評論
打印
Sports architects are often asked to create athletic temples that will last for decades. The new Olympic Stadium that will be on display in London over the next three weeks was designed with a different future in mind: disassembly.
尼克·威爾遜為了完成倫敦奧運場館設計工作，建筑師謝爾德和他的公司Populous需要一套全新的設計理念。通常來說，體育館的建筑師都會被要求設計出能屹立幾十年的建筑。然而，將在未來三周成為萬眾矚目焦點的倫敦奧運會體育館的設計理念則恰好相反：這座建筑需要易于拆解。
Hoping to avoid the now familiar trap of building an Olympic Stadium with little future purpose─like Beijing's spectacular Bird's Nest, which these days hosts winter sledding events and not much else─organizers of the 2012 London Games asked sports-architecture firm Populous to design a stadium that could be downsized and remade for a different future use.
2012年倫敦奧運會的主辦方不希望奧運場館在未來成為擺設──比如北京頗為壯觀的鳥巢，除了曾經用來主辦冬季雪橇賽事之外就基本沒派上什么用場，他們要求運動場館建筑公司Populous設計一座能夠“縮身”，并可以改作他用的體育館。
按照上述要求設計的倫敦奧運體育館擁有25,000個永久性座位和55,000個在奧運會結束后可以輕易拆除的座位。
A Poser
難題待解
Rod Sheard, senior principal at Populous, says his firm was intrigued and perplexed by the assignment. 'Philosophically, when we first heard it, we thought, 'That's really good,' ' says Mr. Sheard. 'We'd seen Beijing and seen how you do it when money is no object. Quite clearly London wasn't going to be able to do that.'
Populous首席建筑師謝爾德(Rod Sheard)說，接到這個任務時，公司不知怎么辦才好。他說，我們剛聽到這個要求時，我們認為它的理念真的很不錯。大家都看到了北京的例子，知道了不差錢的話可以達到何種效果，不過倫敦顯然不打算采用這種方式。
Architects, however, aren't wired for impermanence. 'We're bred with this attitude that your buildings last for 50 years, and the whole judgment of a building in architectural terms is firmness and delight,' Mr. Sheard says. 'That was the original Greek philosophy.'
然而，設計不耐久的東西并不是建筑師的強項。謝爾德說，建筑的壽命要達到50年，這種理念已經在我們腦子里根深蒂固了，而且從專業的角度講，評判一個建筑的標準就是它有多堅固、有多美觀，這是源自希臘的建筑設計理念。
As a consequence, he says, 'we didn't have the foggiest idea of how you go about it.'
他說，因此，對于該怎么做，我們完全沒有頭緒。
No Fear
打消顧慮
Populous has built a reputation as one of the pillars of modern sports architecture with prominent projects like the Olympic Stadium in Sydney, a fleet of European soccer pitches including the Arsenal club's Emirates Stadium in London, and U.S. ballparks including the new Yankee Stadium and Camden Yards in Baltimore. But it needed a whole new mind-set for the London job.
Populous設計了許多現代體育場館，擁有極高的知名度。該公司的作品包括悉尼奧運館、多個歐洲足球場（如倫敦兵工廠足球俱樂部(Arsenal club)的酋長球場(Emirates Stadium)）以及一些美國棒球場（如新的洋基體育館(Yankee Stadium)和位于巴爾迪莫的金鶯公園(Camden Yards)）。但是，為了完成倫敦交給它的任務，Populous需要一個全新的思路。
'We had to embrace the temporary,' Mr. Sheard says. 'Not be afraid of the temporary. It wasn't a limitation on what we could do, but an opportunity.'
謝爾德說，我們要接受臨時性的東西，而不是對臨時性的東西心存疑慮，這樣并不會給我們能交出什么樣的成績帶來限制，相反，這是我們的一個機會。
The temporary aesthetic gave Populous the freedom to 'start thinking about doing the building in a completely different way from anything we'd ever done before, even down to things like materials and colors,' Mr. Sheard says. 'Why do most of our buildings not have a lot of color in them? It's because UV light decimates colors. Architects shy away from colors because within five years they look like a faded version of what they were.' Freed from that concern, Populous could use a broader palette for the stadium.
謝爾德說，由于建筑是臨時性的，Populous可以借這個機會思考如何用與以往完全不同的方式進行設計，甚至具體到材料和顏色的選擇。他說，為什么我們的建筑上沒有多種顏色？因為紫外線會讓建筑褪色，建筑師們不愿使用色彩，因為不出五年，顏色就會變淡。由于沒有這種顧慮，Populous在設計體育館時可以使用更多色彩。
It also could save money by using 'fabrics that have a very short life span and are very reasonably priced,' says Mr. Sheard. Additional money was saved by putting fewer permanent concession stands inside the stadium and instead relying on temporary facilities just outside the building.
通過使用壽命短但價格合理的建筑材料，還可以在建造過程中節約成本。減少體育館內的永久特許攤位，轉而依賴建筑外的臨時設施，這也能省下一些錢。
A Weighty Debate
有關重量的爭論
The stadium also contains a fraction of the steel used by its Beijing counterpart, making it lighter than any previous main Olympic stadium, according to Mr. Sheard.
謝爾德說，這座體育館的建筑材料中還包括北京曾經使用過的那種鋼材，這使得這座建筑比以往任何主要的奧運體育館都更輕。
The debate over whether all these innovations add up to lightweight architecture surely will outlive the building's original form, if not its very existence.
即使這座建筑最初的形態已經不存在了，甚至整個建筑完全不存在了，有關這些創新設計是否讓建筑的重量減輕的爭論也會繼續下去。
'The Olympic Stadium here is an almost obvious, in-your-face example of a building that doesn't need to be there forever,' Mr. Sheard says. 'Some people say, 'This isn't even a real building. It's not an icon.' And other people are saying it's a new kind of icon, a 21st-century icon.'
謝爾德還表示說，這里奧運體育館明擺著就是不需要永久存在的建筑；有些人說，這甚至不是一座真正意義上的建筑，不是一個標志性建筑；還有一些人說，它是一種新的具有標志性的東西，21世紀的標志。
Icon or not, the stadium has an uncertain future. The process of choosing a post-Olympic tenant and a new configuration for the building has been bogged down by an extended and sometimes controversial bidding process.
無論是否具有標志意義，體育館的未來都充滿了不確定性。為了在奧運結束后為奧運體育館找到使用者和外形結構，英國不得不進行曠日持久、有時甚至引發爭議的招標。
Four bidders are currently vying to take control of the stadium, including two soccer teams, a soccer college and a company that would stage Formula One auto races in the stadium and on surrounding roadways. A winner will be picked in the fall.
目前有四個競標方在競爭這座體育館的所有權，其中包括兩支足球隊，一所足球學校，以及一家將在體育館和周圍公路上舉辦一級方程式汽車賽的公司。招標結果將于今年秋季揭曉。
