古斯塔夫·安布羅西尼/Gustavo Ambrosini

黃華青 譯/Translated by HUANG Huaqing

作者單位：都靈理工大學

我們可以賦予扶手或欄桿多重涵義。例如，它可被視為區(qū)隔室內(nèi)外感受的柔和邊界；它應(yīng)在人們憑欄遠眺時提供強有力的觀察工具；它標識了我們與所站立地面或水平面的直接關(guān)聯(lián)；它是身體與公共領(lǐng)域之間的情感閾限（有時還承載著大眾媒體化的傳播范式）。這僅是幾個例子而已，名單無疑可以列得更長。但這已足夠展現(xiàn)，扶手如何作為一種視覺的、同時也是身體感官的介質(zhì)。

鑒于這個觀點，我們有必要回顧著名景觀建筑師及學者杰弗里·杰里科對喬凡尼·貝里尼的繪畫《圣喻》的分析。在杰里科所著的《景觀設(shè)計研究》一書中，他引用了這幅畫，稱其為融合文藝復興繪畫四大要素的最杰出的作品之一，這四大要素即：幾何、人體、運動和環(huán)境[1]。他指出了畫中欄桿發(fā)揮的關(guān)鍵作用——在前景和中景之間創(chuàng)造強有力的聯(lián)系，將“有序的崇高世界（前景）與混沌的世界（背景）”緊密相扣。前景/背景的辨證關(guān)系是文藝復興藝術(shù)的普遍特征，它通過創(chuàng)立與外部表象的聯(lián)系，為經(jīng)驗的內(nèi)在意涵賦予秩序——人物與場景的對比作為一種中介，以凸顯如畫風格的審美價值[2]。

提到身體感，一幅強有力的畫面來自格拉納達阿爾罕布拉宮庭院的水臺階。這組長臺階始于山頂，隱藏在茂密的綠植中，流淌到赫內(nèi)拉利菲宮與水庭院。流水是通過中空扶手來運送的。景觀史學家約翰·迪克森·亨特描述了“它精制的鋪地、兩側(cè)為流水而掏空的扶手、以及路徑的親人尺度”如何創(chuàng)造出一處親密、靜謐的獨特場所，與意大利文藝復興別墅中宏偉的流水“鏈條”相去甚遠[3]。沿著臺階攀升的體驗是令人激動的：在這通常十分炎熱的氣候中，你的手心將感到一股驚人的涼爽，使人從熱浪中得以暫時喘息；同時，這種體驗也讓人更敏銳地感知到阿爾罕布拉宮的設(shè)計者處理水資源時的精湛技藝。

不過，我們是否可能截取一個建筑元素，對其單獨進行討論呢？一方面，我們應(yīng)避免墜入無盡搜尋一套完整分類學及歷史呈現(xiàn)的陷阱；另一方面，潛在的危險是傳遞出一種扭曲的建筑捷徑，即將其視為簡單的累積過程，某種復制粘貼而已。

在此意義上，雷姆·庫哈斯策展的2014年威尼斯建筑雙年展為我們鋪開了一幅廣博畫面：“建筑的元素”。聚焦于細部、局部尺度的意圖，指向那些“隨時隨地”可見的元素，如樓板、墻、天花、屋頂、門、窗、立面、陽臺、廊道、壁爐、廁所、臺階、扶梯、電梯、坡道?！爸挥袑⒔ㄖ胤诺斤@微鏡下觀察，我們才能夠辨析文化的偏好、被遺忘的象征主義、技術(shù)的進步、與日俱增的全球貿(mào)易所引發(fā)的突變、氣候適應(yīng)、政治策略、監(jiān)管條例、新的數(shù)字政體，以及作為某種混合體的、構(gòu)成當下建筑實踐世界的建筑師理念?！盵4]這次展覽并未試圖調(diào)和“復雜性與矛盾性”，而是提供了一套躁動的、非線性的知識庫，彰顯了深層次的工藝觀念及空間暗示。這些元素呈現(xiàn)為再現(xiàn)的空間——不只是技術(shù)元素，同時也作為場所存在。

整個威尼斯建筑國際雙年展中提供了諸多關(guān)于身體介入建筑元素的案例。其中與欄桿話題最為密切相關(guān)的部分是“陽臺”——“一處測試公共與私密、室內(nèi)與室外的偶發(fā)爆炸性混合物的實驗室”[5]——和“臺階”。后者大量引用了弗雷德里?！っ谞柨说淖髌罚@位德國研究者發(fā)展了一門關(guān)于臺階的科學，稱為“臺階學”。技術(shù)上和感知上的元素緊密交織：“有了輪廓，抓的動作才有實質(zhì)意義。如果一個人并非輪廓的生產(chǎn)者，諸如抹灰匠、石匠或木車工，他依然可以通過以手指追隨輪廓線來培養(yǎng)抓的能力。隨著他對外形的感受，他對轉(zhuǎn)角和邊緣、正半圓和偏心半圓、橢圓形和卵形、淺扶手和深扶手的認知理解都將緩慢形成?！盵6]

因此，深入探討建筑中的扶手話題應(yīng)是一項鼓舞人心的實驗，有助于找出那些很可能有用的特征，與其他特征一起進一步充實建筑師的工具庫。尤其是，對建成建筑的整體觀察讓我們更好地理解這類為防止墜落而創(chuàng)造的功能性元素，如何提供一道建筑與身體間的閾限。這個話題當然逃不開視覺上的美學觀念，但也會涉及身體介質(zhì)的問題。此外，這一細部與整體建筑學概念的關(guān)聯(lián)，也將啟發(fā)我們探索建筑中的片段/整體關(guān)系。

1 平滑的扶手/Smooth

2 扶手與風景/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 fa?ade,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 諸多扶手/Mass media action （1-4攝影/Photos: G. Ambrosini）

在此意義上，援引那些不再在建筑文化中唯視覺獨尊的敘述會大有裨益。如建筑師及評論家尤哈尼·帕拉斯瑪所做的諸多研究，都在削弱了視覺霸權(quán)的基礎(chǔ)上，探討將建筑的感官和知覺特質(zhì)納入考量的重要性。從這一路徑進一步拓展的可能性，根植于將感官交互作為一種同步過程的觀念，這源于梅洛-龐蒂理論對建筑的人體體驗中現(xiàn)象學維度的定義。帕拉斯瑪指出，普遍聚焦于視覺范式是現(xiàn)代主義建筑語境中不斷重現(xiàn)的特征：“眼”的力量經(jīng)常出現(xiàn)于勒·柯布西耶、格羅皮烏斯、拉茲洛·莫霍里-納吉等人的文字中。然而，他稱勒·柯布西耶為“一位擁有模具般雙手的偉大藝術(shù)天才，對實體性、可塑性和重力擁有驚人的感知力，這一切皆防止他的建筑陷入感官的還原主義”[7]。

不少20世紀建筑大師的作品依然提供了強有力的形象，幫助我們理解建筑中的身體介入（藉由欄桿）。

一部曲線形的陶瓷扶手界定了巴塞羅那古埃爾公園主平臺的邊界。這座公園建成于1914年，被視為安東尼·高迪的杰作之一。這條狹長的曲線標志既是防墜的屏障，也是一部連續(xù)的長椅，將活力帶到公園的聚焦點：長椅的曲線塑造了一系列凹龕，同時創(chuàng)造出親密的與開敞的空間，人們可以自由地以各種姿勢坐在這里，享受欣賞城市和公園的不同視角[8]。貼滿瓷片的表面，由陶瓷碎片以某種彩色圖案或自由方式排列，是一張吸引人坐在上面的光滑表皮。在這里，扶手是一種雕塑性、休憩性質(zhì)的體量：它成了一種純粹的身體經(jīng)驗。

作為對比，不妨看看瓦爾特·格羅皮烏斯于1926年為普雷勒公寓設(shè)計的懸挑陽臺。這座建筑是德紹包豪斯校區(qū)中的工作室和宿舍側(cè)翼。從外部看來，每個房間都有一個凸出的小陽臺，其寬度只有大窗戶的1/3。陽臺上僅有3根纖細的金屬管提供了防墜屏障（根據(jù)今天的安全條例這是不夠的）。設(shè)計中避免了直角：金屬管采用曲線轉(zhuǎn)角，陽臺樓板邊緣擁有曲線輪廓。這一切都試圖消解這個屏障的物質(zhì)性，追求一種無重力感，似乎要將人舉到室外、幾乎懸置在空氣中。這是一個作為無限空間的現(xiàn)代陽臺標志。

在阿爾瓦·阿爾托1935年設(shè)計的維普里（今維堡）圖書館中，扶手和欄桿扮演了界定空間使用方式的核心角色。建筑的正交體系以臺階和服務(wù)臺組成的核心筒為流轉(zhuǎn)中心：這個空間就像中軸，產(chǎn)生一組發(fā)散式的運動流。訪客隨著一部模制的寬大木制扶手步入建筑，扶手由纖細的金屬支柱支撐，其上符合人體工學的抓手槽設(shè)計，散發(fā)出溫暖的材質(zhì)感，一定程度上也吸引人們靠在上面看書。扶手的終點畫出一段曲線，凸顯了入口位置。上層扶手則不再只是簡單的欄桿，同時也是一組平臺，可以承載書本，作為閱讀的場所。

這一精致設(shè)計如同“人性化建筑”[9]概念的實體化，其實現(xiàn)過程同時涵蓋了本能和直覺：即帕拉斯瑪所定義的“感官現(xiàn)實主義”，得以“整合錯位，削弱正面沖突、異常形式和不和諧音，以喚醒身體、肌肉和觸覺的體驗”。[10]

扶手在建筑中呈現(xiàn)出幾乎無限變化的形式，這打消了任何試圖建立空中樓閣般的分類方法的念頭。本文提出另一種方式：描繪一套開放的方法論，以支撐關(guān)于扶手本質(zhì)特征的闡釋性框架；也就是說，這個工具不僅是分析性的，同時能根據(jù)設(shè)計需求而改變。

第一步應(yīng)辨析扶手所在的建筑元素的不同類型。我們不妨根據(jù)其空間體驗的靜止/動態(tài)程度，來規(guī)定不同類型的秩序。換言之，從偏向靜態(tài)的體驗（陽臺）開始，到不同等級的動態(tài)體驗：低速（觀景點）、中速（步行橋）、快速（樓梯）。這個名錄很難窮盡，當然可以列出更多類型。

下一步是基于辨證的兩極，定義一組常見的物理特征。例如，透明與不透明、暖性材料與冷性材料、統(tǒng)一性扶手/欄桿與多元化扶手/欄桿、平滑邊緣與尖銳邊緣、有機圖案與線性圖案。

如果將這些元素呈現(xiàn)為一張矩陣表格，不難看到并對比某種扶手類型為使用者提供的體驗與其特定物理特征之間的關(guān)聯(lián)性。然而在此必須警示：該矩陣不應(yīng)被視為一套僵化方法，而是一種嘗試性的、不全面的工具，意圖探索一種闡釋不同設(shè)計方法的路徑。這是一個幫助我們更好聚焦于身體元素的臨時性工具，目的是進一步豐富建筑作為“身體及空間際遇”的觀念。[10]□

5 喬凡尼·貝里尼的繪畫《圣喻》/Giovanni Bellini,Holy Allegory （圖片來源/Source: 維基共享/Wikimedia Commons）

6 格拉納達阿爾罕布拉宮庭院的水臺階/Alhambra, water stairway （圖片來源/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屆威尼斯建筑國際雙年展展出的《建筑元素》/Elements of Architecture - 14th International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, Marsilio（攝影/Photo: G.Ambrosini）

8 巴塞羅那古埃爾公園/Parque Güell, Barcelona（攝影/Photo: G.Ambrosini）

9 維堡圖書館/Vyborg, Library （圖片來源/Source: Ninara CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons）

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

11 扶手的體驗、類型、物理特征分析示意圖/Railing experience, typology,physical features analysis representation（繪圖/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].□