德国施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所

设计的过程

PROCESS OF DESIGN

蒂尔·施耐德和米夏埃尔·舒马赫于1988年在美茵河畔的法兰克福成立了施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所。他们的传奇设计方案——信息盒子，在东西德统一后不久就竖立在当时柏林最大的建筑工地上，这一项目让施耐德+舒马赫得到了全世界的赞誉和认可。自那之后，施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所又陆续设计开发了100多座建筑、城市开发项目和众多的产品设计作品。

Till Schneider and Michael Schumacher founded schneider+schumacher in Frankfurt am Main in 1988. Their legendary information box, erected shortly after reunification on what was then the largest construction site in Berlin, brought the office worldwide recognition. Since then, more than 100 buildings, urban development projects and numerous product designs have emerged.

在他们的哲学理念中，设计策略需要足够强大来对变化作出应对。如果仔细审视施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所的设计方案，就会发现他们从不会总是采用相似的设计方法。建筑设计领域的范围过于宽广。不仅仅是建筑项目类型的不同——工业和办公楼建筑、博物馆、住宅和教育建筑、教堂、酒店，以及桥梁——不同建筑的规模和设计背景也各不相同。施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所除了从事大型城市项目之外，也接手小型的设计项目，例如家具设计等。新造建筑、建筑翻新及改造都是施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所的专长。在某些情况下，设计背景会提供灵感：“它会向你低语”（蒂尔·施耐德谈到），在某些时候建筑项目会在一片绿地上进行施工。

In their philosophy a design strategy needs to be sufficiently powerful to respond to change. If you question the methodology with which schneider+schumacher develop their designs, there is nothing to indicate they always adopt a similar approach. The spectrum of buildings is too broad for that. Not only do projects differ - industrial and office buildings, museums, residential and educational buildings, a church, hotels,bridges but both scale and context vary too. The office tackles projects on a large urban scale and small-scale projects too, such as furniture design. New buildings,as well as refurbishments and conversions are all part of their repertoire. Sometimes the context offers inspiration: "It whispers something to you" (Till Schneider), at other times construction takes place on a green- field site.

一个能够适应整个设计过程变化的坚实基础，取决于在一开始就找到正确的方法来应对该项设计主题。因此在项目开始之时就能提出如下问题是至关重要的：我们是要创造一个令人难忘的建筑存在？实现一种特定的功能？还是营造一个特定的氛围？米夏埃尔·舒马赫把设计比喻成一种脑筋急转弯——一个人必须能协调设计概要的各个方面，同时又要关注问题的关键所在。

A robust foundation - one capable of accommodating change throughout the design process - is contingent on finding the right way of approaching the topic at the outset. So it is crucial to question at the start of a project what really matters:creating an imposing presence, fulfilling a specific function, engendering a particular atmosphere? Michael Schumacher likens design to a brain-twister - one has to reconcile all the various aspects of the brief, yet simultaneously focus on the crux of the matter.

每一座半木制结构的房子都是从一个合乎逻辑的结构原理演变而来的。正是合理的结构原理使建筑物能够长期稳固。这是理解建筑体系结构的另一种方式。而不能仅当成一种如今风行的铺张华丽的设计方案来考虑。（米夏埃尔·舒马赫）

Every half-timbered house evolves from a logical structural principle. It is what keeps architecture permanently anchored. This is another way of understanding architecture. And not merely as a design extravaganza, as happens all too often these days. (Michael Schumacher)

这句话有助于阐明米夏埃尔·舒马赫所说的“我们更喜欢建造帆船而不是摩托艇”的含义。帆船的优雅源于它对一系列条件的巨大依赖，这些条件能有效地缩小实现预期功能所需的内容范围。而这恰恰是美产生的地方，因为情感源自于理性。这就是首先探索理性方法全部潜力的重大意义所在。多年来，施耐德+舒马赫的参数化设计一直是其设计方法的重要组成部分，并因此产生出高效的结构方案，例如高速公路教堂项目的肋木结构设计和法兰克福展馆的三方互锁外壳结构。

This quote helps to clarify what Michael Schumacher means when he says, "We prefer building sailing boats to motorboats." The elegance of a sailing boat stems from its immense dependence on a set of conditions that effectively cut down the scope for fulfilling the desired function. And it is precisely here that beauty arises,since the emotional is derived from the rational. That is why it makes sense to first explore the full potential of a rational approach. For years now, parametric design at schneider+schumacher has been an integral part of the office, and it has led to efficient structures such as the ribbed timber construction of the motorway chapel,and the three interlocking shells of the Frankfurt Pavilion.

数字工具已经融入人们的日常生活环境，同样地，它们也成为建筑设计办公室日常工作的一部分。

Digital tools have become an accepted part of our everyday environment and equally they form part of day-to-day life in architecture offices too.

然而重要的一点是，不能过于依赖这种数字化让其成为一种颠扑不破的设计方法，进而产生限制性。出于这一原因，施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所一直坚持使用包括模拟工具以及数字工具在内的所有可能的设计工具。使用一种新工具有它的好处，同样也有随之而来的缺点。因此，设计办公室的每位员工都有一个速写本，在实际物理模型上完成的工作仍然是设计过程中的一种重要资源。施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所提倡使用传统的工作模型，让设计人员在模型上进行相应的粘连或切断以鼓励提出不同的方法来解决问题，而不是简单地一遍又一遍地打印出三维模型。

However it is important not to allow this process to become so irrefutable that it then also becomes restrictive. For this reason, the office employs the entire range of potential tools, analogue as well as digital. The pluses of a using a new tool cannot be had without its concomitant minuses. Every office employee therefore keeps a sketchbook and work done on actual physical models continues to be an important resource in design work. The use of traditional working models, where one glues things on or cuts them off, encourages a different approach to problem-solving compared to simply printing out a 3D model over and over again.

即使由于环境的变化而不得不修改计划，潜在的概念仍然对结果起着决定性作用。

Even when plans have to be amended due to changing circumstances, the underlying concept still determines the outcome.

尽管在每一个项目开始的时候施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所都充满了这种好奇心和愿望，就仿佛这是他们第一次接手设计项目一样，但不论怎样每个项目都有一个单一的出发点，而这在某种程度上也证明了施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所迄今在结构设计方面所取得的成就：蒂尔·施耐德设计的两座摩天大楼和米夏埃尔·舒马赫设计的变形挖掘机项目，这些都是在上世纪80年代设计完成的，当时两人均刚刚开始自己的职业生涯。正如蒂尔·施耐德的摩天大楼设计方案以一种基于内在逻辑的建筑形式实现它的优雅从而超越单纯对结构的关注一样，在米夏埃尔·舒马赫变形挖掘机项目中，挖掘机经历一系列的变化，通过执行预定任务来“对自己施加了魔法”。然而，这项设计任务之所以最终变得与众不同，是因为缺乏任何能够预先定义的目标，这意味着只能通过挖掘机的自发行动来实现结果。通过这种方式，挖掘机所产生的结果将是一个不可能通过任何蓄意意图来进行煽动的最终结果。M.C.Escher的绘画作品之所以如此广受欢迎，不正是因为它具有挑战理性、将理性推向极限，以至于使其逻辑变得难以处理，甚至不合逻辑的特点吗？对于诗歌而言也是如此：如果一首诗歌被认为仍停留在追求诗意的境界水平上，那么它依然是庸俗的。另一方面，按照Jan Turnovsky的说法，真正的诗“是富有诗意的，但同时也是非诗意的，例如切合实际的”。但这也意味着，如同米夏埃尔·舒马赫所言，“事实上一切都可能是诗意的。”

In spite of all this curiosity and the desire to start each project as if it were their very first, there is a single point of departure that, to some extent, exemplifies what the office has achieved to date in terms of architecture: the two skyscraper designs (Till Schneider) and the metamorphosis of an excavator (Michael Schumacher), projects from the 1980s when both were at the start of their careers. Just as Till Schneider's skyscraper achieves its elegance with a form of construction based on an inherent logic - thereby transcending mere structural concerns - in Michael Schumacher's Metamorphosis the excavator undergoes a change in which it "bewitches itself" through carrying out the task it was intended for. However ultimately this task becomes something different because the lack of any previously defined objective means that the outcome can only be achieved through the act of excavation. And in doing just this, the excavator produces an end result that would have been impossible to instigate through any deliberate intent. Is not M. C. Escher's graphic work so popular precisely because it challenges the rational and pushes it to the limit, to a point where its logic becomes intractable, even illogical? And so it is with the poetic: if it remains within the boundaries of what is recognized as being poetic, it remains kitsch. According to Jan Turnovsky, on the other hand, the truly poetic, “is poetic, yet at the same time unpoetic, for example practical". But this also means, according to Michael Schumacher that, “In fact everything is potentially poetic.”

身份识别和国际化

Identity and Internationalism

施耐德+舒马赫的建筑和设计作品以清晰和精确为特点，他们的创作水平与设计办公室的工作和沟通方式有着明显的关联。其中一个对另一个的影响是如此之大，以至于不可能将它们的架构方法或工作方法归因于因果关系。米夏埃尔·舒马赫介绍到，一种非常有用的做法就是在设计初期阶段，将最终建筑报告的第一段写在纸上。这将有助于显示是否已经足够精确地明确了特定设计的优先级和质量要求，以便在项目设计开发过程中可以反复使用这段文字来作为对照控制。这并不是说固执地坚持最初的设计理念，而是作为一种相对恒定的标准，可以在设计的后期阶段进行衡量比照。如果能够对整个项目进行连贯描述，并且如果能清楚地明确建筑师的优先权应集中在何处，那么这个项目就显然能拥有一种可以充分表达的结构。在开发阶段的关键节点，项目人员也会将正在进行中的设计工作呈交给不参与该项目设计的其它办公室成员——这些员工的公正意见将有助于确定论点的信服程度，以及设计决策的合理性。

schneider+schumacher's buildings and designs are characterised by clarity and precision, and the calibre of their work clearly correlates to how the office works and communicates. One impacts the other so much that it is impossible to attribute either - their approach to architecture, or their approach to work - to cause or effect. Michael Schumacher claims one very useful exercise is to set down on paper, at an early stage, the first paragraph of a final building report. This then helps to show whether the priorities and qualities of a particular design have been sufficiently precisely established, so that the text can be repeatedly used as a control as the project design develops.This does not mean doggedly clinging on to the initial concept, but it is a constant yardstick by which a design can be measured during later stages. If the whole project can be described coherently, and if it is clear where the architects' priorities lie, the project evidently has a structure that can be conveyed. At crucial junctures during the development phase, work-in-progress is also presented to other office members not involved in the design work - their impartial opinions help in determining whether the line of argument is convincing, and the design decisions plausible.

这种经过实践反复验证的做法使设计工作室培养出了一种共同的精神，这也意味着两位创始人不需要对工作室里发生的每件事都进行复核。施耐德+舒马赫也不排除采用经验和可靠的解决方案。关于这一点，米夏埃尔·舒马赫喜欢引用密斯凡德罗的话“一个人不可能每周一都发明创造出新的建筑设计方案”，而是主张“要积极采用经验且可靠的解决方案，并且时常重复借鉴。”

This permanent back-and-forth within the practice fosters a certain common spirit, and means that the two founding directors do not need to double-check everything that goes on in the office. Nor does it preclude tried-and-tested solutions. In this respect, Michael Schumacher likes to quote Mies van der Rohe, who reputedly said, ‘One cannot reinvent architecture every Monday.' Instead he recommended, ‘Make it big, and repeat it often.'

凭借这一观点，设计师就能够理解如何在不损害实践哲学的前提下，在另外一个或两个国家中实践对建筑设计的管理和实施过程。施耐德+舒马赫利用有利环境，在奥地利和中国都设立了办事处，而这两处国家办事处的建立都是源自于竞争。在奥地利，施耐德+舒马赫赢得了奥地利塔尔海姆全新Fronius国际研发中心的设计方案竞标。

With this in mind, one can begin to understand how managing an architectural practice in another country - or two - can be made to work without compromising practice philosophy. Fortunate circumstances led to establishing offices in Austria and China - both triggered by a competition. In Austria, schneider+schumacher won the competition for a new research and development centre in Thalheim, Austria, for Fronius International.

奥地利维也纳办事处不仅仅是施耐德+舒马赫的另一个经济立足点，它还促进了思想交流，特别是在住宅设计工作方面，目前施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所参与的几个国际知名住房项目正在全新的市区地段——例如维也纳Seestadt Aspern以及Nordbahnhof 区——进行开发。

The Vienna office serves as more than just another economic foothold, it also stimulates the exchange of ideas - especially with regards to residential work, where internationally acclaimed housing projects are currently being developed in new neighbourhoods and urban districts, for instance, at the SeestadtAspern and the Nordbahnhof districts in Vienna.

施耐德+舒马赫将中国办事处的设立视为一个良好的机遇，可以更自由地处理设计问题，并测试得到更加激进的设计方法。2011年，施耐德+舒马赫在杭州钱江科技城市民中心项目的国际竞标中胜出，这也是促使他们做出设立中国办事处这一决定的原因。另外一个推动因素是施耐德+舒马赫与Nan Wang的成功合作，促使她在2012年提出邀请施耐德+舒马赫在中国设立办事处的想法。

Setting up an office in China was seen as an opportunity to approach things more freely and to test out a more radical design approach. Here too, the decision was initially prompted by winning an international competition in 2011 for the Civic Centre of Qianjiang Technology City in Hangzhou.The successful collaboration with Nan Wang led to the establishment of an office in China under her direction in 2012.

我们在维也纳、天津和深圳所做的工作也推动了我们在法兰克福的工作——包括在设计方案组合方面的工作，但最重要的是对我们思考方式的影响。国外办事处的设立拓宽了我们的视野。它就像一扇窗户，你可以透过它观察到周围的景色。（蒂尔·施耐德）

What we are doing in Vienna, Tianjin and Shenzhen also gives a boost to our work in Frankfurt - in our portfolio, but above all, in the way we think. It broadens the horizon. It's like a window through which you can survey the scene. (Till Schneider)

完美成熟的施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所

（文/彼得·库克爵士）

在施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所最近的作品中似乎呈现出三种显而易见的风格倾向，对于建筑评论家来说，比较这三种倾向中的至少两种或更多的案例是很有用处的。从年代、品味和热情来看，在蒂尔·施耐德和米夏埃尔·舒马赫的成名时代，那时北欧最好的建筑似乎都是“高科技建筑”，而我们必须要记住的是，米夏埃尔·舒马赫曾经在Norman Foster的设计办公室工作了数月。

因此他们很善于也富有创意来处理玻璃、接缝、边缘、节能技术方法以及发掘起重机和挖土机的潜力。他们的聪明才智确保了这不仅仅是一种潜在的信手拈来，而是实现一种创造性的利用，使建筑更有效率、更节能，并且更加独特巧妙。作为设计背景，我不确定法兰克福是否能够像伦敦、斯图加特、洛杉矶、纽约或者东京等城市那样提供本地创意竞争力——它依然是一个带有令人不安的反改革色调的商业游乐场——包容且不排斥来自于黑森州之外的设计公司的创造性。因此，这两个男孩子经常独自在外面冒险，寻找机遇。

我将用十个项目来演示说明以下这三个倾向，但这并不意味着除此之外他们没有其它好的方面可以借鉴。

一、清晰的图像

关于这一点尤其值得称赞的项目是2003年的法兰克福机场西港塔楼项目，它的建造为法兰克福市带来了一处优雅而不拘一格的标志性建筑并采用了一种特殊的设计技巧，即在圆形内放置方形楼层，同时建造了分为四层的冬季花园，既能使人身心愉悦又能降低建筑能耗。这座城市里的大多数塔楼都是乱糟糟不成章法，或者又过于严肃、四四方方。在此项目之前，他们已经登上了一个大型的项目舞台，并把他们的设计作品呈现给国际观众：1994年，在柏林市快速重建计划的实施过程中，一个鲜红色的高跷箱型建筑物向来自全球的700万名访客提供了这样一种信息：建筑的自信无坚不摧。

与此同时中国深圳也不再因循守旧，没有选择“互连CBD”双塔方案，而是又一次展示出了自己的直爽和决心——打造与国际“地标”家族相媲美的建筑。然而成功地建造这样的建筑物并不一定需要巨大的规模，2013年施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所在威尔斯多夫的高速公路教堂项目旨在唤起人们对白色乡村教堂的记忆，设计方案无所畏惧地将地面上的一堵墙拉起并将其扭曲成一对简单但令人惊讶的“猫耳”形状，实际上，这对“猫耳”形状的灵感来自于祭坛上的提灯，该项目产生了巨大的影响。整个公路教堂的内部是一个通过数字技术创建的木制交叉肋结构。

二、富有感情的设计编排

施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所在2013年的厄拉芬大桥项目中也采用了墙面扭转方案，使其围绕自身旋转，同时又通过将结构“内部要素”保持在道路的一侧，并将另一侧设计成精致栏杆结构的手法，使往来行人能够在通过桥梁时欣赏并沉醉于这种翩翩起舞般的编排设计。

施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所另一件名为“波浪”的作品，由六件通过编排以及紧扣固定的引人入胜的雕塑组成。正是这六件作品的布局设计，让施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所有机会通过形式来展示其清晰的艺术性。在建筑设计领域中，“褶皱”艺术形式很少有机会得到展示——这是因为当采用这种表现方式的时候，往往容易暴露出建筑师对曲线魔术的笨拙处理手法。但在该项目中情况并非如此，因为人们不仅看到施耐德+舒马赫非常享受这种手法的运用，并且也完全掌控了局面。

2009年设计的“皇家”系列也反映出了对这种运用的享受，在作品中绿丝带的抒情性与对20世纪50年代现代主义的记忆结合在一起并折叠延伸。

三、与地面对话

在达姆施塔特的Fair Accelerator设施项目中，地面被“拉起”到实验室大楼上，有时甚至被“拉”到实验室大楼的上方。如果项目规模较小，应谨慎使用这一手法，但在这个项目中，可以实施数个多方向的折叠：它变成了发生在地面、物体、表面和交错构台和桥梁之间的一场冒险游戏。

但是在曼海姆宫研究和会议中心（2013年），与地面的对话就必然更受控制，但它同样顽皮地挑战着这块土地的神圣性，在一个如此贴近极具历史象征意义的地点通过放置或者不放置效果强大的结构诱饵——一系列切割雕刻体，使整个空间变得如此高雅，并同时在内部创造出十分雅致的空间（可以巧妙看到外部景色）。

最后介绍的是我最喜欢的施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所建筑项目：这是一次与地面的对话，但同时也是与附近的圆形玻璃塔以及许多其它结构的交流呼应，这更多地展示了他们作为设计思想家和技术专家的品质。

Staedel博物馆的扩建工程无疑是一项巨大的挑战：Staedel博物馆的所在地点也是施耐德+舒马赫历史的一部分——这座位于米夏埃尔·舒马赫旧居街道一端的博物馆，其后花园毗邻蒂尔·施耐德与米夏埃尔·舒马赫曾经就读的艺术学院，如今从施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所的窗口望去还能清楚地看见Staedel博物馆。

他们毫不畏惧地把花园里的草坪像揪手帕一样从地面上提起来，并在提升草坪的下方设置了新的走廊。通过巧妙地对圆形穿孔进行渐变处理，创造出一个柔和又富有英雄气概的精美定制楼梯。并在一侧的墙上雕刻出一组讨人喜爱的扶手——整个设计大体就是这样。

那么需要注意的重点就是：因为一些国际知名的建筑师们一直在玩弄艺术博物馆的形式，而且常常表现出“聪明反被聪明误”——这是一种英语表达，多指代自负自大。如今，孩子们有了一个很好的主意…并且能平静而优雅地去追寻和实现。

蒂尔和米夏埃尔——他们真的是追求品质的人。

施工与材料

一个项目从最初构思到最终完工的过程是建筑设计工作的重要组成部分。建筑设计不是简单地根据一个已经成型的构思按部就班地设计和实施。米夏埃尔·舒马赫学生时代的研究项目是关于挖掘机的，挖掘机的运动创造了具有独特品质的空间，能够清楚地表明生产过程及其内在规律是如何造就了建筑本身。即便是在新开发项目最初看起来并不符合原定意图的情况下，这种把握掌控这种过程并实现积极相互作用的能力仅仅是施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所众多特质中的其中一种——它既属于建筑设计的逻辑，也属于最终带来这些变化的其它方面，例如材料、施工建造和使用过程。

在蒂尔·施耐德和米夏埃尔·舒马赫的摩天大楼设计方案中，采用由对形式、建造施工和质量（如材料真实性）的逻辑理解以及清晰考虑所构成的复杂组合，并通过一种易于理解的表现方式来创造建筑物的想法尤其得到了很好的展现。在很大程度上，这些方案在当时都是最重要的工程设计壮举。然而，要使每座塔楼都具有其独特性和可识别性也是一项挑战。这使得它们容易受到那种哗众取巧、华而不实的不良设计思维的影响。蒂尔·施耐德提出一个问题：在什么情况下，独特唯一性才能仅凭自爱而生，而不是衍生于自己的内在逻辑。他早期对塔楼的研究演示说明了如何去理解这种自我生成的逻辑：尽管拥有独特的外形，但总归是衍生于一个看似真实的构建原则。

密码与标志符号

建筑物通过运用标志符号作用来产生影响，但这绝不是建筑物的全部功能。简而言之，这句话可能概括了施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所在其设计作品中关于建筑意象的全部立场，一些建筑设计任务可能会促使建筑师进行高度的联想意象，但其它一些设计任务本身也可以作为自身强大的建筑意象。这两个重叠的方面是建筑隐喻本质的一部分：首先，当建筑物与其它物体相关联时，设计原型或图像就会被激活，其次，建筑物本身也会由于其强大的存在感而产生图像效果。隐喻参考是建筑设计中重要的交互手段，但不是唯一的手段。

我们的目标是找到一种易于解释的表现语言，一种不定义如何去理解建筑物的表现语言。如果这个过程是自发进行的，那就再好不过了，这样观察者就可以自己解读建筑里面的东西。(蒂尔·施耐德)

通过这种态度来设计建造高品质的建筑，需要首先认同并坚持几项基本原则。首先是不要沉迷于外在图像效果：米夏埃尔·舒马赫谈到“对于那些不惜一切代价搏人眼球的方案，我们从来不屑一顾”。第二，为了不变成自己设计风格的囚徒，建筑师们不应该像所谓的“明星建筑师”那样，被诱惑去创造一种识别度高的“品牌作品”，并陷入高度自我参照的不良循环之中。第三条原则是，要有意给使用者和那些关注建筑物的人留有一些余地：让他们能自由地诠释理解建筑物中的方方面面。

建筑师们永远不会想到人们会将西港塔楼命名为“Geripptes”，更不会想到人们会说塔楼像一个苹果酒杯，但他们不介意别人进行这样的解读。这正是他们的指导原则，一个指向超越外在形象和象征事物的原则。

无论是通过观察设计图像还是在建筑物的使用过程中，人们都应该拥有在心中为自己建造合适建筑物的机会。建筑物必须足够有趣，以至于人们会想一次又一次地使用它，而且外观必须拥有充足的联想空间，这样人们才能一次又一次地去重新解释它：“我们相信这样一个事实：建筑本身是在进化的”蒂尔·施耐德如是说。

这显然是参考了英国建筑师和艺术家群体建筑电讯派的作品，以及他们轻松、愉悦、讽刺而又模糊的象征意义。设计目的被提升为一种表达方式。但是，这种提升还有一种令人愉悦的强大力量，因为无论是象征符号还是所代表的内容，都不容易归类。“行走的城市”既是作为一种机械构造的城市，也是一种作为城市的机械构造，既是一个游动的城市，也是城市的一种游动。这无法进行明确的单一解释：人们越是试图对其固定释义就越难以进行归类，而这防止了象征主义仅仅停留在随意武断的层面。相反，它成为设计的固有本质要素，因为它属于自身所评述的世界。

当然，外在形象所带来的不可避免的作用力量以一种非常特殊的方式施加在摩天大楼上。例如前文已经提到的西港塔楼。施耐德+舒马赫建筑设计事务所的摩天大楼设计从不依赖于（没有任何韵律或理由地）通过随意引入符号来创造引人注目的东西。建筑本身就是一个标志符号。正如蒂尔·施耐德在Städelschule最后一篇论文所证明的那样，如果一个人认真对待基本规则，专注于建筑、潜在的用途、城市环境、功能和材料，那将会大有裨益。米夏埃尔·舒马赫概括总结道：“一艘性能良好的帆船，外形肯定也不错。”因此，鉴于通过在设计概要中问清重点所在，询问客户真正想要什么，以及确定场地和周围环境具体性质等方式来遵守设计实践准则——施耐德+舒马赫所有的设计结果都是互不相同的。

颜色、光线与氛围

我们坚信建筑应能实现改变。如果你以正确的方式开始，那么你就不需要在最后投入太多——而打下良好的基础之后，复杂的设计过程几乎能够自行发生。（米夏埃尔·舒马赫）

© Rainer Taepper

© Rainer Taepper

SCHNEIDER AND SCHUMACHER IN FULL MATURITY

(by Sir Peter Cook)

There seem to be three directions evident in the recent work of schneider+schumacher and it is useful for the critic to be able to compare at least two or more examples of each of these directions.Generationally, and by taste and enthusiasm, both Till Schneider and Michael Schumacher have emerged from a period when the best North European architecture seemed to be ‘High Tech' - and we must remember that Michael spent several months in the office of Norman Foster.

Thus they have been both creative and comfortable with the manipulation of glass, joints, edges,technical approaches to energy conservation and the potential of the crane and the digging machine.Their sheer intelligence has ensured that this has not just been a latent comfort but has been put to creative use in making their buildings efficient, energy conscious and quite often ingenious. As a background, I am not sure that Frankfurt can offer the local idea-competitiveness of such cities as London, Stuttgart, Los Angeles, New York or Tokyo - it remains a commercial playground with disturbing reactionary undertones - hosting, but not parrying the inventiveness of outside firms who land a job in Hessen. Therefore the boys have often been out there alone, taking chances.

I will use ten projects to illustrate these three directions, which does not mean that there are not other,rather good things of theirs to be seen.

1. THE CLEAR IMAGE

Hence it is all the more to their creditthat the creation of the circular Westhafen Tower of 2003 gives Frankfurt an elegant and unfussy statementand a special trick created by the placement of square floors within the circle and the creation of four-storey winter gardens that evoke both delight and a reduction in energy consumption. Most other towers in the city fuss and fiddle or become grim and foursquare.

Before this, they had stepped onto a stage that brought their work to an international audience: in the middle of rapidly reconvening Berlin in 1994 with a bright red box on stilts that fed information to 7,000,000 visitors, with an architecture of unassailable confidence.

Shenzhen missed a trick in not choosing their ‘Connected CBD' double-tower which again, has a directness and determination - up there with the international family of ‘marker' architecture. Yet success in creating such architecture does not need enormous scale and the Autobahn Church at Wilnsdorf of 2013 makes its impact by taking the memory of the white, village church and fearlessly pulling a ground based band of wall up and twisting it into a simple but surprising pair of ‘cat's ears'that are in fact, lanterns to the altar. The interior being a digitally created timber cross-ribbed structure.

2. THE LYRICAL WEAVE

Their Ölhafen Bridge of 2013 takes the twisting of a wall yet further and swings it round itself, but by keeping the structural ‘gut' as one side of the path and releasing the other side as an elegantly detailed balustrade, it encourages the choreography of the bridge-crosser to comeinto the game.

Yet it is the placement of a series of six weaving, clasping, tantalising sculpture pieces known as ‘The Wave' that gives schneider+schumacher the chance to show their clear artistry with form. The art of‘drape' is rarely given the chance to be demonstrated - and when it is, the results often expose the architect's leaden-footed approach to the magic of a curve. Not so here - for they are not only seen to be enjoying themselves but completely in control as well.

There is also an echo of this enjoyment in the necessarily more circumspect ‘Royal' of 2009, where the lyricism of the green ribbons picks up on - and folds and extends them - along with some memories of 1950s Modernism.

3. DIALOGUES WITH THE GROUND

At the Fair Accelerator Facility in Darmstadt, the ground is effectively ‘pulled' up onto, and sometimes‘over' the laboratory buildings. On a lesser sale it would be noteworthy, but here, there are several- and multidirectional folds: it becomes a daredevil game between ground, object, surface and interlaced gantries and bridges.

If at Mannheim Palace Study and Conference Centre (2013) the dialogue with the ground is necessarily more controlled, it is no less cheeky in its challenge to the assumed sanctity of the ground and the placement - or not - of powerful decoys in the close presence of an historic symbol - carving a cutting, fashioning it so elegantly and then producing such elegant spaces within (with clever views through to the outside).

I have left my most favourite schneider+schumacher building until last: it is a dialogue with the ground,but again, as with the circular, glass tower nearby - and much else - it is more - demonstrating their qualities as thinkers as well as technologists.The Staedel Museum extension was surely a challenge: sitting there as part of their own history - as former students of the Staedelschule behind the garden, as an object visible from their offices, for a time, and at the end of the street in which Michael himself lives.

Fearlessly they pulledup the grass of garden like a handkerchief and inserted the new galleries below. Subtly graduating the circular perforations, creating a gently heroic and beautifully tailored staircase down into it. Sculpting a delightful handrail into the wall - and that's about it.

And that's the point: for the International Circus of Name Architects has played with the Art Museum format and often been ‘too clever by half'- an English expression that refers to self-consciousness and pomposity. No, the boys had a great idea… and pursued it calmly and elegantly.

Till and Michael - they're quality guys.

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

Construction and Material

The process of development, that a project undergoes from an initial idea to a finished building, is part and parcel of architectural work. Architecture does not simply involve working on an already finished idea and then executing it. Michael Schumacher's student research project on excavators, whose movement creates space with a unique quality makes it clear to what extent it is the production process and its underlying laws that giving rise to architecture. The ability to grapple with this process and to work with it, even when new developments do not initially appear to fit in with the original intention, is just one of the qualities that typify schneider+schumacher - it belongs to the logic of architecture just as much as the other aspects that ultimately bring about such changes, such as materials, construction and use.

The idea of creating architecture out of a complex combination of a logical and clear consideration of form, construction, and qualities such as truth to materials - and doing this in an accessible and comprehensible language - is particularly well illustrated in Till Schneider and Michael Schumacher's approach to the design of skyscrapers.These are, to a great extent, first and foremost feats of engineering. At the same time,however, it is a challenge to make every tower unique and identifiable. And this makes them susceptible to attention-grabbing games, or gimmicks. Till Schneider poses a question: When is uniqueness merely in love with itself, as opposed to derived from its own internal logic? His early tower studies demonstrate how such self-generated logic may be understood: despite having a unique shape, this is always derived from a plausible constructive principle.

杭州市民中心 Civic Center Hangzhou ©schneider+schumacher

Ciphers and symbols

Architecture makes an impact using symbols and as a symbol - but this is by no means all it does. This, in a nutshell, might sum up the position schneider+schumacher adopt in their work with regard to imagery in architecture. While some architectural assignments may prompt the architects into offering a high degree of associative imagery, others can act as strong images themselves. These two overlapping aspects are part and parcel of the metaphorical nature of architecture: firstly, when association with other objects, archetypes or images are activated, and secondly, when buildings become images themselves, due to their powerful presence. Metaphorical reference is an important means of communication in architecture, though not the only one.

Our aim is to find a language that is open to interpretation, one that doesn't define how a building should be understood. It's better if this happens spontaneously, so observers can read things into the building themselves. Till Schneider

Producing architecture of this high quality, with this attitude, involves acknowledging several ground rules. The first is not to get hung up on the image: “We were never interested in conspicuousness at any price,” says Michael Schumacher. Secondly, in order not to become a prisoner of their own style, architects should not be tempted into creating a recognisable ‘brand', as is the case with so-called “starchitects”, who tend to be very self-referential. The third rule requires that users and those who look at buildings are deliberately allowed some leeway: they should be free to interpret things for themselves.The architects would never have come up with the idea of dubbing the Westhafen Tower the ”Geripptes”, let alone ever have thought of building a cider glass - but they do not mind if others interpret it as such. This is their guiding principle, one that points to something beyond images and symbolism.

Whether through images or in use - people should be given the opportunity to appropriate buildings for themselves. The place has to be interesting enough that people will want to use it again and again, and the appearance has to be open to association, so that people can reinterpret it over and over again: “we trust in the fact that buildings themselves evolve”, says Till Schneider.

Here there is an obviously reference to the works of the British group of architects and artists Archigram, and their relaxed, cheerful, and ironically ambiguous symbolism.Purpose is elevated to become a means of expression. But this exaltation also has something happily robust about it, since neither the symbol, nor what it signifies, is easy to pigeonhole. A ‘Walking City' is both a city as a machine and a machine as a city, a nomadic city and a city of nomads. There is no obvious single interpretation: the more one attempts to pin it down it, the more it defies categorisation, which prevents the symbolism being merely arbitrary. Instead it becomes inherently essential to the design, because it belongs to the world it is commenting on.

The inescapable power of imagery applies, of course, in a very specific way to skyscrapers.The Westhafen Tower has already been mentioned. schneider+schumacher's skyscraper designs never rely on the arbitrariness of introducing symbols - without any rhyme or reason - in order to create something eye-catching. The building itself is the symbol. As Till Schneider's final thesis at the Städelschule proves, it helps if one takes the ground rules seriously, focusing on construction, potential uses, the urban context, function and materials. Michael Schumacher sums it up: “A sailing boat that sails well, also looks good.” And accordingly - since it is the practice's maxim to begin by asking what is particularly important in a design brief, to question what the client really wants, and the specific nature of the site and its surroundings - all their designs turn out differently.

Colour, Light and Atmosphere

We strongly believe that buildings should be allowed to change. If you start in the right way, you don't need to invest a lot at the end - the complex process of design means it happens almost all by itself. (Michael Schumacher)