灵活都市化的推动力

Forces behind Flexible Urbanism

许多西方建筑师和规划师如今在中国工作。但他们中的大多数并非有备而来,对于中国当下的社会、政治、文化环境仍缺乏足够了解。文章试图探讨中国当今城市化的若干方面,通过历史的视角来审视当下的发展。对于国内外的专家而言,常常出现一种矛盾的境况:一方面,双方的建筑师和规划师都相信图纸能够自我表达,多余的解释是不必要的;而只有少数人认为这样存在(由业主和使用者)引起误解的可能,需要构建一个观念体系以克服文化、社会及语言障碍,从而寻求独特的解决途径。这种误解不仅与建筑理念相关,而且与建筑使用者的行为相关,而正是使用者促使项目真正获得成功。一些西方专业人士在经历首次失败后便不愿继续在中国工作,另一些人则坚持下来并在现有体制下——通常总是被误解——的单调工作中辛苦奔忙。很少有人能准确地诠释当下的实际境况,提出有力而清晰的理念,并足够灵活变通以适应发展中不可预见的变化。如果要做到这一点,就有必要去了解中国社会,聆听业主、合作者及使用者的声音,同时也要想办法影响其他参与者——虽然总是存在误解的可能。作者认为有必要抛开惯常的解决方式,寻找新的观念,这些观念最终将影响我们看待西方世界城市化的眼光。

Many western architects and urban planners work in China today.They still come mostly with little preparation and have a limited understanding of the current social,political and cultural situation of the Chinese society.This text tries to explore some aspects of today＇s urbanism in China and interprets the current development in the light of history.For foreign experts and also for Chinese counterparts the situation is often contradictory： on one hand architects and planners of both sides believe that their drawings speak by themselves and that further explanations are not necessary. Only a few consider the possibility of creative misunderstanding（by client and user） and develop conceptual frameworks to overcome the cultural, social and linguistic barrier in order to find a unique solution.It is not only about the architectural ideas but also about the behavior of users that makes projects really successful.Some of the Western experts refuse to work in Chinese conditions after their first failures. others stay on and run,with hanging tongue,caught in the treadmill within the given-but all to often misunderstood-framework.Few are clever enough to interpret the circumstances as they are and develop strong but clear ideas,flexible enough to integrate the unforeseeable changes in the time of development.To achieve such a position it is necessary to understand the Chinese society,listen to clients,collaborators and final users,but also find ways to educate those included in the process-always with the possibility to fail in mind.From my point of view it is necessary to drop out of standard solutions and search for new ideas that eventually can also influence the way we look at urbanism in the western world.