Friday, January 28, 2011

香港的建築特色?
What is "Hong Kong architectural style"?


(English version please scroll down)



筆者在荷蘭讀了半年建築碩士,不斷給那些什麼現代主義 後現代主義的建築特色, James Stirling、Daniel Liebeskind、Rem Koolhaas 等等的現代後現代建築師加上他們錯綜複雜的師徒關係及建築派別搞得頭昏腦脹。苦讀過後,筆者心存了一些疑問,究竟香港的建築特色是什麼? 與之前所學的建築理論有沒有關係?

客觀來說,香港畢竟是一個比較特別的地方,所謂中西合壁,集合了中西文化的特點,建築裏亦可從中找到其特點。但西也不太西,中也不太中,她卻自成了一種風格。筆者對這種風格是否有冠名不甚了解,但香港的建築風格似乎是現代主義的延續。

筆者認為香港最有特色的並不是高聳入雲的摩天大廈,而是複雜而精密的行人天橋系統。尤其在商業區裡的天橋系統,它連接了主要的交通樞紐,如鐵路站、巴士總站、渡輪碼頭等,務求行人可以方便快捷地到達目的地。

這些概念似乎承繼著Le Corbuiser人車分隔以及章顯汽車的使用的理念。這些理念緣自他"Ville Contemporaine"的方案,規劃透明晶亮的摩天大廈及多層分隔的大型交通樞紐。雖然這些概念當然被批評得很,但數十年後卻於遠東現實大部份的理念,而香港亦有很多城市規劃的理念與他相似。

與很多與現代主義建築相關的評論一樣,行人分隔與地下分離分割了人在地上的生活而忽略了點與點之間的生活瑣事。然而,以香港這種步伐急速的城市,我們需要這種增加辦事效率的系統。

那就根據上述的描述,香港建築是否就是機器式建築 ?


The author feels so desperately confusing when he studied the architectural theories about the modernism, post-modernism, their architects such has James Stirling, Daniel Liebeskind, Rem Koolhaas, etc and their complicated teacher-student relationship and architectural styles during the study of master of architecture in Netherlands in these half a year. After that, he questioned: How about Hong Kong architectural style? Can it be applied to the architectural theories the author has learnt about?

Indeed, Hong Kong is a kind of fusion place of combining the Chinese and Western culture which architectural style has same kind of characteristic. The style is not said to be Chinese, nor Western, but it has its own style. The author doesn't know if there is a specific name for this style, but seemingly it is the extension from the modernism.

In his opinion the most splendid things about Hong Kong is not the highrises, but the sophisticated pedestrian flyover system, which, especially in business district, connects the main transport hubs, such as metro stations, bus terminals and ferry terminals, etc. With this kind of flyover system pedestrian can go to their own destination more conveniently.

This kind of idea is probably the extension of the idea from Le Corbusier, a famous modernist architect, which suggested the segregated pedestrian circulation and the glorification of the automobiles. These concept are from his scheme of "Ville Contemporaine", which planned for groups of skyscrapers with curtain walls and huge transportation hub with different levels of transportation means. Although the concept was fiercely criticized, after several decades in the far east the concept is finally somehow can be realized. The city of Hong Kong shared the similar idea of urban planning with this architect master.

However, same as many criticism about the modernism style, the segregation of circulation to the ground make it not human as the emphasis on the point to point connection neglected the lifestyle in between. But in the situation of Hong Kong, because the lifestyle and the living pace is so fast, we need to have this kind of system, which increases the efficiency.

Yet, does it mean that the architectural style in Hong Kong is more like a machine?



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