色彩,田野工作,设计人类学--《绿的悖论:一个城市国家的景观》评论

Color, Fieldwork, and Design Anthropology--A Review of Paradoxes of Green: Landscapes of a City-State

如何以色彩为媒介理解城市景观空间?如何以民族志与田野工作的方法进行设计研究?为何设计人类学被看作是连接文字描述与行动的新学术领域?从环境保护的视角来看,某些城市环境中的“绿”是不可持续的--《绿的悖论:一个城市国家的景观》一书针对波斯湾地区的干旱城市国家巴林提出了这一悖论。在为期一年的步行田野工作中,该书作者加雷斯·多尔蒂分层解读了巴林城市景观中的绿色及其他色调,同时通过对周围环境细致入微的观察和深入访谈对这片干旱地区的历史文脉和城市绿化的当代价值进行了“深描”。作者将白色和米色视为巴林的环境色,并认为正是这两种色彩构成并维持着城市中的绿色空间。这部跨学科的著作定位于景观、城市研究和人类学的交叉领域,期冀为学术界和更广泛的受众提供一种理解景观中的城市生活,以及“绿色”如何在其中发挥作用的范式。

What is the agency of color in comprehending urban landscape space? How could we use ethnography and fieldwork as a method of design research? Why is Design Anthropology considered an emerging field bridging description and action? The color of green in urban environments is sometimes not that green environmentally. This review targets the book Paradoxes of Green: Landscapes of a City-State in which this paradox can be well observed in an arid city-state--Bahrain of the Gulf region. Based on a year-long fieldwork informed by walking, the author Gareth Doherty read the layers of green and different hues in Bahrain’s urban landscape. With nuanced observations and encounters, Doherty interpreted a thick description of this arid geography, its cultural history and the present values of greening the city. The book considers white and beige the environmental colors to facilitate the possibilities of green in Bahrain. Situated in Landscape Architecture, Urban Studies, and Anthropology, this multidisciplinary piece of work would inform both academics and broader audience on understanding the urbanism of landscape around us and how “green” plays the role in it.