© Robert Livesey

阅读建筑：建筑的构成与思路
Reading Architecture: How "Looking" Becomes "Making" Through Techniques of Analysis

由专筑网小R编译

建筑并非偶然，建筑有着精心设计的平面与风格，需要呼应自然环境，表达质感，亦或是历史上某种风格的表达，这些便是构成建筑的原因，建筑师可以通过分析、模式、关系，以及比例等不同的方式来表达建筑的构成，无论建筑师与否，在设计的时候都会有一种潜意识中的想法，那么，建筑就成为了自我定位的构思方式，这种构思方式可以从设计的成果中反映，这是人们对于宏观世界的微观表达。

也许有人会说，建筑理论和建筑分析对于专业人士来说，其实很小儿科，是一种把自己的想法强加在他人身上的行为，不过其中的目标是分析建筑师对于设计的构思，而不是判断人们是否喜欢这座建筑，更不是评判建筑成功与否的标准，因此很大程度而言，建筑师会向他人去证明设计的合理性，并且产生关乎哲学的争论，但是阅读的艺术应该在于这是一种容易被人所接纳的方式，设计是公共领域，世界上只有很小一部分人在进行建筑创作，但是大部分人都会为之所影响，那么其中的构思从何处开始呢？本文从一本名为《Architecture Stuff》的书中节选了两个部分，对两座建筑进行简要的分析，这便是个良好的开端，这本书展示了各种分析和图示，也表达了对于公共建筑主题的阐释，这也构成了具有层次感的思维方式，让建筑的分析语言变得更加平易近人，每个人都能够理解。

Architecture is never an accident. It is a carefully planned out scheme of patterns and styles that respond to natural surroundings, celebrate materiality, and/or are referential of stylistic movements throughout history- all a means of understanding why things are the way that they are. There are different ways to understand how to analyze architecture, through the use of diagrams, patterns, relationships, and proportions to name a few. To both architects and laypeople alike, there’s a subconscious desire for a decision-making structure in design. As a result, architecture has become an exercise in self-positioning- a microcosmic reflection of the world around us as seen in the designs we build.
Some might say that architecture theory and the analysis of a building is some sort of “inside joke” for the trained eye that forces itself upon the average person. The intent is to examine how architects arrive at their design, without judging if people like it, or if it is successful in its experiential qualities. Much of this results in architects justifying their designs to other architects and creating philosophical and self-referential debates between one another. But the art of reading should and can be easily digested by anyone. Design is a public domain, and considering only a small percentage of the world is responsible for the creation of buildings, every person on earth is impacted by them. So where to begin? If you’re unfamiliar with the world of analyzing architecture, this brief high-level analysis of two buildings taken from excerpts of a new book titled “Architecture Stuff” is a good place to begin. The book itself provides illustrative diagrams, photographs, and an analysis that shows observations and interpretations of common architectural themes that together create a layered density of ideas, all while making the language of architectural analysis informal, legible, and most importantly, accessible to everyone.


母亲住宅 / 文丘里
Vanna Venturi House / Robert Venturi


Venturi House Front Elevation. Image © Maria Buszek

文丘里的母亲之家是后现代极具代表性的住宅，同时也是文丘里最为著名的作品，从建筑的主立面就能够看出建筑师的设计意图，外部的元素在立面上下变动、压缩、重叠，构成不同的层次，整个立面充满了运动感，这座建筑最为著名的特征便是其屋面，这也许是对于Moretti的Girasole住宅的借鉴，这些小特征其实就本质而言都非常简单，但是它们都很好地表达了这样一种想法，那就是把这些参照元素放入很小的高度中。

The Vanna Venturi House is one of the most well iconic homes of the postmodern era, and one of Robert Venturi’s most famous works in his oeuvre. To take a look at the front elevation of the home says much about Venturi’s design intent. It is “loaded with movement” as the exterior elements scale up and down, slide across the facade, compressing, overlapping, and creating different layers of transparency. One of the most famous characteristics of this house is the “dueling shed roofs”, perhaps a historical reference to Moretti’s Casa II Girasole. While these gestures are simple in nature, they collectively show that there was an idea to put many referential elements into a rather small elevation.


Casa Il Girasole by Luigi Moretti. Image © Gabrielle Bascillico

这座建筑看起来比较低矮，可能是表达了白色的低矮住宅的意图，同时考虑了双层墙裙，这让人认为，一个楼层叠加在另一个楼层上，车行道路上的略微倾斜也让人感觉到文丘里所表达的是帕特农神庙的流线。

The house also appears to be a bit "squat" perhaps referencing the McKim, Mead and White Low House, and considering the double dado, It would be easy to believe that the house has been compressed with one story overlaid on another. The slight cant in the driveway also leaves little doubt that Venturi was referencing the cranked axis from the Propolea to the Parthenon.


© Robert Livesey


Grace农场 / SANAA
Grace Farms / SANAA


Site Plan. Image Courtesy of SANAA

Grace农场是位于康涅狄格州的一座社区文化中心，这座建筑专注于自然、艺术、公正、社区，以及信仰，场地上的主要建筑名为“河楼”，它有着反射屋面和蛇形形态，建筑的形态比较简单，但是建筑自身却十分精致，同时建筑与景观很好地结合在一起，纤细的建筑元素十分关键，柱子很轻薄，而屋面则有着拉伸般的感受，这也让顶部的某些区域也变得十分轻盈。

Grace Farms is a cultural community center located in New Canaan, Connecticut that focuses on the development of nature, the arts, justice, community, and faith. The main building on the site has been dubbed the "River Building" because of its reflective roof and general serpentine form. While simplistic in nature, the building itself is heavily and finely detailed and does an excellent job of integrating architecture with landscape. The slimness of architectural elements in this building is critical, as the columns are extremely thin, and the roof feels like a "wad of gum that has been stretched" to make certain areas of the canopy thin as well.


© Robert Livesey

周边的景观对于建筑而言也至关重要，尤其是来自展览馆其他部分的景观，建筑师在不同的元素之中引入不同的视角，建筑有着倾斜的礼堂，参观者可以看到宽阔的景色，在穿过图书馆、餐厅、茶室之后，人们会来到体育馆，这里有着玻璃天窗，光线从上方而下，景观更是一览无余，每个空间都经过精心设计，每个房间都给使用者带来不同的感受，这里有“深挖与浅挖、开放与封闭、陡坡与丘陵、对称与不对称、展厅与走廊”，它们分别形成对比与呼应。

Views of the surrounding landscape are important to this building, especially the views to and from other parts of the pavilion. The design is careful to bring different views in each of the programmatic elements. Beginning in the sloped auditorium, visitors look out into the expansive landscape, and after walking through the library, dining room, and tea room, you end in the gymnasium where the glass windows act as clerestories allowing light to enter, and the final view is seen. The conditions in each space are elaborated to provide a different experience in each room. "Deep cut and shallow cut, open condition versus closed condition, steep hill versus rolling hill, symmetry versus asymmetry, and pavilion versus walkway."


© Dean Kauffman

除此之外，这些层次的观察并不意味着可以直接复制使用，这样就感觉是几个不同的策略组合在一起构成一个设计方案，重要的是要理解，把“看”转变成“做”，在理解、表达、设计建筑理念的时候，这一点至关重要，对于模式与特征的理解不仅仅体现在这两个项目之中，每个项目都是如此，只要用心寻找，就都能够发现建筑之间的元素关联，比如母亲之家与Grace农场之间的元素关联，这种联系并不一定存在于外观与功能之中，而是它们通过一系列的元素，有机地进行组合与设计。

It’s important to note that these layers of observation aren’t meant to be duplicated to create another project that feels like a collage of several design translations into one, but it’s important to learn that a way of looking can translate into a way of making. This is critical when understanding, translating, and designing ideas that are centered on architectural ideas. These understandings of patterns and gestures aren’t just identifiable in these two projects but in almost any building. Everywhere you look, you might be able to find that there are elements and relationships like those in the Venturi House or Grace Farms, not necessarily in how they look or how they perform in their programmatic functions, but how they are intelligently designed with an array of architectural elements, relationships, and/or methods.