Reports 2006.07 Robin Hood Architecture
From Architect HSIEH and Atelier-3
Robin Hood Architecture - Two Taiwanese Architects at MIT
建築界的羅賓漢 – 兩位台灣建築師在MIT
Michael Osman
麥可‧歐斯曼
(李思薇中譯)
This April, the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hosted two lecturers from Taiwan: Ying-Chun Hsieh (謝英俊) and Sheng-yuan Huang (黃聲遠). Hsieh’s lecture, “Sustainable Construction in Community,” was possibly the most explicit example of how architecture can play a strong positive social and environmental role in the contemporary Asian context. Huang, titled his talk “In-Between Breaks,” where he presented a family of projects from the Yi-lan region elaborating his unique approach to political haggling and community oriented design. Both lecturers were invited by our relatively new Department Head, Yung Ho Chang (張永和) who arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts from Beijing at the beginning of this academic year. Chang’s introductions to these lectures stressed the strong social conscience of both architects—a quality that is often rare in the lecture circuit of American architecture schools which is steadily veering towards the star system.
今年四月份，麻省理工學院主辦了兩場來自台灣的講座：謝英俊與黃聲遠。謝建築師的演講「社區永續營造」可能是最清晰的範例，說明建築如何在當代的亞洲脈絡下扮演有力、正面的社會及環境角色；而黃建築師將他的講題定為「介於喘息之間」，以宜蘭地區的一個家戶設計為引線，闡述他對於政治紛爭與社區取向設計的獨特見解。這兩場演講都是由我們近期上任的建築系主任張永和先生所邀請，他於這個學年的開始抵達麻省劍橋市，張主任在這兩場演講的引言中，特別強調兩位建築師任重道遠的社會責任感 — 在美國建築學院不斷朝向明星系統的講學路線中通常罕見的一種品質。
Hsieh, who delivered his lecture in Chinese with a student translator, began by announcing that he prized the opportunity “to be in such a technical institution,” so that he might actually “discuss technicalities” to a truly receptive audience. While this might have seemed a bit daunting at first, it soon became clear that for Hsieh, designing details represented a real opportunity to consider and intervene in some of the most basic social and environmental issues presented in architecture and construction. For example, noting that many indigenous Taiwanese people lacked work, Hsieh explained that he and his collaborators have designed several light weight steel assemblies that allow unskilled laborers to construct their own housing and community centers. The simple replacement of welded connections with screws, he noted, radically reduces the cost of framing while also making the construction process open to a far greater number of people. Once the tribal community with which he had worked fully absorbed the assembly process, Hsieh went a step further by aiding the tribes’ people to set up a low cost factory in their village. The factory, built on a budget of $20,000, mass produces Hsieh’s prefabricated steel elements so that they can be sold to other communities in need of low-cost housing. Hsieh called this an “Independent Construction System,” independent in the economic sense, all the while engaging in issues such as housing, labor and sustainability in a radically inventive way.
謝建築師以中文演說，由一位學生進行翻譯，一開始便談到他很重視這個「得以在如此技術性的學院」裡演講的機會， 使他真的可以和一群確實能接受的聽眾「討論專業技術」，儘管初聽來有一點令人氣餒，但接下來的演說卻逐漸清晰，對謝建築師而言，細部設計再現出一個真實的機會，去考量與介入那些反映在建築與構造中、最基本的社會與環境議題。舉例來說，謝建築師解釋道由於許多台灣原住民缺乏工作，他和他的合作伙伴便設計了幾種輕量的鋼構配件，讓沒有專業技能的勞工也能自行組裝他們的住家與社區中心，他指出這種以螺栓取代焊接的簡易替換，大力地減縮了結構的經費，並且將構築過程開放給更多更多的人參與，一旦和他一起工作的部落社區完全掌握組裝過程之後，建築師便進一步幫助部落裡的人在他們的村子裡建設一個低成本的工廠，這個在兩萬塊美金的預算下打造出的工廠，大批生產謝英俊設計的組合式鋼構件，以便銷售至其他需要低成本造屋的社區，謝建築師將這樣的行動稱為「自立營造系統」，在經濟層面上自立，並且以相當創新的方式，持續致力於各項議題如住宅、勞工與永續性。
Another striking example of Hsieh’s far-reaching social and environmental vision was illustrated by his work for the Y.C. James Yen Rural Reconstruction Institute. Here, one issue to be addressed was sewerage—a problem that plagues undeveloped rural areas all over the globe. Hsieh pointed out that treating sewerage as we do in the US is a massive public project that requires miles of canalization and huge expenditures of energy. For communities without the resources that are available in the first world, the treatment of sewerage needs to be far less expensive and a good deal simpler. According to Hsieh, the main problem is that liquid waste requires one week of inactivity before it can be safely dumped. As a result, it is necessary to separate solid from liquid waste and maintain strict control over dumping practices. Hsieh has developed a simple regulatory machine for this purpose. Without going into too much dirty detail, he concluded that his invention, which requires very little technical or financial investment, could bring the sewerage practices of an entire community within the strictest safety guidelines and convert the solid waste into useful fertilizer. This work brings a level of ingenuity and thought to a problem that could otherwise cause immense loss to this community.
謝建築師提出的另一個特別的案例是他為「晏陽初鄉村建設學院」所施作的計畫，以說明偏遠地區的社會與環境觀點，在這裡有一個必須回應的議題就是污水處理系統 — 一個危急全球未開發鄉村地區的問題，謝建築師指出，處理污水系統（如我們在美國所做的）是一項大規模的公共計畫，需要數百哩的開挖並耗費龐大的精力，對於缺乏第一世界所擁有的資源的社區，污水處理需要以十分便宜且較為簡便的好方法來操作，根據謝建築師表示，主要的問題在於廢水尿液需要一個星期的靜置期方可安全地排出當肥料使用，糞便需要三個月，因此必須要將廢水尿液與固態廢料糞便分隔出來，並對傾倒廢水區分新舊尿液的機制維持嚴格的控管，針對這個目的建築師於是發展出一種簡單的控制機器裝置，為避免提到太多污穢的細節，他總結他的這項發明，僅需要極少的技術性與經濟投資，卻能在最嚴格的安全性指導原則下，為整個社區實踐出污水處理系統方式，並將固態廢料糞尿轉化為可用的肥料，這項計畫呈現出一種獨創性與思維的水準，為社區解決了原本可能會重創當地的問題。
Hsieh’s closing remarks, after presenting a handful of such experiments, warned the MIT audience about the dangers of consumerism which he claimed to be pervasive in American culture. The goal of his practice is to construct an architecture in which “man is the center” rather than some abstract idea of luxury. It seems that in his idealistic vision, however, Hsieh is neither limiting the novelty of his practice nor ignoring the changing needs of the user of architecture. His vision of “man” is actually quite nuanced and complex vision of the subject—intertwined in many networks of economic, social and ecological relations. In his willingness to invest himself in such fundamental issues as labor and health, Hsieh has opened up a truly encouraging architectural practice, one that many of the leaders of the discipline can no longer choose to ignore.
在提出一連串的實驗後，謝建築師的結語中提醒MIT的聽眾有關消費主義的危險，這是他認為美國文化中很普遍的問題，他的實踐目標在於營造以「人為中心」的建築，而非某些享樂的抽象概念；然而，在他的理想觀點中，他似乎既不會限制實踐的創新，也不會忽略建築物的使用者變動中的需求，他對於「人」的觀點的確非常細緻，而對於客體的複雜觀點在經濟、社會與生態等相關面向的網絡中彼此交纏，謝建築師自願投身於勞工與健康如此基礎的課題，他已經打開了極其正向的建築實踐，這是許多專門領域的領導者不再能選擇漠視的。
Being largely rural, Hsieh’s work may not speak to those of us who live and work in major metropolitan centers. However, the relationship between the city and the hinterland still affects us in very fundamental ways. This issue, it seems, lies at the center of the practice of Sheng-yuan Huang who, after graduating from the Yale School of Architecture and working for Eric Owen Moss in California, returned to Taiwan to open his practice. However, rather that setting up in Taipei, he chose to situate his firm in Yi-lan. Here, along the river and in the surrounding region, Huang has made a lasting impact on the built and natural landscape. Early in his lecture, he showed a slide of his office perched on the edge of a rice field. The office workers were gathered around a makeshift screen assembled from a sheet and a few scraps of wood. Apparently, Huang regularly projects the newest movies to emerge from Taipei in this rural landscape; we might take this to be a metaphor for the way in which he deals with this small collection of towns and their public infrastructure.
謝英俊的作品大多位在鄉村，看來並不是和我們這些居住、工作在大都會中心的人對話，然而，都市與內地之間的關係仍然在許多很基本的層面上影響著我們，這個似乎是黃聲遠的實踐當中很核心的議題，他在耶魯建築學院畢業之後，於加州隨著艾瑞克‧歐文‧摩斯（Eric Owen Moss）工作，再回到台灣展開個人的實踐，但他並不是在台北成立事務所，而是選擇將他的事務所設立在宜蘭，在該地，沿著河流與周圍環境，黃建築師對當地的建築與自然景觀產生持續性地影響與作用，在他一開始的演說當中，他秀出一張他的事務所的投影片，座落在稻田邊，事務所的員工圍繞在一座臨時的投影螢幕前，以一大面布幕及幾塊零碎的木頭組裝而成，顯然地，黃建築師經常在這個鄉村地景中播映來自台北最新的電影，至於他如何處理在這些鄉鎮中小的系列作品以及大的公共建設，我們或許可將看電影這件事視為建築師的設計方法的一種隱喻。
In his lecture, Huang showed an early project which he called a “Social Welfare Center” designed to house abused, handicapped and elderly people. By inserting public elements such as fountains and bridges linking this structure to the river, Huang designed an open and seemingly lively environment for the inhabitants. Indeed, it seems that he has continued his exploration of connecting the center to the periphery throughout his more recent projects. One example is a warehouse district conversion in which Huang showed a deep concern for urban linkages and small scale planning. The old warehouses are now heavily planted and broken open for various programmatic uses. The new relationship of the old industrial stock to the street and to the train station make for a long urban corridor leading through a once dilapidated part of town, a seemingly useful improvement completed with a good amount of attention to the historical value of this old building stock.
在他的演講當中，黃建築師展示出一個早期的案例，他解釋是為家庭暴力、殘障及老年等族群所設計的「社會福利中心」，藉由植入例如噴泉、連結建築體與河岸的天橋等公共元素，黃建築師為居住者設計了一處開放且似乎充滿活力的環境；遍佈在他較為近期的幾個計畫案中，他的確持續不斷地探索連結中心與邊緣的可能，在其中一個倉庫區的轉化與更新的案例中，他顯示出對於都市連結與小尺度規劃的深度關切，舊的倉庫目前以濃密的植栽及區劃，開放出不同使用用途的空間，舊時工業倉貯與街道、火車站的新關係形成了一條長長的都市走廊，引導動線穿越過市區內曾經破敗的一個區塊，最終引發各界對於這個舊倉庫歷史價值的高度關切，似乎是一個很正面的改善計畫。
These two Taiwanese architects appear to have very different concerns in their practices but both have a deep investment in the design of non-urban places. For those of us in architecture schools in the US, these speakers offered a productive moment for speculation. What about our own rural landscape? Why have American architecture schools so easily ignored this landscape which was, for so long, the very image of America? There will certainly to be a resurgence of interest in the rural landscape now that architects are becoming more aware of ecological concerns, and it was certainly a good push to see these two examples of rural and socially contentious architecture practices arriving in Cambridge all the way from Taiwan.
這兩位建築師顯示出他們的實踐過程中非常不同的關切點，但對非都市地區的設計皆有深度的投入，對於我們這些在美國建築學院的人來說，這兩位講者帶來發人深省的啟發時刻，那我們自己的鄉村地景又是如何呢？為什麼美國建築學院如此輕易地忽略長久以來代表了美國特定形象的地景呢？既然建築師對於生態性考量的意識高漲，那麼對於鄉村建築的關注勢必再度復甦。有幸見識到在鄉村與社會的面向上具有爭論性的建築實踐案例，遠道從台灣來到劍橋市，對我們來說無疑是很好的驅策力。
