“洋人在土人”系列访谈之十二-KENNETH WILLIAM TANG

 

 

 

　　1. 介绍一下你的家乡，喜欢在北京生活的生活么，和你的家乡有什么不同？

    Tell us a bit about your hometown. Do you like living in Beijing? What are some things that are different?

 

　　我在美国密歇根州底特律城外的一个郊区长大。同美国大多数的郊区一样，在那里你必须有一辆汽车，否则寸步难行；环境没有一点城市的气息。而北京则与我的家乡大相径庭，这座城市为了供养千万人口而发展起来的交通等基础设施服务，着实让人印象深刻。在刚来的几个星期，我就迷失在它的超大尺度中，并震惊于使人们在其中通行的交通方式。

    I grew up in a suburb outside of Detroit, in Michigan. As with most American suburbs, one was inconvenienced by having to have a car in order to go anywhere, and the environment was not urban at all. Beijing, on the other hand, is as different from my hometown as possible. During my stay in the city, I have found that the transportation and service infrastructure, while developing to accommodate millions of people, are very impressive. During my first weeks, I was overwhelmed with the scale of the city, and equally impressed with the transportation options that made it possible to get around.

 

　　2. 你为什么会决定来中国，并选择来土人设计呢？

    Why did you decide to come to China, and join Turenscape?

 

　　身为一个美国华人，来到中国了解自己以及影响我父母的文化价值观非常重要，这是我个人成长的一部分。同时，中国正在经历的空前的发展吸引着全世界的设计师。因此，来这里从事景观设计的同时了解中国，对我来说是一个双赢的选择。

    As a Chinese American, it has been very important to me that I go to China to better understand myself and the cultural values that influenced my parents and have added to my development as a person. The opportunity to do Landscape design work in a country that is experiencing unprecedented development while learning more about China was a “win-win” situation for me.

 

　　3. 你现在在土人工作了多久？在设计过程中遇到了哪些挑战?

    How long have you been in Turenscape? What kind of challenges have you faced as you are designing?

 

　　到八月，我已经在土人工作了三个月，这三个月着实充满了挑战！最大的挑战之一就是我捉襟见肘的中文，说和写都成问题。我总是错失第一时间获得信息、处理信息和参与小组讨论的机会。交谈时等待翻译的过程常常让人抓狂！尽管如此，幸运的是我们是一个图像思维的专业，我所面临的语言障碍使我在思考过程中想得更加深入全面，相信我在离开的时候绘图能力和图形设计都会得到极大的提高。

    As of this past august, I’ve spent three months at Turenscape, and it has been quite challenging! One of the biggest work challenges was my minimal knowledge of Chinese, written and spoken. The opportunity to listen, process and add to group discussions was never there. To wait for a translation of a conversation was at times frustrating! Through it all, we are fortunate to be a graphic profession, and the language barrier challenged me to be thorough in my though process and I think I am leaving the office with much improved drawing and graphic design skills.

 

　　4. 在来土人之前，你做过不同类型的工作，涉及不同专业，这种多元化的经历带给你哪些益处？

    Before coming to Turenscape, you have worked in a variety of roles, involved in different industries. What have you learnt given your wide experience?

 

　　在这次实习之前，我曾在生态恢复领域工作过，在新泽西和纽约做过湿地的野外工作和森林重建项目。对环境问题的执着兴趣和热性引导我进入了景观设计领域，之前的经历使我持有一个观点：“恢复”通常意味着使景观回复到不受人类干预的“自然”状态。然而认为存在这样一个“自然”状态，本身就是一种错误的想法。

我之前做的每一个项目都涉及在人类的最小干预下建立一片湿地，一个森林或其他理想的生态系统。这样的工作非常重要和必要，然而对我而言，理所当然的恢复工作似乎忘却了对我们子孙后代至关重要的教育。人们需要以可行为前提来评价环境。如果对于恢复环境的努力没有一套切实的评价方法，环境恶化的过程将一再重复，直至达到极限。我就是因此而诉诸教育性的“生态恢复”，同时土人也擅长于将这一方面融合进它的设计中。

    Before this internship, I was working in the ecological restoration field, doing field work on wetlands and reforestation projects in New Jersey and New York. A driving interest and passion for environmental issues has led me to Landscape design, and the one thing I have taken from my previous experience is that the concept of “restoration” often-times means the return of a landscape to a “Nature” free of human intervention. To think that there is a “nature” like that is an entirely erroneous way of thinking!

 

    Every project I worked on involved establishing a wetland, a forest, an ideal ecosystem with little human intervention. The work is very important and necessary, but to me, it was missing out on the vital education of the next generation of people, to take restoration work for方面 granted. Humans need to value the environment for the environment to exist in a viable state. If there is no way for people to value the efforts of restoration, then the process of environmental degragation will be repeated until we hit a crisis. That is why I subscribe to the idea of Ecological “Reclamation”, which is a didactic field of work that Turenscape excels at integrating into its designs.

 

　　5.您去过中国的哪些城市？这个城市的主要特色是什么？您对这些城市的印象是什么？

    Which Chinese cities have you visited? What was the main feature of that city? What impressions did the city leave you with?

 

　　除了北京，我还有幸去过西安、上海和杭州。这些城市各有千秋，都很令人惊叹。其中西安尤其独特，它对于古城格局和城墙的保护在城市紧凑发展上堪称典范，是北京这样的巨型城市所没有的。在我看来，从过去到现在以至将来的这种连续性，可以应用与许多中国城市。

    Aside from Beijing, I have been fortunate to visit Xi’an, Shanghai and Hangzhou. These cities are amazing in their own right, and all have a unique identity. Xi’an strikes me as a very unique city, as it’s preservation of history in its urban planning layout and city walls is exemplary of compact urban density, which is not found in a massive city like Beijng! The continuity of the past into the present and future is something I think can be applied to other cities in China.

 

　　6. 你参观过中国古典园林吗？就你的专业背景，你怎么看中国古典园林？

    Have you been to the Classical Chinese Gardens? Given your professional background, how do you view these gardens?

 

　　我还没有参观过，不过有天我会计划去苏州看看的。在大学的时候，我们对中国景观设计的唯一认识就是拙政园这样的小场地，那是我们学习景观设计技巧的重要一课，例如材料运用，时间叙事，放大和缩小人们的空间感受等等。我很尊重这些思想，但我也知道作为一个景观设计师，园林尺度的设计传统应用在中国今天迫切需要的更大尺度的公共公园中就非常有限了。680公顷的北京奥林匹克森林公园就是从传统中国园林设计中借鉴而非照搬的一个很好的例子。设计师们面对的挑战不是如何复制几百年前的园林设计，而是将它们蕴含的概念应用到今天的设计语言中。

    I have not! One day, I will make plans to go to Suzhou and see some. In college, our only exposure to Chinese landscape design were sites like the Humble Administrator’s garden, which is important to study for the sake of understanding major Landscape design strategies like the use of materials, a narrative of time, and techniques for expanding and shrinking one’s perception of space. I can respect these ideas, but I know that as a Landscape designer, the design traditions at the scale of a garden can be limiting when applied to a larger scale public park, which is what China desperately needs (and wants) today. The 680 Hectare Beijing Olympic Forest Park is a good example of the type of landscape that borrows from, not imitates, traditional Chinese garden design. The challenge for designers is not to replicate garden design from centuries ago, but apply their concepts in the language of today.

 

　　7. 你认为景观设计是在创造更美好的城市方面扮演着什么角色？

    What role do you think landscape architects play in making our cities more livable and sustainable?

 

　　现在，景观设计师为城市设计和规划提供了一个非常必要的平台。建筑师、艺术家和城市规划师们长久以来为使城市更宜居和可持续贡献力量，而今天的景观设计师是一个促进它们之间合作的职业，这一工作创造并加强了场所的意义，社区、城市和区域的特性。我们并不是仅仅在城市中种植大树和灌木，而是尝试联合其他职业来寻求适合人、经济和环境发展的更好途径。

    Landscape architects provide a necessary dimension to urban design and planning today. Architects, artists and Urban planners have long contributed to making cities livable and sustainable, and the Landscape designer of today is the professional that collaborates with them to create and enhance a sense of place, an identity for a community, a city, a region. We don’t just plant trees and add shrubs in the city, but try to work with others to find solutions that work for people, the economy and the environment.

 

　　8. 你最欣赏哪位景观设计师？什么样的作品最能让你兴奋？

    Which landscape architect do you admire most? What kind of projects excites you the most?

 

　　我一直受法国设计师Michel Desvigne作品的启发，他很擅长从土地的历史和时间的不同尺度上寻找联系来进行创作。从东京大学的屋顶广场到伦敦格林威治村的提案，都在演绎着这一想法：一个项目要延续时间发展的轨迹来达到其使用者的需求。树木和植物是他的设计工具，他的设计逻辑认为，设计应该有一个开放的姿态，而不是试图控制所有的东西，随着时间的推进不断适应其环境。

    I have long been inspired by the work of Michel Desvigne, a French designer that has been successful in creating landscapes connected to our agrarian past and different scales of time. Projects from the Tokyo University rooftop plaza to his proposal for Greenwich Village in London speak to that idea of a project that is constantly evolving over time to meet the needs of its users. Trees and plants are the tools for his design process, which proposes that one designs in an open ended manner that doesn’t seek to manage everything, but be flexible and adaptable throughout the years.

 

　　9、你未来有什么样的计划？

    What future plans do you have?

 

　　未来，也像我刚刚提到的一样，是开放性的！我的理想是在最需要的地方进行生态修复的工作，也许是城市，也许是后工业景观。不管是服务于政府还是个人，我只希望在持续了解生态系统的同时寻求启迪人们的机会。如果我继续学习中文，在亚洲工作或许是一个奋斗的目标。

    The future, as I mentioned above, is open-ended! My goal is to pursue ecological reclamation work where it is most needed: cities and post-industrial landscapes. Whether it is the government or a private practice, I hope to continue learning about ecological systems while looking for opportunities to inspire people. If I continue to learn the Chinese language, work in Asia may also be a goal to strive for.