這種很微妙且複雜的 迷人印度遊戲,叫做板球, 我相信是英國人發明的。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And in the evenings, a wedding wraps around the cricket pitch -- Notice, the cricket pitch is not touched, it's sacred ground.
晚上, 婚禮圍繞在板球場周邊展開—— 請注意,板球場不能被被碰到, 那可是神聖之地。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
But here, the club members and the wedding party partake in tea through a common kitchen. And at midnight, it's disassembled, and the space offered back to the city. Here, urbanism is an elastic condition.
但,在這裡,俱樂部 會員和婚禮派對 在一個共用的廚房裡一起喝茶。 午夜,它就被拆解了, 空間交還給城市。 在這裡,城市化是一種彈性的狀態。
And so, if we reflect about these questions, I mean, I think many come to mind. But an important one is, are we really, in our cities, in our imagination about urbanism, making permanent solutions for temporary problems? Are we locking resources into paradigms that we don't even know will be relevant in a decade? This becomes, I think, an interesting question that arises from this research.
所以,如果我們反思這些問題, 可能腦海里會浮現好幾個。 其中很重要的一個問題就是, 在我們的城市中, 在我們對城市化的想像中, 我們真的有為臨時性的問題找出 永恆的解決方案嗎? 我們要把資源鎖定在 不知十年後相關與否的模式裡嗎? 這是在這項研究, 我提出的一個有趣問題。
I mean, look at the abandoned shopping malls in North America, suburban North America. Retail experts have predicted that in the next decade, of the 2,000 malls that exist today, 50 percent will be abandoned. Massive amount of material, capturing resources, that will not be relevant soon.
我的意思是,看看北美 那些被廢棄的購物中心, 北美郊區。 零售專家預測,在接下來十年, 現今存在的兩千家購物中心, 有五成會被廢棄。 這裡面龐大的材料、佔用的資源, 很快就沒用了。
Or the Olympic stadiums. Around the globe, cities build these under great contestation with massive resources, but after the games go, they can't often get absorbed into the city. Couldn't these be nomadic structures, deflatable, we have the technology for that, that get gifted to smaller towns around the world or in those countries, or are stored and moved for the next Olympics? A massive, inefficient use of resources.
或者奧林匹克運動場。 世界各大城市 動用龐大資源競相建造。 但賽事結束後, 它們往往不能融入到城市中。 難道不能把它們做成 可移動的、可收縮的建築, 我們有這種技術, 然後把它送給世界各國的小鄉鎮, 或者儲存起來等下次奧運再用? 而不是大量無效率地消耗資源。
Like the circus. I mean, we could imagine it like the circus, this wonderful institution that used to camp in cities, set up this lovely kind of visual dialogue with the static city. And within it, the amazement. Children of different ethnic groups become suddenly aware of each other, people of color become aware of others, income groups and cultures and ethnicities all come together around the amazement of the ring with animals and performers. New chemistries are created, people become aware of things, and this moves on to the next town. Or nature, the fluxes of nature, climate change, how do we deal with this, can we be more accommodating? Can we create softer urban systems? Or are we going to challenge nature continuously with heavy infrastructure, which we are already doing, unsuccessfully?
就像馬戲團——我們可以把它 想像成跟馬戲團一樣, 這個過去駐紮在城市裡的美好設施。 讓靜態城市有了美麗的視覺對話。 裡面充滿了驚奇。 不同民族的孩子們 突然發現對方的存在, 不同膚色的人們 開始意識到其他人的存在, 不同收入、文化、民族的人 圍繞在這個不可思議的場地 看動物和表演。 產生新的化學反應,讓人們彼此認識, 而這一切將傳遞到下一個城鎮。 而大自然、大自然的變動、氣候變遷, 我們要如何處理它? 我們能變得更適應新環境嗎? 我們能創造出更溫和的 都市系統嗎? 還是要繼續用沉重的基礎建設, 那些已做、確定不成功的模式, 繼續挑戰大自然?
Now, I'm not arguing that we've got to make our cities like a circus, I'm not arguing that cities must be completely temporary. I'm only making a plea that we need to make a shift in our imagination about cities, where we need to reserve more space for uses on a temporal scale. Where we need to use our resources efficiently, to extend the expiry date of our planet. We need to change planning urban design cultures, to think of the temporal, the reversible, the disassembleable. And that can be tremendous in terms of the effect it might have on our lives.
我不是主張一定要把 我們的城市變得像馬戲團一樣, 也並不是主張城市 必須要完全臨時性的。 我只是在提出一個請求, 我們需要轉變 我們對於城市的想像, 我們需要保留更多空間 供臨時用途用。 我們需要更有效率地 使用我們的資源, 來延長我們星球的壽命。 我們需要改變規劃都市設計文化, 考量臨時性、可逆性、 可拆解性。 這對我們生活的影響 可能會是非常巨大的。
I often think back to the Kumbh Mela that I visited with my students and I studied, and this was a moment where the city had been disassembled. A week after the festival was over. There was no mark. The terrain was waiting to be covered over by the water, to be consumed. And I went to thank a high priestess who had helped us and my students through our research and facilitated us through this process. And I went to her with great enthusiasm, and I told her about how much we had learned about infrastructure, the city, the efficiency of the city, the architecture, the five materials that made the city. She looked really amused, she was smiling. In any case, she leaned forward and put her hand on my head to bless me. And she whispered in my ear, she said, "Feel blessed that the Mother Ganges allowed you all to sit in her lap for a few days."
我通常會回想我和我的學生 一起去參訪、研究的大壺節, 這是該城市被拆解的一刻。 節慶節束後的一週。 沒有留下痕跡。 這塊地等著再次被水覆蓋、 被吞噬。 我想要感謝一位大祭司, 在我們的研究期間 協助我和我的學生, 在這個過程中幫助我們。 我帶著很大的熱情去找她, 我告訴她,我們學到了多少 關於基礎建設、城市本身、 城市的效率、 建築、建造城市的 五種材料的相關知識。 她看起來像是被逗樂了,微笑著。 一如往常,她身體前傾, 把她的手放在我的手上,祝福我。 她對我耳語,說: 「感受到被祝福, 因為我們的母親恆河 允許你們所有人 坐在她的膝上幾天。」
I've often thought about this, and of course, I understood what she said. She said, cities, people, architecture will come and go, but the planet is here to stay. Touch it lightly, leave a minimal mark. And I think that's an important lesson for us as citizens and architects. And I think it was this experience that made me believe that impermanence is bigger than permanence and bigger than us all.
我常常會想這句話, 當然,我了解她的意思。 她說,城市、人、建築,來來去去, 但地球會一直在這裡。 輕柔地對待地球, 盡可能留下最少的痕跡。 我認為對我們市民及建築師而言, 那都是重要的一課。 我認為,這段經歷讓我相信 無常比永恆更大, 也比我們所有人更大。 謝謝聆聽。
Thank you for listening.
(Applause)
(掌聲)