張利/ZHANG Li

我們的生命依賴于新陳代謝的周而復(fù)始，而其中的很大一部分是我們釋放身體的廢物?？梢哉f，我們對周遭世界的一項(xiàng)重要輸出就是我們的排泄。當(dāng)然，從傳統(tǒng)觀點(diǎn)的角度看，排泄通常是無奈的、毫無浪漫可言的，且其產(chǎn)出品也實(shí)在是普遍不受歡迎的。

同時(shí)，在不少傳統(tǒng)文明中，并不是所有的生存必需都要有相應(yīng)的文化呈現(xiàn)。實(shí)際上，在人類文明史的大多數(shù)階段，我們選擇盡可能地隱藏我們對廢物的釋放。建筑雖然在人類歷史上自始至終以豐富的語匯表現(xiàn)了人類的生活，但當(dāng)關(guān)涉我們用于排泄的空間時(shí)，其面貌往往乏善可陳，卑微地隱匿在某個(gè)角落。

這一狀況直到最近才得到轉(zhuǎn)變。文明進(jìn)步的基本特征是知識的創(chuàng)造與積累，特別是我們對自己的了解——我們不僅越來越了解自身的“美”，也越來越了解自身的“丑”——或者更準(zhǔn)確地說，越來越了解我們自身的美與丑的可互換性。幸運(yùn)的是，我們現(xiàn)在生活在一個(gè)思想開明的時(shí)代。幸運(yùn)的是，我們正在把用于排泄的空間——廁所——的物質(zhì)形態(tài)作為一個(gè)嚴(yán)肅的設(shè)計(jì)話題來研究。

好的設(shè)計(jì)理念總是建立在大膽的哲學(xué)質(zhì)詢之上的。當(dāng)談及廁所這一釋放廢物的空間理念時(shí)，其哲學(xué)質(zhì)詢是從一個(gè)看似困難的問題開始的：如果廁所的清潔、高效和用戶友好歸根到底仍然是實(shí)用目的，那么它的藝術(shù)目的是什么，假如有的話？

一旦建筑師開始試圖為廁所賦予意義，回答這個(gè)問題就不那么困難了。實(shí)際上，將廁所視為純粹的工程學(xué)對象實(shí)在是老生常談，會束縛建筑師的手腳，無法給出有力的設(shè)計(jì)解答?，F(xiàn)在陳詞濫調(diào)大多已漸消散，廁所也正日益成為一個(gè)建筑學(xué)對象。在這方面，我們大致從三個(gè)方向看到了令人振奮的答案。

第一個(gè)方向是環(huán)境，即減少人類作為一個(gè)物種的生態(tài)足跡，閉合宏觀的生物圈循環(huán)：我們的排泄是且必須是地球上自然物質(zhì)大循環(huán)的一個(gè)節(jié)點(diǎn)。大的環(huán)保理念模糊了倫理和美學(xué)之間的界限，創(chuàng)造了以環(huán)境關(guān)懷抵達(dá)藝術(shù)境界的機(jī)會，這使廁所很快就成為了能夠承載這種大理念的靈活有力的載體。越南H&P建筑事務(wù)所設(shè)計(jì)的兩個(gè)“綠廁所”（廁所+洗漱+植被）使用了被動式建筑技術(shù)，并全部用鄉(xiāng)土建筑語言表達(dá)。類似的方式也出現(xiàn)在丹麥TYIN設(shè)計(jì)室建筑事務(wù)所在泰國設(shè)計(jì)的港灣浴室和原本營造工作室的棗園旱廁中，使用當(dāng)?shù)乜稍偕ㄖ牧稀ⅹ?dú)立于任何基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施管網(wǎng)進(jìn)行廢物處理及獨(dú)特的——如果不是經(jīng)過深思熟慮的話——田園化的外觀，都是亞洲鄉(xiāng)村地區(qū)這類“新”廁所的特征。

第二個(gè)方向是人體。歷史上，我們在排泄的身體姿態(tài)運(yùn)用方面無比靈活，當(dāng)客觀條件充滿局限時(shí)甚至?xí)宫F(xiàn)出驚人的想象力。以內(nèi)在的生理需求為先導(dǎo)，因地制宜，確實(shí)有可能將廁所當(dāng)成一種綜合、多使用維度的家具。多磨建社在中國設(shè)計(jì)的放牛場村小學(xué)衛(wèi)生站以腦海中青少年的身體塑造了它的空間。身體空間、色彩和空間功能都根據(jù)當(dāng)?shù)貎和纳砗托睦砹可泶蛟?。中國UAO瑞拓設(shè)計(jì)的澴河環(huán)廁殘存著20世紀(jì)中國老式公廁的記憶，在那些地方，人體之間曾因缺乏隱私反而創(chuàng)造了意想不到的集體主義感。同樣的集體主義被演繹到排泄單元的排列中，與所有必要的現(xiàn)代隱私規(guī)則無縫結(jié)合。印度羅漢·恰范的“休憩室”則展現(xiàn)了極度的樂觀主義精神，還將幽默感注入到了廁所的概念之中。它不折不扣地將釋放的身體空間延伸至自新的身體空間。雖然將排泄、小憩和理發(fā)等活動相互聯(lián)系在一起可能對一些人來說不太好接受，但無論如何，這都是建筑值得嘗試去做的。

第三個(gè)方向是詩意。通過回避所有與排泄有關(guān)的棘手聯(lián)系，將公廁空間視同于任何其他類型的建筑，賦予建筑師在廁所中進(jìn)行空間詩意創(chuàng)作的合法性。如果拒斥死亡的負(fù)面意義可以像歐內(nèi)斯特·貝克爾所說的那樣，為藝術(shù)創(chuàng)造了良好開端，那么拒斥排泄的負(fù)面屬性則肯定是對廁所進(jìn)行任意的自由的藝術(shù)解讀的良好開端。不出意外的是，在這里我們的例證來自于日本和挪威。島田陽的弧墻小屋完全擱置公廁的功能線索，而是將它組織成一個(gè)自主線索的空間構(gòu)成?；诶硇缘奈蓓斚到y(tǒng)與自由曲線墻體系統(tǒng)之間的矛盾作用，其在空間邏輯上的對話遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超出了詮釋排泄行為的范疇。MORFEUS建筑設(shè)計(jì)事務(wù)所的布刻克耶卡休息站是挪威一貫的自然建筑思想的產(chǎn)物?；炷帘砻娴倪B續(xù)角折疊提供了幾何景框和行人步道，而唯一封閉的空間——廁所被鏡子包裹，最大程度地消解了自己。在這里，我們已經(jīng)習(xí)慣甚至感到乏味的挪威公式——一點(diǎn)可視化的人工干預(yù)（幾何景框）加一點(diǎn)非可視化的人工干預(yù)（封閉的如廁空間）加一片無處不在的原生本色（自然環(huán)境）等于與自然親合的建筑——再次顯示了它的有效性?！?/p>

Our lives are at the mercy of the cycles of our metabolism, a big chunk of which is the discharging of waste from our bodies. It is fair to say that a significant of our output to the world around us is through releasing ourselves. Though by some traditional wisdom, the releasing process is usually helplessly unromantic, and its product universally undesirable.

Also by some traditional wisdom, not everything necessary needs to be explicitly represented. For the greater part of human civilisation, we chose to hide our releasing as much as possible. While architecture throughout history has been a rich expressing human lives, spaces for our releasing have been consistently dull and anonymous.

Only until recently. It is true that we civilise not only by knowing more about our own beauty,but also by knowing more about our own ugliness.Or to be more precise, knowing more about the interchangeability of our beauty and ugliness.Fortunately we now live in a time of open-mindedness.Fortunately we are taking the physical shaping of our releasing spaces, toilets, as a serious design topic.

Good design ideas are always built upon daring philosophical investigations. When it comes to the idea about toilets, the philosophical investigation starts with a seemingly difficult question: with all its cleanness, efficiency, and user-friendliness being still nothing more than practical purposes, what is the artistic purpose of a toilet, if any?

As soon as an architect sets off to bring meaning into toilets, the question becomes no longer difficult.Actually it was the cliché of regarding a toilet as a pure engineering subject that disabled architects from giving a solid answer to the question. Now that cliché is mostly gone and we are witnessing promising answers generally from three perspectives.

The first perspective is the environment. The reduction of the ecological foot print of our entire species, the completion of the great circle of live:our waste is and can only be a natural phase along the gigantic material cycle on the planet. With big environmental ideas blurring the line between ethics and aesthetics, toilets quickly become small vehicles capable of carrying such big ideas. The two Toigetation (toilet + washing + vegetation)projects by the Vietnamese ffiice H&P Architects experiments passive building technologies and vernacular architectural language in full, almost redundantly. Similar approach is found in TYIN's Safe Haven Bathhouse in Thailand, and Original Architect's Latrine in Jujube Orchard in China.The use of local renewable building material, the independence from any infrastructure grid for waste treatment, and the distinctive, if not deliberate,rural look are all features that define such "new"toilets in the Asian countryside.

The second perspective is the human body. In history we have been incredibly flexible in our body positions of releasing. Sometime even imaginative when the available condition is limited and the intrinsic urge is paramount. There is indeed an possibility of designing toilets as large, multi-faceted furniture. DOMAT's Hygiene Station for Cattlefield Village School in China shapes its space with the bodies of the youthful in mind. The body spaces,colours, and spatial programmes are all tailored to the physiology and psychology of the local children.UAO's Round Toilet in China plays with memories of old Chinese public toilets of the last century where the lack of privacy between the releasing bodies created unexpected collectivism. A rendition of that same collectivism in releasing with all necessary modern privacy provisions is accomplished. Rohan Chavan's Pause in India puts extreme optimism and adds sense of humour to the toilet concept. It unapologetically extends the body space of releasing to those of refreshing. The inter-connection between the bodily activities of releasing, napping and hair cutting might be a challenge to some. But it is a worthy architectural attempt anyway.

The third perspective is poetics. Through the denial of all tricky associations with releasing,architects legitimate themselves in the creation of poetics in public toilets spaces, as much as they do in any other kind of buildings. If the denial of death makes a good start for making art, as Ernest Becker put it, the denial of excretion can certainly be a good beginning for any free artistic interpretation of a toilet. We have projects from, unsurprisingly,Japan and Norway as proofs. Yo Shimada's Hut with the Arc Wall suspends the public toilet programme,composes an autonomous spatial object out of it.The contradiction between the rational roof system and the free curve wall system presents a dialogue in spatial logic far beyond the necessity of releasing.MORFEUS' Bukkekjerka is a recent incarnation of the consistent Norwegian architectural thinking of nature. The continuous angular folding of concrete surfaces provides geometric landscape frames and pedestrian paths, while the only enclosed volume,the toilets wrapped in mirrors, dematerialises itself to a maximum degree. The coherent (almost boringly so) Norwegian formula of something (open frame),nothing (enclosed space) and everything (nature)ends up in soothing poetics yet for another time.□