东南建筑学人：一个毫不间断的启发性群体

2015-12-19张利ZHANGLi

世界建筑 2015年5期

张利/ZHANG Li

东南建筑学人：一个毫不间断的启发性群体

SEU-Arch Alumni: A Community that Never Stops to Inspire

张利/ZHANG Li

本期《世界建筑》再次聚焦于文革以后的中国建筑教育，这一次我们观察的对象是一个延续着中国现代建筑教育最长历史传统的群体：东南大学（原中央大学、前南京工学院）建筑学院（建筑系）的建筑学人。当然，我们的观察范围仍然是1977年后在此接受建筑教育、目前在建筑设计及相关领域中具有代表性的人。

杰出头脑的集聚从来都是学科引领的必要条件，东南建筑在此有着傲人的记录。东南大学建筑学院的前身、创立于1927年的原中央大学建筑系是中国最早的综合大学的建筑系，而这一前身的前身，创立于1923年的苏州工业专门学校的建筑科则是中国最早的高等教育建筑学科。这是中国自宋起在宁苏杭一带所凝聚的人文视野与工艺传统和当时新近传入的现代教育理念相作用的直接结果，以极大的吸引力启动了东南建筑学科历史上对杰出头脑的第一波汇集，奠定了其在中国现代建筑教育史上的地位。1977年，前南京工学院的建筑系作为最早的恢复高考招生的建筑学科之一，在传统的支撑上启动了其对杰出头脑——更确切地说，是对文革十年所积淀下来的渴望接受高等建筑教育的最具潜力的头脑——的第二波汇集，成功接续了历史的线索，并在事实上造就了当代中国建筑界领军团队中的相当一部分力量。

建筑教育是应更多地关注建筑本体，还是其衍生的社会与文化价值？如果说在文艺复兴时代，基于建筑本体相关知识的自主建筑学是不争的共识的话，那么在当今的自媒体时代，建筑策略主义者或建筑机会主义者似乎正在得到越来越多的关注。对此，东南建筑保持着难得的冷静，始终坚持着对建筑本体的全神贯注。这一方面来自于东南建筑学科自创始以来给予一代又一代杰出实践者在建筑教育上的充分话语权利，另一方面则来自于中国江南地区数个世纪以来对营造工法与工艺质量的偏好诉求。在东南建筑学人的治学与执业背后贯穿着一种真实而细腻的、与建造本身息息相关的情感，不论是在城市、建筑、景观还是在理论、历史、技术等领域，以建造实践所抵达的诗学从来没有被遗忘。

一个城市的识别性在很大程度上影响一个学科的识别性，这对东南建筑来说完全成立。东南大学在历史上的3次更名可以看成是南京在不到一个世纪时间内所走过的黑格尔辨证法周期的一个缩影。在东南建筑学科中，我们不难看到所有地处曾是近期首都的城市的学科的共性：尚存的作为国家权力中心的新鲜记忆所不可避免地导致的官学遗产，与后首都时期的雨后春笋式蓬勃而出的民学争鸣之间所达成的某种平衡。这种精致的协调屡见于费城、都灵等地，在南京的东南建筑亦然。一方面，儒式的国家抱负、自上而下的全体策略及相对宏观的认知格局得以延续；另一方面，道式的独立反省、自下而上的局部实验与相对微观的介入方法悄然兴起。格物与正心之间已不再是简单的线性因果联系，而是拥有了某种互逆的融汇与贯通。

批评，来自各方面的批评，是任何建筑教育的生命组成部分，更不用说由特定体系所产生的附加焦虑。作为中国历史最悠久的建筑学科之一，东南建筑自然不可能免于这些烦扰。然而，令人欣慰的是，作为一个群体，东南建筑学人自主的识别性从未被这些烦扰所掩盖，东南建筑学人也从未间断为当今的建筑学提供灵感。

特别感谢东南大学建筑学院编辑本期专刊的工作组：负责人王建国教授、韩冬青教授，专文撰稿人陈薇教授，执行人单踊教授、葛明教授，顾问张永和教授、王骏阳教授、顾大庆教授、赵辰教授，摄影赖自力老师，以及参与学人提名的多位前辈。他们使本期专辑成为可能。

In this issue of World Architecture we focus again on architectural education in post-culture-revolution China. This time we'll have a look at a community that carries the longest tradition of Chinese architectural education: the Southeast University (former Central University in Republican China, and then Nanjing Polytechnics until its current name) Architecture School alumni, or, SEU-Arch alumni. Again we will only look at the alumni after 1977.

Any leading institution is built upon a collection of brilliant minds. SEU-Arch has a proud record in this regard. Founded in 1927, the Architecture Department in Central University, the first incarnation of SEU-Arch, was the earliest architecture department in any Chinese university. Its own origin, the Architecture Faculty in Soochow Industrial School founded in 1923, was the earliest architecture faculty in Chinese senior education. This record was a direct outcome of the cross fertilisation between a modern educational vision and the long tradition of craft in the area surrounding Soochow, Nanjing and Hangzhou. It initiated the first wave of mind gathering with huge momentum. In 1977, the Architecture Department of Nanjing Polytechnics was again one of the first architecture institutions to resume enrolment after the Cultural Revolution, which initiated the second wave of mind gathering. This time it was quite unique, because what it gathered were actually people who had the greatest potentials of doing architecture nation-wide in a span of ten years, left by the Cultural Revolution. This has been proved later to be extremely important for SEU-Arch. Not only was the broken tradition of this prestigious institution reconnected, but also a de facto leading group of professionals and academics for the next 30 years were made.

Is architectural education more about buildings or more about their social and culture consequences? It is a haunting question in contemporary architectural education. In Renaissance it was crystal clear that architecture is an autonomous discipline about everything related to buildings. In the self-media age of our time, things are getting blurred. It seems that, more favour is being given to architecture strategists or opportunists than architects. SEUArch remains preciously calm on this trend and never changes its preoccupation with the making of buildings. One source of this calmness comes from the fact that throughout the history of SEUArch, distinguished practitioners have been enjoying significant pedagogical sayings. The other source of this calmness comes from the centuries-long obsession with craft and quality making in the Yangzi River Delta. For generations, SEU-Arch teachers and disciples have retained a deep and exquisite affection with the making of good buildings in all their works, whether the primary concern of a work is theoretical, historical or technological. No matter the scope of a project is about a city, a building or landscape, the poetics of making good stuff is never forgotten.

The identity of an institution comes a lot from the identity of the city it resides. This can't be truer for SEU-Arch. Its three names in history unmistakably reflect the Hegelian cycle the city of Nanjing has gone through in a century. In SEU-Arch we see a character shared by all institutions located in a city which has recently been a national capital: a singular balance between the top-down and the bottom-up approaches, as seen in Philadelphia and Turin . The top-down, or the institutionalised, comes from the fresh memory of being close to a national centre of power. The bottom-up, or the democratised, comes from the emerging debates after the centre of power moves away. The result of this balance is an individualised approach fitted into a framework of broader agenda, a combination of Confucianists' whole scale narrative and Taoists' microcosm experiments.

One living reality of architectural education is to face criticism from everywhere. Moreover, the anxiety from certain higher education administrative structures can be more punitive. All these form the disturbance that an old institution like SEUArch cannot elude. Fortunately, SEU-Arch has managed to live with all these disturbance without losing its own character and the power of generating inspirations.

Our special thanks to the SEU-Arch workgroup that has made this issue possible: Directors Prof. WANG Jianguo and Prof. HAN Dongqing; Executives Prof. CHEN Wei, Prof. SHAN Yong and Prof. GE Ming; Consultants Prof. Yung Ho Chang, Prof. WANG Junyang, Prof. GU Daqing and Prof. ZHAO Chen; Photographer Mr LAI Zili.