最后一课:发现整体,认识城市

Last Lecture:The Discovery of the Whole,Understanding the City

空间是人类赖以生存和发展的基本要素,吸引了不同学科的学者探索它、认识它、理解它,甚至设计和规划它。德国柏林自由大学教授格哈德·O.布劳恩受训于数学、心理学和地理学,穷尽一生进行空间研究和探索。在退休前最后一次讲课,他总结了对空间认知的理解:①发现整体(认识世界)的三条公理:你能做到吗;“整体”和“发现整体”;地理学是精妙的科学。②认识城市的必要性和复杂性整体是怎样形成的?没有人类的世界将会怎么样?人类活动主导的城市世界又会怎么样?应当采用复杂性科学认识城市。③空间属于思考的人。格哈德·O.布劳恩教授最后认为,空间是留给或者属于有思想、有思考的人。也就是说,没有思想、没有思考的人,他们不会理解真正的“空间”。这篇“最后一课”,不仅对地理学家,对地球科学家(包括地质学家、海洋科学家、环境学家、气象气候学家等)、建筑学家与规划师、设计师(含平面设计)乃至土木学家的当代空间研究、空间规划和空间设计均有所裨益,遂于本刊刊出供学习和讨论。

Space is a basic element that human depends on for survival and development,attracting scholars from different disciplines to explore it,try to understand it,and even design and plan it.Gerhard O.Braun of Free University of Berlin,Germany,was trained in mathematics,psychology and geography,and devoted his whole life to research and exploration.His“Last Lecture”before retirement introduced his understanding of spatial cognition,that is:(1)three axioms of the discovery of the whole(understanding the world):“may you do that?”“what is wholeness?”“the subtleties of geographical methods”;(2)the necessity and complexity of understanding the city:“recognizing emergence”“how is the whole formed”,“the world without us”,“the world with us”,and“understanding of the city”;(3)space belongs to those who think.Gerhard O.Braun ultimately believes that space is reserved for or belongs to people who think.That is to say,people who have no thoughts or who do not think do not have real“space”.This“Last Lecture”is not only beneficial to geography and geographers,but also to geoscientists(including geologists,marine scientists,environmentalists and even meteorologists and climatologists),architects and planners,designers(including graphic design)and even civil engineers on contemporary space research,space planning and space design.Therefore,this journal published it for studies and for further discussion.