Manuelle Gautrand, the Luxury of Being Unaccustomed

作者：Alice Laguarda（建筑师，学者）

By Alice Laguarda, architect, philosopher

桀骜不驯

Manuelle Gautrand在探索建筑学的过程中发现了现代社会危机，这种危机表现为富足、过度工业化社会日益走向“极端现代”和“极度守旧”两个极端。“现代社会”脱胎于“启蒙时代”，我们需要一个干净利落的变革来让“现代社会”有别于强调遵循传承、保持统一的“传统社会”。这个迅猛的变革带来了“现代社会”，“现代社会”立足于人性化、科技化。现代人定义自己为“创造者”，现代人有能力建设富有、发达的世界，同时我们也逐步认识到现代人把生活碎片化。“现代社会”本身也时刻面临故步自封的风险，重蹈“古代社会”或“传统社会”的覆辙，根源在于同质化、抄袭、封闭循环以及教条主义等，尽管这些做法可以保持社会间联系，但应对问题却采用一刀切的办法。新式“现代派”尽管立足于科技化和人性化，却依然面临抄袭、自我封闭、沉闷的威胁。

揭示

补救还是另辟蹊径，判断的关键还是文化。当今社会过度的利用技术、虚拟现实和超精密工具向人类展示人为的世界，这已经不是自然世界。即使人类身居自然之中，却时刻想要标新立异，主动改造、利用自然。人类世界是语言的世界，这个世界与探讨、创造有关，而并非由流水线上的产品堆叠而成。文化的精髓、创造性作品里存在一种双向表述。个人与艺术作品间存在一种联系，这种联系唯一、私密、充满激情而又独出心裁。社会与艺术作品间存在一道裂痕，艺术作品的产生会影响到周围社会环境，揭开这道裂痕。艺术作品从未粘合这道裂痕，同时试图接近自身本质。这就是为什么设计文化建筑需要把重点放在揭示本质。Manuelle Gautrand认为补救过程中需要揭示、以开放态度面对所有问题，对此她同样身体力行。Manuelle Gautrand喜欢引用法国诗人圣.琼.佩斯（Saint-John Perse）对于文化的定义即“非比寻常的奢华”（the luxury of being unaccustomed）。我们必须不断努力才能创造一个处处非比寻常、存在不同声音、与众不同、桀骜不驯的世界。

方法

为了把这样的世界呈现在人们眼前，或者说为人们打开通往其中的大门，Manuelle Gautrand采用了许多方法，有些方法甚至相去甚远，采用这些做法是为了更贴合不同功能性需要，也使不同作品带来截然不同（的感觉）。这种相异性同样源自对于项目的专注，采用多种不同方法处理问题。Manuelle Gautrand先通过分析、演绎、改造，然后再考虑美学因素，据此调用不同方法（应对不同情形）。有些项目需要和施工地周边环境保持协调，例如Musée d’art moderne Lille Métropole，位于Villeneuve d’Ascq，就和周边地形以及四周由罗兰.西蒙内（Roland Simounet）设计的建筑相得益彰。Manuelle Gautrand的建筑大胆将新空间与周边现有建筑联系起来，但又包含独特的设计使其有别于周边建筑，在空间上，建筑师们经常让自己的作品区别于周边环境，有时近乎偏执。Manuelle Gautrand注重建筑与周边环境的协调，在蔓草、金银花丛生的弗吉尼亚，Manuelle Gautrand为自己的建筑设计了一面垂直玻璃墙，让建筑融入周边环境。“协调”在某种层面上来说，是让建筑“扎根”于当地环境，富有强烈表现力，也就是所谓“原生艺术”观点。

其他项目（的设计）则表现为对差异性和经过深思熟虑后对自由的追求，例如位于北屯（Béthune）的“国家戏剧中心”（Dramatic National Center），这座混领土建筑结构紧凑、刷清漆，与周边建筑无论在规模、比例上都相去甚远。 “雪铁龙展厅”（Citroën show room），位于巴黎香榭丽舍大街，选用折叠彩色玻璃把“雪铁龙”V形标志建造在展厅屋顶。我们通过狭窄空间表达圆形世界和节庆主题，是汽车领域的最终目标，这一设计跳出了普通建筑的固有形式。

某些项目旨在形成简单、清楚的功能性空间，另外一些项目则需要形成开放性空间，例如巴黎的 La Gaîté Lyrique。

外形

Manuelle Gautrand具备高雅个人审美，善于运用不同方法设计出合理建筑外形，比如在利用形状倒置，在多种形状交融、集合过程中，运用发散、包围、添加、切断的手法。比如，La Gaîté Lyrique项目，我们决定将原本充满伤感、空洞的建筑改建，而不仅仅是修复。

我们在某种程度上放弃了旧有建筑风格，这点值得肯定。运用建筑的长度、房顶等要素，利用发散效果，让“新活力”逐步在旧有房屋顶部、边缘焕发出来。

Manuelle Gautrand利用实地情况、材料、光线（Manuelle Gautrand同样视其为“材料”）（为建筑）塑形。例如法国圣路易（Saint Louis）的“文化中心”就选用红棕色的混凝土，在很长的玻璃外墙上选用红棕色虽然不常见，但能很好的通过暖色表现欢快的情感。我们用透明玻璃来表现情感的深度，通过折射日光在玻璃的表面营造质感。

建筑学中的摆动

Manuelle Gautrand在把人文主义深刻融入建筑当中，不仅因为她始终致力于为居住者提供便利生活，更因为努力背后她所倾注的意义。Manuelle Gautrand的建筑充满人性化，把“建筑环境”放在首位考虑，“建筑环境”作为一个整体把人们聚集在一起、调和人与人、城市与建筑、特定建筑与居住者、参观者之间的关系。如果说文化永远是重中之重，那是因为文化是调和人与世界关系一剂良药。在这个层面上说，文化并不是寻求祥和状态或陷入被动沉思。文化必须涉及处理双向关系，比如化解潜在争端、对立、争论和反叛。在这个层面上，Manuelle Gautrand的建筑充满人性化，这些建筑试着鼓励表达人的东西，也就是主动沟通的“人性”。 人性化的观点有力的迫使我们重新审视建筑矛盾，具体表现为（建筑学）日益走向“极端现代”和“极度守旧”两个极端。建筑学让人着迷，因为充满了无穷的可能，受虚拟现实技术影响已经从形式、色彩中解脱出来，但不能脱离居住者、作为个体的人类及其恐惧和历史。建筑学应该在不断的揭示中发展，放飞自我，充满激情，才能在尝试、创新、冒险中发扬光大。Manuelle Gautrand说，怀疑精神可以让我们时刻推陈出新，确保文明不会停滞不前。世人并非都喜欢富足、腻烦的社会，建筑学可能向简短、临时性、轻便型发展。我们毫无疑问会逐渐在大城市里看到一些建筑，这些建筑为人们开发新的生活方式，在感觉上逐步接近人们的新想法、新期望。

Disobedience

In her approach to architecture, Manuelle Gautrand explores the crisis of modernity, in which ‘our rich and sated industrialised society is torn between extreme modernity and a reactionary return to the past’. The Moderns, who were heirs to the Age of Enlightenment, wanted to make a clean break with traditional,holistic societies, the sole value of which was conformity to tradition. The break came as a revolution, violent and swift: the Moderns stood for individualism and technology. Modern man saw himself as homo faber – the doer capable of building a technology-rich world and - as we now know - of blowing all life to pieces! The fact is that modernity itself is constantly at risk of retreating into its ivory tower, and indulging in the same replication process that it censures in ancient or traditional societies. Replication based on identical copying, imprisonment in cycles, the dogma of religions which, although they protect social bonds, pretend to know all the answers (always the same) to all the questions. The new modern religions -technology and individualism – carry the same threat of replication, enclosure and suffocation.

Manuelle Gautrand has devised pairs of opposites to address this threat:dependence/disobedience, immobility/boldness, past/present, unique/plural,answers/questions… Her thought is on the side of disobedience, boldness and plurality as remedies against replication -these things are the founding elements of her architecture and her approach to programmes. The lesson contained in these remedies are summed up in a number of her remarks: if ‘innovation is always based on disobedience’, we should ‘mark the change by our way of representing our civilisation’, ‘work within discrepancies’, take ‘the risk of building’ and test ‘our emotions and desires to the utmost!’.

Unmasking

The fl ash point between all these issues - the milieu par excellence of remedy and disobedience - is culture. The overwhelming presence of technology, of virtual reality and of the hyper-sophisticated tools of our present-day societies shows us to what extent the world of humans is not a natural world. Even when they live amidst nature, humans are always wanting to mark differences, to exploit discrepancies: to show ‘initiative’. The human world is a world of language,discussion and creation, and not one occupied by the fabrication of stereotypes.In the heart of culture, in the created work, lies a dual articulation. Between the individual and the artwork exists a unique, privileged, passionate and inventive relationship, and between the artwork and society exists a relationship of rupture,due to the opening up effect that the artwork imposes on its social milieu. The artwork keeps what is open, affording access to the essence of being itself. And this is why design work for cultural facilities is necessarily focused on unmasking the essence. This remedial process, which Manuelle Gautrand lays claim to and engages in, entails an unmasking and an opening up to questions. She likes to quote a definition of culture made by the French poet Saint-John Perse, who spoke of ‘the luxury of being unaccustomed’. We have to make a constant effort to force our entry into that world where the ‘unaccustomed’ is dominant, a world where everything is called into question and where divergence, disorder and disobedience constitute the norm.

Strategies

To bring people into this world and – more important still – to open it up to them,Manuelle Gautrand employs different strategies, which are themselves divergent.In fact, it is their divergence that suits them to the function of unmasking and it is what makes her projects very different one from the other. This diversity also derives from the attention she brings to bear on programmes, on the many and varied ways she appropriates and interprets briefs in order to work. This process of analysis, interpretation and even deformation of the programme, which in all her projects precedes any aesthetic choice, leads her to deploy her strategies.For example, the project infiltrates the site by maintaining a certain continuity with what is already there, as is the case with her extension to the Musée d’art moderne Lille Métropole at Villeneuve d’Ascq, which establishes a strong link with the topography and with the buildings designed by Roland Simounet. But hers is a bold continuity, since the new spaces (five folded ‘branches’, organic forms)furl around the existing buildings, marking a treatment distinct from what is usual in this type of project, where designers often mark a clear (and often rigid) spatial separation with the ‘historic’ context. Her ‘soft’ continuity fi nds expression in the small vertical glazed openings of the new buildings, and in the presence of plantlife bases of Virginia creeper and honeysuckle that ‘colonise’ the architecture and anchor it to the ground. Continuity in this case also entails putting down roots, a settling in of architecture, perhaps in response to the powerful expressiveness of the works on display there – in particular the standing collection of Art Brut.

Other projects mark the need for a certain kind of disobedience and favour deliberate formal liberty: this is the case of the Centre dramatique national at Béthune, a compact varnished and painted concrete case that breaks with the scale and proportions of the surrounding architecture. Similarly, the Citroën show room project on the Champs-Elysées in Paris makes constructive use of the chevron motif that is the car-maker’s trademark: up the façade and onto the roof in an arrangement of folded and stained glass. The narrow vertical space conveys circus world and festive themes that are not part of the general consensus whereby the automobile is seen as the ultimate object, a stereotype given the site.Other projects aim at producing simple and clear functional spaces, while some express the will to elaborate more open-ended and ambiguous places: for instance La Gaîté Lyrique in Paris.

Figures

These different strategies are all based on fi gures proper to Manuelle Gautrand,and which constitute her highly personal aesthetic discourse. The figure of inversion, of invasion, or of colonisation, which entails dissemination and enfolding, addition and rupture, for instance marking La Gaîté Lyrique project.The construction ‘sets out to conquer’ an existing building that is sad and empty.More than a rehabilitation, this is architecture of violence that is determined to transf i gure.

What we have here is a sort of abandoning (in pleasure) to the tendencies of the existing building, which has to be espoused: using its length, roof, etc. By the dissemination effect there is a slow yet gradual invasion by the side and by the top, an invasion that instils ‘new life’ into the old building.

Manuelle Gautrand exploits these fi gures by means of matter, materials and light(seen as a material in its own right). Consider, for example, the importance of the reddish brown concrete used on the cultural complex at Saint Louis (France),which brings pleasure and emotion by featuring a warm, unusual colour in a long glazed façade. The transparency of glass is used to procure pleasure in depth and even more so on the surface, where scintillating sunlight def l ects sight-lines onto technical spaces. Steel, a technique-ridden and heavy materials, is always used to introduce a vibration effect – a constant and gentle variation, comfortable and pleasant.

Matter and materials are thus constantly side-tracked from their economic or technical ends – they become elements caught in an inf i nite play on their capacity to engage in metamorphosis.

The oscillation of architecture

In all her projects Manuelle Gautrand proposes a deeply humanist conception of architecture. Not only because she always carefully integrates constraints of usage for the benef i t of users, but also because of the meaning she imparts in doing so. Her architecture is human because it aims first and foremost at building a ‘milieu’ for people, a ‘whole’ that unites and reconciles individuals with other individuals, the city with its buildings, a particular building with the people who live in it and see it. If culture is always of prime importance, it is because it is a fundamental means of conciliating and soothing our relationship to the world. Culture in this sense does not mean seeking a beatif i c state or engaging in passive contemplation. It has to do with setting up two-way relationships that integrate possible conf l ict, opposition, criticism and disobedience. In this sense,Manuelle Gautrand’s architecture is humanist because it attempts to encourage the manifestation of human things – our humanity: things contrary to passiveness and withdrawal. This forceful conception of humanity obliges us to re-think architecture as being torn between ‘attachment to the past and attraction to extreme modernity’. Architecture ‘fascinated’ by the infinite number of possible references, ‘cut loose’ among the endless variety of forms and colours, and given up to the technological mirage of virtual reality should never detach itself from ‘its users, its individuals’, nor from their fears and their history. Architecture should proceed by a perpetual unmasking, and to do so it must ‘let itself go’, let itself be enthusiastic, so as to open up increasingly to experimentation, innovation and risk-taking. Doubtless, in doing so, as Manuelle Gautrand says, we will be able to continue to change the representation that we have of our civilisation, and keep it from becoming static and sacred. Our ‘rich and sated’ societies might take more interest in those that are not like them, and architecture might move towards ‘forms that are ephemeral, temporary, light-weight’. And no doubt too, we might see increasingly in our gigantic cities an architecture that invents ‘ways of living and opening up in a dimension that is tactile, sensitive and near to people in their new concerns and expectations’.