在中国,房子一直都是许多人一辈子最重要的物质追求,而装修则是住进新房前的头等大事。建筑风格以及装修风格、档次,多少都与居住者的“幸福”相联系,当然,这对于那些总念叨着“色即是空”的人除外。
这期向大家推荐一本颇值得阅读的书——The Architecture of Happiness(《幸福的建筑》),它讲述的不是教科书式的西方建筑史,也非有关建筑的鉴赏手册或装潢指南,而是从一个极其独特的角度,审视一个我们看似熟悉、其实颇为陌生的主题:建筑与我们的幸福之间的关系。人为何需要建筑?为何具有某种美的建筑会令你心生愉悦?为何你对建筑的鉴赏标准会发生改变?建筑与人的幸福之间到底有何关联?作者Alain de Botton(阿兰·德波顿)从哲学、美学和心理学的角度对这些问题作出的解答足以令你从根本上改变对建筑,进而对人生和幸福的既定态度与追求。
Alain de Botton,人称“英伦才子”,1969年出生于瑞士苏黎世,毕业于剑桥大学,现居伦敦。著有Essays in Love(《爱情笔记》)、The Consolations of Philosophy(《哲学的慰藉》)、The Art of Travel(《旅行的艺术》)、Status Anxiety(《身份的焦虑》)等作品。他的作品已被译成二十几种文字,单单在中国就有很多他的“粉丝”。
本期节选了该书第一章的部分内容供大家“享用”,节选的内容文学性强,难度不小,有点难啃,不过看在好文的份上,大家可要坚持到最后哦!^_^
文字难度：★★★★
1. 
A 1)terraced house on a tree-lined street. Earlier today, the house rang with the sound of children’s cries and adult voices, but since the last occupant took off (with her 2)satchel) a few hours ago, it has been left to 3)sample the morning by itself. The sun has risen over the 4)gables of the buildings opposite and now washes through the ground-floor windows, painting the interior walls a buttery yellow and warming the 5)grainy-red brick 6)façade. Within 7)shafts of sunlight, platelets of dust move as if in obedience to the rhythms of a silent waltz. From the hallway, the low murmur of accelerating traffic can be detected a few blocks away. Occasionally, the letter-box opens with a 8)rasp to admit a 9)plaintive leaflet.
The house gives signs of enjoying the emptiness. It is rearranging itself after the night, clearing its pipes and cracking its joints. This dignified and seasoned 10)creature, with its coppery veins and wooden feet nestled in a bed of clay, has endured much: balls bounced against its garden 11)flanks, doors slammed in rage, headstands attempted along its corridors, the weight and sighs of electrical equipment and the 12)probings of inexperienced plumbers into its innards. A family of four shelters in it, joined by a colony of ants around the foundations and, in spring time, by 13)broods of robins in the chimney stack. It also lends a shoulder to a frail (or just 14)indolent) sweet-pea which leans against the garden wall, indulging the peripatetic courtship of a circle of bees.
The house has grown into a knowledgeable witness. It has been party to early seductions, it has watched homework being written, it has observed 15)swaddled babies freshly arrived from hospital, it has been surprised in the middle of the night by whispered conferences in the kitchen. It has experienced winter evenings when its windows were as cold as bags of frozen peas and midsummer 16)dusks when its brick walls held the warmth of newly baked bread.
It has provided not only physical but also psychological sanctuary. It has been a guardian of identity. Over the years, its owners have returned from periods away and, on looking around them, remembered who they were. The 17)flagstones on the ground floor speak of serenity and aged grace, while the regularity of the kitchen cabinets offers a model of 18)unintimidating order and discipline. The dining table, with its 19)waxy tablecloth printed with large 20)buttercups, suggests a burst of playfulness which is thrown into 21)relief by a sterner concrete wall nearby. Along the stairs, small still-lives of eggs and lemons draw attention to the 22)intricacy and beauty of everyday things. On a 23)ledge beneath a window, a glass jar of 24)cornflowers helps to resist the pull towards dejection. On the upper floor, a narrow empty room allows space for restorative thoughts to hatch, its skylight giving out onto impatient clouds migrating rapidly over cranes and 25)chimney pots.
Although this house may lack solutions to a great many of its occupants’ 26)ills, its rooms nevertheless give evidence of a happiness to which architecture has made its distinctive contribution.
1.
那是一条林荫道上的一幢联排式房子。今早,房子内回荡着孩子的哭声及大人的说话声,不过打最后一个住客几小时前(背着书包)离开后,就剩它独自细品这个清晨了。太阳已经升到对面楼房的山墙尖顶之上,阳光透过一楼的窗户遍洒进来,给屋子内墙涂上一层奶油黄,粗粒红砖外墙也给晒得暖洋洋的。一粒粒尘埃在缕缕光束中,似乎正应和着一曲无声华尔兹的节奏起舞。在门厅里可以听见几个街区之外繁忙交通的低语。偶尔,信箱会砰地一声被打开,接收一份忧郁的传单。
这幢房子像是颇为享受这份空寂。一夜过后,它正在重新调整自己,清理它的管道,活动它的关节。把自己的铜脉木脚安置在泥床之上,这位看尽人间世相而威严依然的老兄已经久历风霜:它的花园围墙无数次被球击打,这扇那扇门曾被愤怒地怦然关上,整条走廊被用来练习头手倒立,承受电器设备的压力和叹息,忍受初出茅庐的管子工在它内脏里胡钻乱探。一家四口荫庇于其间,外加地基周围的一群蚂蚁。每逢春天,烟囱边还有几窝刚孵化出来的知更鸟。它还借一个肩膀给挨着花园围墙生长的脆弱的(或许只是懒惰的)香豌豆倚靠,后者则只顾跟一群来来去去的蜜蜂调情。
这幢房子已成长为一位知识广博的见证人。它参与过最初的情挑意逗,看过孩子做作业的一笔一划,观察过刚出院尚在襁褓中的婴儿,还曾在半夜被厨房里的秘密会谈吵醒。它经历过冬夜,其窗户冷得像一袋袋冷冻豌豆;它也经历过仲夏的黄昏,其砖墙有着面包刚烤好时的那般热度。
它不仅是个物质上的,还是个精神上的庇护所。它一直是身份的守卫者。多少年来,它的主人回回外游归来,只要在房子里环顾四周就会想起他们的过去。地面上的石板诉说着一份安宁和经年累月沉积下来的雍容,而厨房里那整齐的橱柜则是不会使人有胁迫感的条理和秩序的典范。餐桌上铺着印有大棵毛茛图案的柔软的桌布,使人想起玩乐嬉戏,它跟旁边板着脸的水泥墙面摆在一起,成为了此景的一种视觉调剂。沿着楼梯,那些小小的静物,如鸡蛋和柠檬,又将你的注意力引向日常事物呈现出的精细优美。窗台上,一个插着矢车菊的玻璃花瓶能将你从沮丧低落的情绪中拉出来。楼上的一个狭小的空房给你空间让你“孵出”有助提振精神的想法,透过天窗你可以望见匆匆流云迅速飘过起重机和烟囱顶管的上空。
虽说这幢房子对其住户自身的种种问题可能束手无策,但这里面的每个房间都印证着一份快乐,而建筑对这种幸福感是功不可没的。
2. 
Yet a concern for architecture has never been free from a degree of suspicion. Doubts have been raised about the subject’s seriousness, its moral worth and its cost. A thought-provoking number of the world’s most intelligent people have disdained any interest in decoration and design, equating contentment with 27)discarnate and invisible matters instead.
The Ancient Greek 28)Stoic philosopher 29)Epictetus is said to have demanded of a heart-broken friend whose house had burnt to the ground, “If you really understand what governs the universe, how can you yearn for bits of stone and pretty rock?” Legend recounts that after hearing the voice of God, the Christian hermit Alexandra sold her house, shut herself in a tomb and never looked at the outside world again, while her fellow hermit Paul slept on a blanket on the floor of a windowless mud hut and recited 300 prayers every day, suffering only when he heard of another holy man who had managed 700 and slept in a coffin.
Such 30)austerity has been a historical constant. In the spring of 1137 the Cistercian monk 31)St Bernard of Clairvaux travelled all the way around Lake Geneva without noticing it was even there. Likewise, after four years in his monastery, St Bernard could not report whether the dining area had a vaulted ceiling (it does) or how many windows there were in the 32)sanctuary of his church (three). On a visit to the 33)Charterhouse of 34)Dauphiné, St Bernard astonished his hosts by arriving on a magnificent white horse 35)diametrically opposed to the 36)ascetic values he professed, but he explained that he had borrowed the animal from a wealthy uncle and had simply failed to 37)register its appearance on a four-day journey across France.
2.
然而人们对建筑的关注历来不乏一定的猜疑,主要针对建筑这一主题的严肃性,其道德价值及其造价。在世上最聪明的那群人中,有好一部分人对装潢和设计嗤之以鼻,而满足于那些无形和虚幻的事物,这引人深思。
据说古希腊斯多葛派哲学家埃皮克提图曾质问一位因房子遭火灾烧成灰烬而伤心欲绝的朋友:“如果你真的明白是什么支配着宇宙,怎么还会放不下那一点点砖瓦美石呢?”传说基督教隐士亚历山德拉在听到上帝的声音后卖掉了她的房子,把自己关在一个坟墓里,再也不看外面的世界。而她的同道中人,隐士保罗则睡在一间无窗泥棚屋里的地板上的一条毯子上,而且每天吟诵300句祷文,他的痛苦只在于听说还有个圣人能每天吟诵700句祷文且在棺材里。
这类苦行在历史上可谓屡见不鲜。1137年春,西多会的修道士,克莱尔沃修道院的圣伯纳德一直绕着瑞士日内瓦湖旅行,却竟然没有注意到湖的存在。同样的,在修道院呆了四年,圣伯纳德却回答不出来那里的用餐区是否有个拱顶(事实上有)以及他那个教堂的高坛处有几扇窗户(三扇)。一次造访多菲内的加尔都西会时,圣伯纳德令接待他的主人们大吃一惊,他是骑着一匹极好的白马抵达那里的,这完全与他公开秉持的苦行价值观背道而驰。但他却解释说,这动物是从他的一位富有的叔父那借来的,在穿越法国的四天旅途中,他压根没注意到它长什么样。
3.
Nevertheless, such determined efforts to scorn visual experience have always been matched by equally persistent attempts to mould the material world to graceful ends. People have 38)strained their backs carving flowers into their roof beams and their eyesight embroidering animals onto their tablecloths. They have given up weekends to hide unsightly cables behind ledges. They have thought carefully about appropriate kitchen work-surfaces. They have imagined living in unattainably expensive houses pictured in magazines and then felt sad, as one does on passing an attractive stranger in a crowded street.
We seem divided between an urge to 39)override our senses and numb ourselves to our settings and a contradictory impulse to acknowledge the extent to which our identities are indelibly connected to, and will shift along with, our locations. An ugly room can 40)coagulate any loose suspicions as to the incompleteness of life, while a sun-lit one set with honey-coloured limestone tiles can lend support to whatever is most hopeful within us.
Belief in the significance of architecture is premised on the notion that we are, for better or for worse, different people in different places—and on the conviction that it is architecture’s task to render vivid to us who we might ideally be.
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3. 
然而,长久以来,人类力图将物质世界塑造得优雅完美的那份坚持,一直与这类坚决蔑视视觉体验的努力旗鼓相当。人类为了在顶梁上雕刻花朵而不惜拉伤腰背肌肉,为了在桌布上绣出动物来宁肯累花了眼。他们放弃周末的休息将不雅观的电缆藏于壁架后。他们小心琢磨厨房灶台用什么材料才合适。他们想象过住进杂志图片上那些天价豪宅里,接着又黯然神伤,仿佛在拥挤的大街上跟一个迷人的陌生人擦肩而过那般,心里万分惆怅。
我们似乎既想对自己的感官感受置之不理,使自己对所处环境麻木不觉,但同时又有一种相反的冲动——去承认我们的身份在很大程度上和我们的住处永远联系在一起,且会随其变化而变化。一个丑陋的房间能使对生活的不完满所产生的游疑闲虑固化成型,而一套光照充足、铺着蜜黄色石灰石地砖的居室则能为我们内心最炽热的希冀更添力量。
对建筑之意义的信仰基于“不论好坏,我们都是生活在不同地方的不同个体”这一观念;同时,也是出于相信“建筑就是为了向我们生动地展示出我们理想中的自己”。
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