建筑的细部：作为身体介质的扶手

古斯塔夫·安布罗西尼/Gustavo Ambrosini

黄华青 译/Translated by HUANG Huaqing

作者单位：都灵理工大学

我们可以赋予扶手或栏杆多重涵义。例如，它可被视为区隔室内外感受的柔和边界；它应在人们凭栏远眺时提供强有力的观察工具；它标识了我们与所站立地面或水平面的直接关联；它是身体与公共领域之间的情感阈限（有时还承载着大众媒体化的传播范式）。这仅是几个例子而已，名单无疑可以列得更长。但这已足够展现，扶手如何作为一种视觉的、同时也是身体感官的介质。

鉴于这个观点，我们有必要回顾著名景观建筑师及学者杰弗里·杰里科对乔凡尼·贝里尼的绘画《圣喻》的分析。在杰里科所著的《景观设计研究》一书中，他引用了这幅画，称其为融合文艺复兴绘画四大要素的最杰出的作品之一，这四大要素即：几何、人体、运动和环境[1]。他指出了画中栏杆发挥的关键作用——在前景和中景之间创造强有力的联系，将“有序的崇高世界（前景）与混沌的世界（背景）”紧密相扣。前景/背景的辨证关系是文艺复兴艺术的普遍特征，它通过创立与外部表象的联系，为经验的内在意涵赋予秩序——人物与场景的对比作为一种中介，以凸显如画风格的审美价值[2]。

提到身体感，一幅强有力的画面来自格拉纳达阿尔罕布拉宫庭院的水台阶。这组长台阶始于山顶，隐藏在茂密的绿植中，流淌到赫内拉利菲宫与水庭院。流水是通过中空扶手来运送的。景观史学家约翰·迪克森·亨特描述了“它精制的铺地、两侧为流水而掏空的扶手、以及路径的亲人尺度”如何创造出一处亲密、静谧的独特场所，与意大利文艺复兴别墅中宏伟的流水“链条”相去甚远[3]。沿着台阶攀升的体验是令人激动的：在这通常十分炎热的气候中，你的手心将感到一股惊人的凉爽，使人从热浪中得以暂时喘息；同时，这种体验也让人更敏锐地感知到阿尔罕布拉宫的设计者处理水资源时的精湛技艺。

不过，我们是否可能截取一个建筑元素，对其单独进行讨论呢？一方面，我们应避免坠入无尽搜寻一套完整分类学及历史呈现的陷阱；另一方面，潜在的危险是传递出一种扭曲的建筑捷径，即将其视为简单的累积过程，某种复制粘贴而已。

在此意义上，雷姆·库哈斯策展的2014年威尼斯建筑双年展为我们铺开了一幅广博画面：“建筑的元素”。聚焦于细部、局部尺度的意图，指向那些“随时随地”可见的元素，如楼板、墙、天花、屋顶、门、窗、立面、阳台、廊道、壁炉、厕所、台阶、扶梯、电梯、坡道。“只有将建筑元素放到显微镜下观察，我们才能够辨析文化的偏好、被遗忘的象征主义、技术的进步、与日俱增的全球贸易所引发的突变、气候适应、政治策略、监管条例、新的数字政体，以及作为某种混合体的、构成当下建筑实践世界的建筑师理念。”[4]这次展览并未试图调和“复杂性与矛盾性”，而是提供了一套躁动的、非线性的知识库，彰显了深层次的工艺观念及空间暗示。这些元素呈现为再现的空间——不只是技术元素，同时也作为场所存在。

整个威尼斯建筑国际双年展中提供了诸多关于身体介入建筑元素的案例。其中与栏杆话题最为密切相关的部分是“阳台”——“一处测试公共与私密、室内与室外的偶发爆炸性混合物的实验室”[5]——和“台阶”。后者大量引用了弗雷德里希·米尔克的作品，这位德国研究者发展了一门关于台阶的科学，称为“台阶学”。技术上和感知上的元素紧密交织：“有了轮廓，抓的动作才有实质意义。如果一个人并非轮廓的生产者，诸如抹灰匠、石匠或木车工，他依然可以通过以手指追随轮廓线来培养抓的能力。随着他对外形的感受，他对转角和边缘、正半圆和偏心半圆、椭圆形和卵形、浅扶手和深扶手的认知理解都将缓慢形成。”[6]

因此，深入探讨建筑中的扶手话题应是一项鼓舞人心的实验，有助于找出那些很可能有用的特征，与其他特征一起进一步充实建筑师的工具库。尤其是，对建成建筑的整体观察让我们更好地理解这类为防止坠落而创造的功能性元素，如何提供一道建筑与身体间的阈限。这个话题当然逃不开视觉上的美学观念，但也会涉及身体介质的问题。此外，这一细部与整体建筑学概念的关联，也将启发我们探索建筑中的片段/整体关系。

1 平滑的扶手/Smooth

2 扶手与风景/Landscape

There are multiple meanings we can give to a railing or a balustrade. It is, for instance, perceivable as a smooth edge dividing what we feel inside from the exterior; it is a powerful observation tool for people leaning toward landscape's sceneries; it marks the direct contact with the ground or level we stand on; it is an emotional threshold between people's bodies and public domain (sometimes bearing mass mediatised communication stereotypes). These are just few examples, as the list should of course be much longer. But they conveniently show how it is a matter of view and at the same time of sense of body.

With regard to the view, it is helpful to recall the analysis of Giovanni Bellini's painting Holy Allegory made by the famous landscape architect and academic Geoffrey Jellicoe. In his book Studies in Landscape Design, Jellicoe quotes it as one of the most remarkable examples in which the four essential elements of Renaissance painting are combined: geometry, human figure,movement, and environment[1]. He points out the crucial role assumed by the railing in drawing a strong relationship between foreground and middle distance, interlocking "the sublime world of order (the foreground) with that of disorder (the background)". The dialectics on foreground/background relations is a common trait of Renaissance art, able to give order to the inner meaning of the experience by setting up a connection with external appearances: the contrast between figure and campo acts as a medium to underline the aesthetic values of the picturesque[2].

In relation to the sense of body, a powerful image should be provided by the water stairway in the Alhambra gardens of Granada. From the top of the hill, a long staircase sunken inside the mass of vegetation runs down to Generalife villa and water gardens, carrying flowing water inside the hollow handrail. The landscape historian John Dixon Hunt reports how "its delicate paving, the handrails on either sides, scalloped for the running water and the intimacy of the pathway" provide a unique place of closeness and quietness, quite distant from monumental running water "chains" of Italian Renaissance villas[3]. The experience of ascending the stair is purely sensational: in the usually torrid climate, the hand finds a surprising refreshment,momentarily relieving from the heat; in the meantime, this experience sharpens the perception of Alhambra builders' mastery in the manipulation of water resources.

But is it possible to catch a single architectural element and discuss about it separately? On one side, we should avoid to fall into the trap of the infinite search for a thorough and complete taxonomy and historic representation; On the other side, the risk would be to transmit a distort shortcut of architecture as simple aggregation process, sort of paste and copy collage.

In this sense, a wide tableau has been drawn by the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale directed by Rem Koolhaas named Elements of Architecture.The intention to focus on the scale of detail and fragmentation is let to point out "anywhere,anytime" elements such as the floor, the wall, the ceiling, the roof, the door, the window, the façade,the balcony, the corridor, the fireplace, the toilet,the stair, the escalator, the elevator, the ramp."Only by looking at the elements of architecture under a microscope can we recognise the cultural preferences, forgotten symbolism, technological advances, mutations triggered by intensifying global exchange, climatic adaptations, political calculations, regulatory requirements, new digital regimes, and, somewhere in the mix, the ideas of the architect that constitute the practice of architecture today"[4]. Without attempting to reconcile"complexities and contradictions", the exhibition provided a tumultuous and non-linear corpus of knowledge, illustrating technical in-depth views as well as spatial suggestions. These elements appear as recurring spaces – not just technical elements but places.

3 融入地面/Ground

4 诸多扶手/Mass media action （1-4摄影/Photos: G. Ambrosini）

在此意义上，援引那些不再在建筑文化中唯视觉独尊的叙述会大有裨益。如建筑师及评论家尤哈尼·帕拉斯玛所做的诸多研究，都在削弱了视觉霸权的基础上，探讨将建筑的感官和知觉特质纳入考量的重要性。从这一路径进一步拓展的可能性，根植于将感官交互作为一种同步过程的观念，这源于梅洛-庞蒂理论对建筑的人体体验中现象学维度的定义。帕拉斯玛指出，普遍聚焦于视觉范式是现代主义建筑语境中不断重现的特征：“眼”的力量经常出现于勒·柯布西耶、格罗皮乌斯、拉兹洛·莫霍里-纳吉等人的文字中。然而，他称勒·柯布西耶为“一位拥有模具般双手的伟大艺术天才，对实体性、可塑性和重力拥有惊人的感知力，这一切皆防止他的建筑陷入感官的还原主义”[7]。

不少20世纪建筑大师的作品依然提供了强有力的形象，帮助我们理解建筑中的身体介入（藉由栏杆）。

一部曲线形的陶瓷扶手界定了巴塞罗那古埃尔公园主平台的边界。这座公园建成于1914年，被视为安东尼·高迪的杰作之一。这条狭长的曲线标志既是防坠的屏障，也是一部连续的长椅，将活力带到公园的聚焦点：长椅的曲线塑造了一系列凹龛，同时创造出亲密的与开敞的空间，人们可以自由地以各种姿势坐在这里，享受欣赏城市和公园的不同视角[8]。贴满瓷片的表面，由陶瓷碎片以某种彩色图案或自由方式排列，是一张吸引人坐在上面的光滑表皮。在这里，扶手是一种雕塑性、休憩性质的体量：它成了一种纯粹的身体经验。

作为对比，不妨看看瓦尔特·格罗皮乌斯于1926年为普雷勒公寓设计的悬挑阳台。这座建筑是德绍包豪斯校区中的工作室和宿舍侧翼。从外部看来，每个房间都有一个凸出的小阳台，其宽度只有大窗户的1/3。阳台上仅有3根纤细的金属管提供了防坠屏障（根据今天的安全条例这是不够的）。设计中避免了直角：金属管采用曲线转角，阳台楼板边缘拥有曲线轮廓。这一切都试图消解这个屏障的物质性，追求一种无重力感，似乎要将人举到室外、几乎悬置在空气中。这是一个作为无限空间的现代阳台标志。

在阿尔瓦·阿尔托1935年设计的维普里（今维堡）图书馆中，扶手和栏杆扮演了界定空间使用方式的核心角色。建筑的正交体系以台阶和服务台组成的核心筒为流转中心：这个空间就像中轴，产生一组发散式的运动流。访客随着一部模制的宽大木制扶手步入建筑，扶手由纤细的金属支柱支撑，其上符合人体工学的抓手槽设计，散发出温暖的材质感，一定程度上也吸引人们靠在上面看书。扶手的终点画出一段曲线，凸显了入口位置。上层扶手则不再只是简单的栏杆，同时也是一组平台，可以承载书本，作为阅读的场所。

这一精致设计如同“人性化建筑”[9]概念的实体化，其实现过程同时涵盖了本能和直觉：即帕拉斯玛所定义的“感官现实主义”，得以“整合错位，削弱正面冲突、异常形式和不和谐音，以唤醒身体、肌肉和触觉的体验”。[10]

扶手在建筑中呈现出几乎无限变化的形式，这打消了任何试图建立空中楼阁般的分类方法的念头。本文提出另一种方式：描绘一套开放的方法论，以支撑关于扶手本质特征的阐释性框架；也就是说，这个工具不仅是分析性的，同时能根据设计需求而改变。

第一步应辨析扶手所在的建筑元素的不同类型。我们不妨根据其空间体验的静止/动态程度，来规定不同类型的秩序。换言之，从偏向静态的体验（阳台）开始，到不同等级的动态体验：低速（观景点）、中速（步行桥）、快速（楼梯）。这个名录很难穷尽，当然可以列出更多类型。

下一步是基于辨证的两极，定义一组常见的物理特征。例如，透明与不透明、暖性材料与冷性材料、统一性扶手/栏杆与多元化扶手/栏杆、平滑边缘与尖锐边缘、有机图案与线性图案。

如果将这些元素呈现为一张矩阵表格，不难看到并对比某种扶手类型为使用者提供的体验与其特定物理特征之间的关联性。然而在此必须警示：该矩阵不应被视为一套僵化方法，而是一种尝试性的、不全面的工具，意图探索一种阐释不同设计方法的路径。这是一个帮助我们更好聚焦于身体元素的临时性工具，目的是进一步丰富建筑作为“身体及空间际遇”的观念。[10]□

5 乔凡尼·贝里尼的绘画《圣喻》/Giovanni Bellini,Holy Allegory （图片来源/Source: 维基共享/Wikimedia Commons）

6 格拉纳达阿尔罕布拉宫庭院的水台阶/Alhambra, water stairway （图片来源/Source: Superchilum - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons）

The overall biennale exhibition in Venice offers a lot of references to body engagement with architectural elements. The sections mostly involved with the topic of railing are "Balcony" – "laboratory where sometimes explosive mixtures of public and private, inside and outside, are tested"[5]– and"Stair". In the latter, a wide reference is paid to the work of Friedrich Mielke, a German researcher who developed a staircase science, called "scalalogie".Technical and perceptive items are strictly interrelated: "With profiles, the grasping is meant literally. If a person is not a producer of profiles,such as a plasterer, a stonemason or a wood turner,he can cultivate his grasping abilities by following contours with his fingers. As he fells the forms, his understanding for curves and edges, for exact and stilted semicircles, for ellipses and ovals, for shallow and steep rails and for all other details, will grow"[6].

Therefore, a deep view on the topic of railing in architecture should be a stimulating experiment,helpful for pointing out specificities that can be usefully assumed, together with many others,to enrich the architect's toolkit. In particular, an overall look through realisations should offer a better understanding about the way that functional element, created to protect people from the void,provide a threshold among architecture and our body. It's a topic dealing with an idea of aesthetic engaged with view, of course, but also with body matters. Moreover, the relationship among such a detail and the overall architectural concept offers some keys to discuss about the relationship fragment/unity in architecture.

7 第14届威尼斯建筑国际双年展展出的《建筑元素》/Elements of Architecture - 14th International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, Marsilio（摄影/Photo: G.Ambrosini）

8 巴塞罗那古埃尔公园/Parque Güell, Barcelona（摄影/Photo: G.Ambrosini）

9 维堡图书馆/Vyborg, Library （图片来源/Source: Ninara CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons）

10 包豪斯普雷勒公寓/Bauhaus Prellerhaus, Dessau（图片来源/Source: Spyrosdrakopoulos CC BY-SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons）

11 扶手的体验、类型、物理特征分析示意图/Railing experience, typology,physical features analysis representation（绘图/Drawing: G. Ambrosini）

It is fruitful to refer to narratives overcoming the predominance of the visual realm in architectural culture. Many studies by architect and critic Juhani Pallasmaa, for instance, deal with the importance of taking into account the sensory and sensual qualities of architecture, against a reductive hegemony of vision. The possibility to develop a broader attitude roots on the idea of interaction of the senses as a simultaneous process, according to the definition of the phenomenological dimension in human experience of architecture in Merleau-Ponty's theories. Pallasmaa points out how the focus on the visual paradigm as prevailing condition was a recurrent trait in modernist narrative: the power of the "eye" frequently appeared in the writings of Le Corbusier, Gropius, Lazlo Moholy-Nagy and others. However, he refers to Le Corbusier as "a great artistic talent with a moulding hand, and a tremendous sense of materiality, plasticity and gravity, all of which prevented his architecture from turning into sensory reductivism"[7].

Many works of some Masters of 20 century still offer powerful images to the comprehension of body engagement in architecture (trough railings).

An undulating ceramic balustrade defines the edge of the main terrace of Parque Güell in Barcelona. Realised in 1914, it is considered one of the masterworks by Antoni Gaudí. The long sinuous sign is a barrier against the void as well as a continuous bench bringing life to the focal point of the park: the curves of the bench mould a series of enclaves, alternatively creating more intimate spaces and open ones, giving form to multiple reciprocal positions of people and multiple views towards the town and the park[8]. The ceramic surface, made by tile fragments set in colourful patterns or free arrangements, is a smooth and inviting skin to seat on. Here the railing is a carved and accommodating mass: it becomes pure body experience.

As a contrast, it is possible to cite the hanging balconies designed by Walter Gropius for the Prellerhaus in 1926, the atelier and dormitory wing of the Bauhaus building in Dessau. Seen from the exterior, each room is marked by a little jutting balcony, whose width is only one third of the large window. Just three thin metallic tubular elements provide a barrier against the void (nowadays insufficient according to safety rules). Net angles are avoided: the pipes form curved corners, the edge of the slab has a rounded profile. Everything converges in the attempt to dematerialise the barrier,searching for weightless sensation, as if to stick out the person to the exterior, almost suspended in the air. An icon of Modern balcony as limitless space.

Handrails and railings play a central role in defining the use of space in the library realised by Alvar Aalto in Viipuri (now Vyborg) in 1935. The building orthogonal system is distributed by a central core formed by stairs and administrative desk: this space acts as a joint generating a radial flow of movement. Visitors ascend to the entrance following a moulded large wood handrail, supported by slim metallic struts; which is shaped for an ergonomic hand grip and formed of a material warm to the touch, in some way inviting to lean towards the books as well. At the end the handrail draws a curve to highlight the point of entrance. The upper railing is conceived not as a simple balustrade but as a series of flat surfaces supporting books and providing a place to read in.

The exquisite design appears as the materialisation of the intent of "humanising architecture"[9], through a process including instinct and intuition: a "sensory realism", as defined by Pallasmaa, that "incorporates dislocations, skew confrontations, irregularities and poly-rhythms in order to arouse bodily, muscular and haptic experiences"[10].

The almost infinite shapes assumed by railing in architecture dissuades from trying to establish improbable taxonomies. Here another approach is suggested: to sketch an open methodology capable to support an interpretative frame dealing with the intrinsic features of railings, that's to say, a tool at the same time analytical and still modifiable according to design items.

The first step should be the identification of the different typologies of architectural elements needing a railing. It is proposed to order the different typologies according to the gradient of static/dynamic experience they provide to the users.In other words, from the more static experience(balcony) to major grades of dynamic experience:low (landscape viewpoint), moderate (footbridge),quick (stairs). The list is not an exhaustive one, more typologies can of course be identified.

The next step consists in defining a set of recurring physical features, based on the dialectic polarity between two extremes. For instance,transparent versus opaque; warm material versus cold material; unity railing/handrail versus difference railing/handrail; smooth edge versus sharp edge; organic pattern versus linear pattern.

If these elements are displayed in a grid like representation, it is possible to visualise and compare the forms of interrelation between the kind of experience that a single typology offers to the users, and the specific physical features.A caution must be used: such a grid is not to be considered as a rigid method, but as a tentative and partial tool, intended to stimulate a way of interpreting design approaches. A temporary tool helping to better focus on body items, in order to enrich the idea of architecture as a "physical and spatial encounter"[10].□