华南理工建筑学人:横峰侧岭,中华之南
2018-03-24孙一民
“华南理工建筑学人” 卷首语的安排与之前的几卷不同,是缘于《世界建筑》杂志社希望由学院邀请对华南建筑有更深入了解的人来写,以避免从杂志角度可能造成的偏颇。耽搁很久也无法找到合适的人选,期限将至,只好自己提笔,好在作为一位“哈建工建筑学人”的“外人”,我也算相对比较了解华南建筑学人吧。
从谈月份开篇,是《世界建筑》的建筑学人专辑过往几篇的开篇模式,同济、天大建筑学人的卷首语都是从5月这个话题引出的。今年华南建筑还是5月,而同样的季节,京津还时有漫天沙尘,宁沪还在感知5月带来“青春”的信息,华南的5月却已经雷声滚滚、滂沱大雨、间或烈日当空、偶尔暑气蒸人了。是啊,远在中华之南,广东自古以来就是“中央王国”里一个遥远的特别存在,气候如此,人文亦如此。
华南建筑学人,这一群体在学界的印象中一直是模糊不清的,2012年华南建筑学科80华诞,当我们的《华南建筑80年大事记》出版的时候,许多朋友脸上那种吃惊的表情告诉我,他们原本对这80年厚重密实的历史知之甚少。也难怪,之前是没有专门的文献纵览华南建筑的学科历史的。也因此,我们坚持那本书的书写方式就是:只陈列史实,评说留给读者。
对于从1970年代末开始学习建筑的人来说,华南建筑是个鲜明而又模糊的概念。鲜明的是具体的建筑:白天鹅宾馆、白云宾馆、南越王墓博物馆……,而模糊的恰恰是“学人”的身影。相较于清华、东南、同济建筑学人明晰的群峰或者峻岭形象,华南建筑学人的信息是模糊而多元的。整个1980年代初期,华南建筑学人的信息是交错拼贴的,林克明与《南方建筑》、刘管平与园林、赵伯仁与剧场建筑、何镜堂与深圳科学馆、陆元鼎与民居、罗保钿的深圳居住区规划……而龙庆忠先生这样的建筑史学大家,纵然是对中国营建历史研究视野独特,且在中国确立博士培养体系的时候成为清华、东南、华南3个首批建筑博士点的核心教授,却因为远离“主场”而并不被国内建筑学界广泛了解。而曾经是重庆大学创系主任的陈伯齐、真正属于中国的设计大师(吴良镛语)夏昌世,则是在去世多年后才渐渐被忆起。
1992年3月我初到岭南,首先感受到的,除了整整一个月潮湿无比、岭南特有的 “回南天” 的气候氛围,就是疏朗与自由的人文氛围。从抗战胜利的1945年起,华南建筑学科栖临红楼,这里既没有学府的森严气氛,也没有辈分递进的层层叠叠,一班年轻教师呼呼呵呵,一起教书、一起炒更,全然不分彼此,根本不懂得什么叫“学缘”。入乡日久,俗理渐知,华南建筑学人在广东的密度令人睁目,日常交往中,某些年龄段的建筑师,见面只需要了解单位所属,经常忽略毕业的学校,因为基本不用问,都是华南建筑红楼里面出来的。
转眼快30年了,于我而言,华南建筑的历史依然是不断学习、不断理解的过程。身处其中,也会有许多不识真面的困惑。1990年代以来,何镜堂、吴硕贤院士带领下的华南建筑群体越来越多地走到了中国建筑的舞台中心。聚光灯下,华南建筑与学人精彩不断。国家勘察设计大师中出现了建筑77级的陶郅、79级的陈雄、81级的倪阳,而建筑79级许瑞生,被学界屡屡关注的不是他广东省副省长的职务,而是他以南粤古驿道保护发掘为起点,进而推动的基于民间社会力量自省自新的扶助贫困、挽救遗产、保护资源的可持续发展,展现华南建筑学人独特的建筑观与历史观。
回望华南建筑学人,我们把镜头焦距放开:中南、西南几位建筑大师即刻入镜:武汉中南建筑设计院袁培煌、云南省建筑设计院饶维纯、成都西南建筑设计院黎佗芬、广西省建筑设计院蒋伯宁……他们离开母校之后扎根遥远的地方,成就了建筑理想。
镜头朝向香港:出自香港、史观独特的中国建筑史代表性专著《华夏意匠》,作者李允鉌,1960年代毕业于华南建筑红楼,该书的序作者是两位华南建筑教师:龙庆忠、陆元鼎。
镜头朝向台湾:贺陈词、杨卓成两位代表了一批毕业于战争年代,后转赴台湾,闪亮在宝岛的华南建筑校友。贺陈词先任教于成功大学、东海大学等校,他没有喝多少洋墨水,对台湾建筑教育的贡献却居功至伟,至今仍是受人缅怀。杨卓成以作品见精神,圆山大饭店、中正纪念堂、士林官邸等一系列特点鲜明的建筑工程为台湾建筑贡献了最杰出的中华印迹。
镜头回转:大约始于2008年,短短10年华南建筑青年学子在香港形成了一个群体,他们不一定在香港读书,而是在海外短暂学习工作后来到香港生活工作,他们的微信群叫:永远的27,这里的27,一层含意是华南建筑的教室楼的号码,另外一层含意是永远的青春。当香港迷茫消极之际,他们不仅在奋斗,不仅仅在别人的公司里面奋斗,有的人已经开始在自己的公司里奋斗了。
“横看成岭侧成峰,远近高低各不同。”华南建筑学人86年走来,与国家共患难,与时代同奋进,无论是抗战时期粤北办学的坚守、建筑创作禁锢时期对技术理想的高扬、国家困难时期潜心亚热带建筑科学的执着,还是近40年火红激荡的建筑年代,华南建筑学人不变的是进取、实干。华南建筑以谦虚为学、踏实做人铸就着“中华之南”一个又一个建筑“特别”。□
The reason for different arrangement for writing the prologue of theSCUTArchitecture Alumniis thatWorld Architecturemagazine wanted the School of Architecture to invite someone with a deep understanding on architecture in South China to do it. That, in their view, would avoid possible biases since it is not written by someone from the magazine. I have tried in vain to fi nd such a suitable person. But as the deadline drew near, I had to do it myself. Fortunately, as an "outsider" from the architecture alumni of Harbin Architecture and Engineering University, I happened to be quite familiar with SCUT architecture alumni.
Opening the chapter by referring to the month is a recent common practice in the Architecture Alumni issues ofWorld Architecture. The prologue ofTongji University Architecture AlumniandTianjin University Architecture Alumnialso start by talking about May. We followed the same practice in this issue. But May looks vastly different in different cities: Beijing and Tianjin encounter occasional dust storms; Nanjing and Shanghai are still tasting the last breeze of spring; while the weather in South China is highly unpredictable with thunders,pouring rains, blazing sun and steaming heat.Located in the far south of China, Guangdong has been a remote and special existence in this "Central Kingdom" since ancient times. This also applies to its climate, as well as its culture and social fabrics.
The impression of the SCUT architecture alumni has been very blurry in the academic circle. We published theSouth China Architecture:Events in 80 Yearswhen we celebrated the anniversary of the architecture discipline in South China. The surprised expression on the faces of our friends indicated that they knew very little about the 80 years of our history. And that's because there was not a single article dedicated to providing an overview of the history of the architecture discipline in South China.That is why we insisted that there should be nothing but historical facts in the book so that we could leave our readers room for comments.
For those who began learning architecture in the late 1970s, South China architecture is a distinct yet vague concept. What are distinct are the architecture like White Swan Hotel, Baiyun Hotel,and the Museum of the Nanyue King Mausoleum,and what is vague is the presence of the architecture"alumni". Throughout the 1980s, when compared with the distinct presence of architecture alumni from Tsinghua University, Southeast University and Tongji University, the profile of SCUT architecture alumni was vague yet diverse. TheSouth Architecturemagazine founded by LIN Keming, landscape design by LIU Guanping, theatre architecture of ZHAO Boren, Shenzhen Science Museum designed by HE Jingtang, LU Yuanding's research on folk houses,and Shenzhen's planning on residential areas designed by LUO Baotian, these are vivid examples of the presence of the SCUT architecture alumni.And masters of architecture history such as LONG Qingzhong are not widely known by the domestic architecture circle for being away from "home".Professor LONG has a unique research perspective on the construction history of China, and was a key architecture professor in Tsinghua University,Southeast University and South China University when China fi rst established its doctoral cultivation system. While CHEN Boqi, the founding dean of the Architecture Department of Chongqing University,and XIA Changshi, "a design master who truly belongs to China", according to WU Liangyong, were only talked of years after their passing away.
When I first came to Guangdong in March,1992, the first things I experienced are a whole month of rainy and humid weather and the pleasant free atmosphere in the architecture circle here. Since 1945 when China won the war of resistance against Japanese aggression, the SCUT architecture discipline moved in the Red Mansion.Free of the choking academic atmosphere or hierarchal interpersonal relationship, a group of young teachers worked together and did part-time jobs together without any concern for "academic consanguinity". As I live here longer, I gradually get to know the astounding fact that there are a large number of SCUT architecture alumni in Guangdong.In day to day communication, we only ask architects of a certain age group about where they work but not where they were graduated. Because almost everyone of them were from the Red Mansion where the SCUT architecture discipline was stationed.
Almost 30 years have passed. For me, the history of architecture in SCUT is still a process of continuous learning and understanding. As someone who is a part of this process, I sometimes have my own confusions. Since the 1990s, the architecture group in South China led by academicians HE Jingtang and WU Shuoxian came to the center stage of China's architecture circle more often. The SCUT architecture alumni has made outstanding achievements under the limelight. We produced several National Survey and Design Masters such as TAO Zhi from Grade 1977, CHEN Xiong from Grade 1979 and NI Yang from Grade 1981. And XU Ruisheng from Grade 1979 was known to the academia more for his effort in cultural relic protection instead of his Vice Governor title. In his campaign of protecting the South China Historical Trail, he promotes the sustainable development of poverty alleviation, cultural heritage rescue and resources conservation based on the self-re fl ection and self-renewal of social power and presented the unique outlooks of architecture and history of the SCUT architecture alumni.
When looking back at the SCUT architecture alumni, if we extend the focal length, architectural masters from the central and southeast of China including YUAN Peihuang from the Central-South Architectural Institute, RAO Weichun from the Architecture and Engineering Design Institute of Yunnan Province, LI Tuofen from the China Southwest Architectural Design and Research Institute in Chengdu, and JIANG Boning from the Architectural Design Institute of Guangxi Province will all be included. After graduation they settled in different places far away from South China and realized their dreams of architecture.
Camera turning towards Hong Kong:Cathay's Idea: Design Theory of Chinese Classical Architectureis a book published in Hong Kong and written by LI Yunhe, an alumni graduated from the Red Mansion.This book, prefaced by LONG Qingzhong and LU Yuanding, has a unique perspective on China's architecture history.
Camera turning towards Taiwan: HE Chenci and YANG Zhuocheng represent a group of SCUT architecture alumni graduated in the war time, later moved to Taiwan and became important figures there. HE Chenci was a professor in the National Cheng Kung University and Tunghai University.He did not spend much time studying overseas but are still widely remembered for his contribution to architecture education in Taiwan. YANG Zhuocheng represented his spirit in his distinct works such as the Grand Hotel, Taipei, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, and Shilin Official Residence, etc. His works have left the most distinguished imprint to Taiwan's architecture circle.
Camera revolving: In a short period of just 10 years, young alumni of the SCUT architecture circle has formed a group in Hong Kong, beginning since about 2008. Not all of them were educated in Hong Kong, but some chose to live and work in the city after coming back from overseas study. Their WeChat group is called "Forever 27". The number"27" here refers to the number of a classroom in the SCUT Architecture Building, and it also means staying young forever. While Hong Kong is now stuck in bewilderment and negativity, these group of young people keep on fighting not only in the companies they work for, but some are already starting their own businesses.
It's like a range
When looked from the front.
But it's like a peak
When looked at sideways.
The mountain shows its different features
In different levels near and far.
In the past 86 years, the SCUT architecture alumni have always stayed with the country and blazed the trail with their insistence of carrying on the education undertaking during the anti-Japanese war, their enthusiastic persistence for technology during a time when architecture creation was forbidden, their dedication to subtropical architecture science in the time of national difficulty, and their hard work in the last 40 years of rapid development. What remain unchanged are their progressive and pragmatic spirits. With humility and pragmatism, the SCUT architecture alumni have created "unique" architectures in "the South of China" one after another.□(Translated by DU Kejun)