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建筑如何描述北爱尔兰的冲突与和平的故事
How Architecture Tells the Story of Conflict and Peace in Northern Ireland

由专筑网缕夕，杨帆编译

建筑往往与政治环境相互交织在一起。这深深地体现在北爱尔兰这个政治复杂的地方。 1921年，爱尔兰分裂成一个独立的爱尔兰自由州（现为爱尔兰共和国）和北爱尔兰（仍然受英国控制的勤劳地区）这两个国家。随之而来的是北爱尔兰之间大多数亲英联合国人口和一些少数又重要的爱尔兰民族主义社会之间的冲突。二十世纪后半叶，残酷的斗争导致三千多人遇难，还有数千人受伤，令人悲伤流泪的惨照传遍了全球。

北爱尔兰动荡的局势在其首都贝尔法斯特的建筑发展中得到诠释。在20世纪60年代至90年代的三十年战争中，贝尔法斯特的建筑体现了一个被围困的城市状态。而当九十年代看到和平的曙光时，出现了一系列充满希望、信心和反抗的架构。目前，北爱尔兰坚定地走在一条和平的道路上，贝尔法斯特一直存在着一系列大胆的建筑理念和具有里程碑意义的公共建筑。贝尔法斯特的建筑发展带有北爱尔兰丰富、苦涩和激情的历史，为一座被烧毁又从灰烬中重生的城市提供了有形的叙述。

Architecture is often intertwined with political context. This deep connection is especially evident in Northern Ireland, a place of infamously complex politics. The state came into existence as a consequence of war in 1921, when Ireland was partitioned into an independent Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) and Northern Ireland, an industrious region still controlled by Britain. Conflict has since ensued in Northern Ireland between a majority pro-British Unionist population, and a minority, though significant, Irish Nationalist community. The latter half of the twentieth century witnessed a brutal struggle, with over three thousand people killed, thousands more injured, and harrowing images spread across the world.
The turbulence of Northern Ireland’s conflict is played out in the architectural development of Belfast, its capital city. With thirty years of war from the 1960s to 1990s, the architecture of Belfast embodied a city under siege. When the prospect of peace dawned in the 1990s, an architecture of hope, confidence, and defiance emerged. In the present day, with Northern Ireland firmly on a peaceful path, Belfast has played host to a series of bold architectural ideas and landmark public buildings by award-winning architects. With the rich, bitter, emotive history of Northern Ireland viewed through multiple, often conflicting prisms, the architectural development of Belfast offers a tangible narrative of a city which burned, smoldered, and rose from the ashes.


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在20世纪60年代开始了北爱尔兰历史上的“麻烦”时期，贝尔法斯特成为一个沮丧、失去生机和大军事化的城市。三十多年来，城市经历了针对商业和公共建筑的轰炸活动，欧罗巴中部酒店被赋予了“欧洲受最多轰炸的酒店”称号。这个时期的建筑必须遵循“形式为安全提供保障”的主题，公共建筑以实体双层墙壁为主，成为了无窗的安全壁垒。

The period of Northern Ireland’s history known as "The Troubles" began in earnest in the 1960s, an era which saw Belfast became a despondent, disinvested, heavily militarized city. Its urban fabric endured over thirty years of bombing campaigns targeting commercial and civic buildings, with the central Europa Hotel earning the label of "the most bombed hotel in Europe." The architecture of the period by necessity followed the mantra of "Form Follows Security," with public buildings dominated by solid twin walls, security barriers, and no windows.


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在此期间，城市纷争的建筑证据包括城墙和建筑物。贝尔法斯特被和平墙分成两部分，旨在防止亲爱尔兰民族主义者和亲英联邦工会主义者之间的冲突。迄今为止，许多和平墙被保存了下来，包括在1989年比柏林墙更长的Shankill 墙。这些屏障主导了城市景观，安全“钢环”环绕商业核心，以便于检查和搜查。虽然理念是连接流动的城市结构，但这与二十世纪末的贝尔法斯特是不相符合的。

During this time, architectural evidence of the city’s strife consisted of walls as well buildings. Belfast was carved into sections by Peace Walls designed to prevent clashes between pro-Irish Nationalist and pro-British Unionist communities. Many Peace Walls survive to this day, including the Shankill/Falls Wall, which has now existed for longer than the Berlin Wall did before its 1989 demolition. Barriers dominated the urban landscape, with a security "ring of steel" encircling the commercial core to facilitate checks and searches. The idea of a connected, flowing urban fabric was alien to the Belfast of the late twentieth century.
  

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在整个九十年代，北爱尔兰处于和平时期。由于美国克林顿政府的大量介入，促进了政党、爱尔兰和英国政府之间的关系。建筑发展反映了新时代日益乐观的态度。这个时代的一个显著的里程碑式建筑，是1996年当地公司Robinson McIllwaine完成的海滨大厅，其大型弯曲的玻璃幕墙在拉甘河畔占据了主导地位。随着1998年“耶稣受难日协议”的签署，我们今天所知道的北爱尔兰政府结构已经确立，将北方置于一个民主的道路上，尽管动荡，但逐步地在发展成长。

Throughout the 1990s, Northern Ireland moved towards peace. Dialog intensified between prominent political parties, and between the governments of Ireland and Britain, with heavy input from the Clinton administration in the US. Architectural developments reflected the growing optimism of a new era. A notable milestone of the era was the 1996 completion of the Waterfront Hall by local firm Robinson McIllwaine, with its large, curved, glazed façade dominating a generous public realm on the banks the River Lagan. With the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the governmental structure of Northern Ireland that we know today was established, setting the North on a democratic path which, although turbulent, continues to see sustained growth across the region.
  

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在过去的十年中，贝尔法斯特的建筑风格已经改变了城市的标志。由于和平的来临重获信心，对旅游和艺术行业的大量投资，涌现了许多获奖建筑师的建筑作品。由RIBA的O'Donnell和Tuomey设计的抒情歌剧院，混合砖砌，坐落在贝尔法斯特砖墙郊区和拉甘河蛇纹石公园之间。同时，由当地的麦克奈特公司建造的大都会艺术中心（MAC）位于贝尔法斯特时尚的大教堂区的核心地带，这是一座砖、玻璃和玄武岩组合在一起的魅力建筑，此处在19世纪是曾经占据主导地位的红砖仓库。

Throughout the last decade, the architecture of Belfast bares the hallmarks of a city transformed. Renewed confidence in the robustness of the Peace Process has seen heavy investment in the tourism and arts industries, laced with the architectural works of award winning architects. The jagged brick massing of the Lyric Theatre by RIBA Gold Medal recipients O’Donnell and Tuomey sits at a threshold between the grid pattern of Belfast's brick suburbs and the serpentine parkland of the River Lagan. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Arts Centre (MAC) by local firm Hall McKnight lies at the heart of Belfast’s trendy Cathedral Quarter—a symphony of brick, glass, and basalt, with a sharp robustness harking back to the 19th-century brick warehouses which once dominated the area.
  

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2012年TODD建筑事务所完成了泰坦尼克号中心，反映了贝尔法斯特丰富的工业遗产，以及纪念了贝尔法斯特造船厂建造的船只。作为这个城市曾经的工业中心地带，泰坦尼克号地区将接受70亿英镑的LEED金奖重建项目，创造一系列开放、绿色、公共空间相连的城市村庄。这个185英亩的总体规划，就像它所拥有的名字一样，代表了贝尔法斯特的伟大梦想。

Reflecting further on Belfast’s rich industrial heritage, 2012 saw the completion of the Titanic Centre by TODD Architects, commemorating the ill-fated ship built at Belfast’s shipyards. Historically the city’s industrial heartland, the surrounding Titanic Quarter will undergo a ￡7 billion LEED Gold-awarded regeneration project, creating a series of urban villages linked by open, green, public space. The 185-acre masterplan, like the ship whose name it bears, represents Belfast’s historic ability to dream big.
  

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贝尔法斯特现在无疑是处于和平时期，但在政治和建筑方面仍然是离“和平”这个词相差甚远。北爱尔兰分权政府最近濒临崩溃，以及对布莱克斯特的影响，只反应了北爱尔兰在包容性繁荣之路上面临的挑战。在城市发展方面，这些变量让贝尔法斯特有更多的限制——分散的城市景观背景下，拥有十三英里的和平墙，还有一条高速公路环绕城市的商业核心。贝尔法斯特的建筑界正在应对挑战，设计主导的基层组织如PLACE NI为连接、共享、公平的建筑环境提供了一系列城市战略导则。

While undoubtedly traveling on a peaceful path, Belfast is still only part-way through its long journey towards harmony, on both a political and architectural front. The recent collapse of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government and uncertainty over the effects of Brexit offer only some evidence of the challenges Northern Ireland faces on its path to inclusive prosperity. In terms of urban development, these variables sit against the backdrop of Belfast’s restrictive, divided urban landscape, with thirteen miles of peace walls, and a ring of motorway circling the city’s commercial core. The architectural community in Belfast is responding to the challenge, with design-led grassroots organizations such as PLACE NI and the Forum for Alternative Belfast offering a series of urban strategies for a connected, shared, equitable built environment.


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北爱尔兰的和平进程一直是一个令人鼓舞的成功故事。曾经困扰该地区的暴力事件已经成为历史，取而代之的是民主制度，虽然不完善，但却在不断进步。同时，贝尔法斯特曾经的瓦砾、废墟和障碍物已经被建筑作品所取代，与爱尔兰或英国的任何城市都可相媲美。

The Peace Process in Northern Ireland has been an inspiring success story. The violence which once plagued the region has been consigned to history, replaced by democratic institutions which, though not perfect, have been a vehicle for change. In tandem, the rubble, ruins, and barriers which once defined Belfast have been replaced with architectural works to rival any city in Ireland or Britain.


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随着新一代设计师的涌现，贝尔法斯特的建筑将摆脱苦难和冲突，继续描绘出公民对于平等、尊重和和平的坚定信念。

Niall Patrick Walsh毕业于北爱尔兰贝尔法斯特女王大学建筑学院。

As a new generation of designers emerges, removed from bitterness and conflict, the architecture of Belfast will continue to depict the determined, aspirational spirit of its citizens—tangible monuments to the power of equality, respect, and peace.
Niall Patrick Walsh is a graduate of architecture from Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.


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出处：本文译自www.archdaily.com/，转载请注明出处。