The school of architecture that I studied at some 30 years ago happened to be across the street from the wonderful art gallery designed by the great architect Louis Kahn. I love the building, and I used to visit it quite often. One day, I saw the security guard run his hand across the concrete wall. And it was the way he did it, the expression on his face -- something touched me. I could see that the security guard was moved by the building and that architecture has that capacity to move you. I could see it, and I remember thinking, "Wow. How does architecture do that?"
Desilo se da je škola arhitekture gde sam studirao pre nekih 30 godina baš preko puta predivne galerije umetnosti koju je dizajnirao slavni arhitekta Luis Kan. Volim tu zgradu i često sam je posećivao. Jednog dana, video sam čuvara kako prelazi rukom preko betonskog zida. Način na koji je on to uradio, izraz na njegovom licu - nešto u tome me je dirnulo. Video sam da je čuvar bio ganut zgradom i da arhiitektura ima sposobnost da vas pogodi. Mogao sam to da vidim, i sećam se da sam pomislio, "Vau. Kako arhitektura to radi?"
At school, I was learning to design, but here -- here was a reaction of the heart. And it touched me to the core.
U školi sam učio da dizajniram, ali ovde - ovde je bila reakcija iz srca. Ganula me je do srži.
You know, you aspire for beauty, for sensuousness, for atmosphere, the emotional response. That's the realm of the ineffable and the immeasurable. And that's what you live for: a chance to try.
Znate, težite lepoti, čulnosti, atmosferi, emotivnom odgovoru. To je carstvo neopisivog i neizmernog. Za to živite: za priliku da probate.
So in 2003, there was an open call for designs for the Bahá'í Temple for South America. This was the first temple in all of South America. It's a continental temple, a hugely important milestone for the Bahá'í community, because this would be the last of the continental temples and would open the door for national and local temples to be built around the world.
Tako je 2003. godine raspisan konkurs za dizajn Bahajskog hrama u Južnoj Americi. Bio je to prvi hram u Južnoj Americi. To je kontinentalni hram, strašno važna prekretnica za Bahai zajednicu, jer bi ovo bio poslednji kontinentalni hram koji bi otvorio vrata za izgradnju nacionalnih i lokalnih hramova širom sveta.
And the brief was deceptively simple and unique in the annals of religion: a circular room, nine sides, nine entrances, nine paths, allowing you to come to the temple from all directions, nine symbolizing completeness, perfection. No pulpit, no sermons, as there are no clergy in the Bahá'í faith. And in a world which is putting up walls, the design needed to express in form the very opposite. It had to be open, welcoming to people of all faiths, walks of life, backgrounds, or no faith at all; a new form of sacred space with no pattern or models to draw from. It was like designing one of the first churches for Christianity or one of the first mosques for Islam.
Pismo je bilo varljivo prosto i jedinstveno u analima religije: kružna soba, devet strana, devet ulaza, devet puteva koji vam dozvoljavaju da priđete hramu iz svih smerova, devet simboliše upotpunjenost, savršenstvo. Bez govornice, bez propoveda, jer u Bahai veri ne postoji sveštenstvo. U svetu koji podiže zidove, dizajn je formom trebalo da izrazi upravo suprotno. Morao je biti otvoren, primamljiv ljudima svih vera, životnih stilova, pozadina, ili ljudima bez vere; nov oblik svetog prostora bez obrasca ili modela po kojima bi radili. Bilo je kao dizajniranje jedne od prvih crkava za Hrišćanstvo ili prvih džamija za Islam.
So we live in a secular world. How do you design sacred space today? And how do you even define what's sacred today?
Živimo u sekularnom svetu. Kako danas dizajnirati sveto mesto? Kako uopšte definisati šta je danas sveto?
I stumbled across this beautiful quote from the Bahá'í writings, and it speaks to prayer. It says that if you reach out in prayer, and if your prayer is answered -- which is already very interesting -- that the pillars of your heart will become ashine.
Naišao sam na ovaj lep citat iz Bahai zapisa koja govori o molitvi. Kaže da ako se pomolite za nešto, i molitva vam bude uslišena - što je već vrlo interesantno - da će stubovi vašeg srca zasvetleti.
And I loved this idea of the inner and the outer, like when you see someone and you say, "That person is radiant." And I was thinking, "My gosh, how could we make something architectural out of that, where you create a building and it becomes alive with light? Like alabaster, if you kiss it with light, it becomes alive. And I drew this sketch, something with two layers, translucent with structure in between capturing light. Maybe a pure form, a single form of emanation that you could imagine would be all dome and everything we kept making was looking too much like an egg.
Svidela mi se ova ideja unutrašnjeg i spoljašnjeg kao kada vidite nekoga i kažete "Ova osoba zrači." I mislio sam, "Bože, kako bi mogli da napravimo nešto arhitektonsko od toga, da stvorimo zgradu koja će oživeti svetlošću? Kao alabaster, ako ga poljubite svetlošću, on oživi. Nacrtao sam ovu skicu, nešto dvoslojno, prozirno sa unutrašnjom strukturom koja hvata svetlost. Možda čista forma, jedinstvena forma emanacije, koju bi mogli zamisliti kao kupolu i sve što smo pravili previše je podsećalo na jaje.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
A blob.
Mrlja.
So you search. You all know this crazy search, letting the process take you, and you live for the surprises. And I remember quite by accident I saw this little video of a plant moving in light, and it made me think of movement, reach, this idea that the temple could have reach, like this reach for the divine. You can imagine also that movement within a circle could mean movement and stillness, like the cosmos, something you see in many places.
I tako tražite. Svi znate za tu ludu potragu, puštate proces da vas vodi i živite za iznenađenja. Sećam se da sam sasvim slučajno naišao na kratak video biljke koja se kreće u svetlosti, i pomislio sam na pokret, domašaj, na ideju da bi hram mogao imati doseg, kao da poseže za božanskim. Možete takođe zamisliti da pokret unutar kruga može značiti pokret i mirovanje, kao svemir, nešto što vidite na puno mesta.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
But rotation was not enough, because we needed a form. In the Bahá'í writings, it talks about the temples being as perfect as is humanly possible, and we kept thinking, well, what is perfection? And I remember I stumbled into this image of this Japanese basket and thinking our Western notions of perfection need to be challenged, that this wonderful silhouette of this basket, this wonkiness, and that it has the kind of dimple of what you might imagine a shoulder or the cheekbone, and that kind of organic form. And so we drew and made models, these lines that merge at the top, soft lines, which became like drapery and translucent veils and folding, and the idea of not only folding but torquing -- you remember the plant and the way it was reaching. And this started to become an interesting form, carving the base, making the entrances.
Ali rotacija nije bila dovoljna, jer nam je bio potreban oblik. U Bahai spisima, govori se o hramovima savršenim koliko je to ljudski moguće, i dalje smo mislili, pa, šta je savršenstvo? Sećam se da sam naišao na sliku japanske korpe i pomislio da treba izazvati naše zapadnjačke predstave o savršenom, da je prelepa silueta ove korpe, ta klimavost, i da ima tu vrstu jamice na onome što bi moglo biti rame ili jagodična kost, i tu vrstu organske forme. Tako smo crtali i pravili modele, linije koje se spajaju na vrhu, meke linije, koje su postale kao draperija, prozirni velovi i preklopi, ideja ne samo preklopa već i obrtanja - sećate se biljke i načina na koji se pružala. Počeo je da nastaje jedan zanimljiv oblik, izrezivanje osnove, pravljenje ulaza.
And then we ended up with this. This is this temple with two layers, nine luminous veils, embodied light, soft-flowing lines like luminescent drapery. 180 submissions were received from 80 countries, and this was selected.
Na kraju smo dobili ovo. Ovo je hram sa dva sloja, devet svetlih velova, otelotvoreno svetlo, linije koje nežno teku kao svetlosna zavesa. 180 prijava je primljeno iz 80 država, i ovo je izabrano.
So we went to the next stage of how to build it. We had submitted alabaster. But alabaster was too soft, and we were experimenting, many experiments with materials, trying to think how we could have this kind of shimmer, and we ended up with borosilicate. And borosilicate glass, as you know, is very strong, and if you break borosilicate rods just so and melt them at just the right temperature, we ended up with this new material, this new cast glass which took us about two years to make. And it had this quality that we loved, this idea of the embodied light, but on the inside, we wanted something with a soft light, like the inner lining of a jacket. On the outside you have protection, but on the inside you touch it. So we found this tiny vein in a huge quarry in Portugal with this beautiful stone, which the owner had kept for seven generations in his family, waiting for the right project, if you can believe it. Look at this material, it's beautiful. And the way it lights up; it has that translucent quality.
Prešli smo na sledeći korak - izgradnju. Izložili smo alabaster. Ali alabaster je premek, pa smo dosta eksperimentisali sa materijalima pokušavajući da nađemo tu vrstu svetlucanja, i pronašli smo borosilikat. Borosilikatno staklo, kao što znate, veoma je jako, i ako prelomite borosilikatne šipke ovako i otopite ih na tačno određenoj temperaturi, dobili smo taj novi materijal, to novo izliveno staklo koje smo pravili oko dve godine. Imalo je tu osobinu koju smo voleli, ideju o otelotvorenoj svetlosti, ali iznutra smo želeli nešto sa mekim svetlom, kao postava sakoa. Spolja imate zaštitu, ali iznutra ga dodirujete. Tako smo našli malenu žilu u ogromnom kamenolomu u Portugalu sa tim prelepim kamenom, koju je vlasnik čuvao u porodici sedam generacija, čeakjući pravi projekat, verovali ili ne. Pogledajte taj materijal, prelep je. I način na koji se osvetljuje; ima tu prozračnost.
So here you see the structure. It lets the light through. And looking down, the nine wings are bound, structurally but symbolically strong, a great symbol of unity: pure geometry, a perfect circle, 30 meters in section and in plan, perfectly symmetrical, like the idea of sacredness and geometry. And here you see the building going up, 2,000 steel nodes, 9,000 pieces of steel, 7,800 stone pieces, 10,000 cast glass pieces, all individual shapes, the entire superstructure all described, engineered, fabricated with aerospace technology, prefabricated machine to machine, robotically, a huge team effort, you can imagine, of literally hundreds, and within three percent of our $30 million budget set in 2006.
Ovde vidite strukturu. Propušta svetlo. Na dole, devet krila su vezana, strukturalno ali simbolično jaka, sjajan simbol jedinstva: čista geometrija, savršen krug, 30 metara u preseku i u planu, savršena simetrija, kao ideja svetosti i geometrije. Ovde vidite zgradu kako raste, 2000 čeličnih čvorova, 9000 komada čelika, 7800 kamenih delova, 10000 komada livenog stakla, svako jedinstvenog oblika, cela superstruktura opisana, projektovana, proizvedena vazduhoplovnom tehnologijom, prethodno proizvedena mašinski, robotski, ogroman timski rad, možete zamisliti, bukvalno stotina ljudi, i u okviru tri posto od našeg budžeta od 30 miliona dolara, određenog 2006. godine.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
Nine wings bound together forming a nine-pointed star, and the star shape moving in space, tracking the sun.
Devet krila međusobno vezanih da formiraju devetokraku zvezdu, i zvezdani oblik koji se pomera u prostoru, prateći sunce.
So here it is.
Dakle, evo ga.
Audience: Wow!
Publika: Vau!
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
Hopefully, a befitting response to that beautiful quote, "a prayer answered," open in all directions, capturing the blue light of dawn, tent-like white light of day, the gold light of the afternoon, and of course, at night, the reversal: sensuous, catching the light in all kinds of mysterious ways.
Nadajmo se, prikladan odgovor na onaj divni citat, "uslišena molitva," otvoren u svim smerovima, hvatajući plavu svetlost zore, belo dnevno svetlo nalik šatoru, zlatnu svetlost popodneva, i naravno, noću, suprotnost: čulno, hvatajući svetlo na razne tajanstvene načine.
And the site: it's interesting; 14 years ago when we made the submission, we showed the temple set against the Andes. We didn't have the Andes as our site, but after nine years, that's exactly where we ended up, the lines of the temple set against nothing but pure nature, and you turn around and you get nothing but the city below you, and inside, a view in all directions, radiating gardens from each of the alcoves, radiating paths.
I mesto je interesantno; pre 14 godina kada smo predali projekat, prikazali smo hram sa pozadinom Anda. Nismo imali Ande na mestu izgradnje, ali nakon devet godina to je upravo mesto na kome smo završili, linije hrama u prvom planu čiste prirode, i okrenete se i vidite samo grad ispod sebe, a iznutra, pogled u svim pravcima, vijugavi vrtovi iz svakog udubljenja, vijugavi putevi.
Last October, the opening ceremonies -- a beautiful, sacred event, 5,000 people from 80 countries, a continuous river of visitors, indigenous people from all over South America, some who had never left their villages. And of course, that this temple belongs to people, the collective, of many cultures and walks of life, many beliefs, and for me, what's most important is what it feels like on the inside; that it feel intimate, sacred, and that everyone is welcome. And if even a few who come have the same reaction as that security guard, then it truly would be their temple. And I would love that.
Prošlog oktobra, ceremonija otvaranja - prelep, sveti događaj, 5000 ljudi iz 80 zemalja, neprekidna reka posetilaca, domorodaca širom Južne Amerike, od kojih neki nikada nisu napustili svoja sela. Naravno, ovaj hram pripada ljudima, zajednici raznih kultura i životnih priča, mnogih verovanja, i za mene, ono što je najbitnije je kako se oseća iznutra; da budi osećaj intimnosti, svetosti, i da su svi dobrodošli. Ako bar neki od onih koji dođu imaju istu reakciju kao onaj čuvar, onda bi to zaista bio njihov hram. Ja bih bio oduševljen.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)