迪拜：未来与现实的交错点 1)Dubai's Buildings of the Future
迪拜,如我的一个同事所言,是“世界建筑创意的试炼场”。任何最新颖,最夸张,最古怪的建筑创意都可以在迪拜这个地方得到一一实现。摩天大楼比比皆是,各类主题公园更是不在话下——迪拜把许多的“世界第一”尽收囊中。在“宏大即是美丽”的生活哲学体系下,那里的“人”不过是不起眼的、用来装点衬托迪拜的饰品罢了。我原以为在迪拜可以领略到的是动画片《阿拉丁》里面展现的那些充满阿拉伯风情的圆顶建筑和美景,殊不知那一切正在起吊机的轰鸣声中黯然倒塌。 ——Mac
I don’t mean to sound like an undergrad philosophy major, but in Dubai I have no choice. Again and again, I find myself pondering the nature of reality. Sure, the city is a real place populated by real people—1.32 million, last anyone checked. But it has the look and feel of fiction, like a landscape inside a computer game. 2)Bizarre objects 3)pop up at odd 4)intervals. As it turns out, some of the astonishing sights I’m hoping to see simply don’t exist and likely never will. Missing in action is the Dynamic Tower, an 80-story building in which each individual floor revolves 360 degrees—like a quavering stack of hotel cocktail 5)lounges—and generates energy as it turns. Indeed, Dubai, fiercely sunny, dusty, and 6)sprawling, can be as 7)disillusioning as Las Vegas when the neon signs are off. Most of the newer buildings 8)hew close to the Sheikh Zayed strip, a straight line stretching all the way to 9)Abu Dhabi, originally laid through uninhabited desert. 10)Novelty high-rises face off across six lanes of traffic like opposing pieces in a 11)wacky chess set. There are developments under way the size of whole cities, like 12)Waterfront, an urban habitat for 1.5 million people, with a Manhattan-inspired downtown planned with the help of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. And there’s Bawadi, a six-mile-long entertainment district with 51 new hotels, including Asia Asia, predicted to be the world’s largest, with 6,500 rooms. And there’s Business Bay, a new central district with 220 skyscrapers going up all at once.
What I keep hearing during my visit is that the Dubai I can see is nothing compared with the Dubai that will soon emerge. Half of what’s printed on the map isn’t really here yet; vast tracts are marked u/c, meaning “under construction.” Also, despite the fact that the present-day city is built on big cars, aggressive air-conditioning, and energy-eating seawater 13)desalinization plants, green architecture is now the law of the land. Over at the firm FXFowle International, managing director Steven Miller speaks for most Dubai-based architects when he says, “It’s like I died and I’m already in heaven.” Even the things I think I know about Dubai, projects that have been 14)relentlessly 15)hyped, turn out to be both more and less real than I’d imagined. For instance, I’ve heard plenty about the Palms, three enormous clusters of islands made in the shape of trees, and The World, 300 artificial islands representing every country and landmass.
Later I venture to the Dubailand showroom, another project that has been long 16)heralded, but at the moment manifests itself as a desert full of earth-moving equipment and the most extravagant scale model I’ve ever seen. Dubailand will someday be a 108-square-mile 17)agglomeration of theme parks 18)interspersed with housing and hotels, including a 19)Tiger Woods–branded golf course development (which, I guess, is why there are live tigers in a glass enclosure 20)adjacent to the reception area). Among Dubailand’s future attractions are Al Sahra, an “ecotourism 21)resort” with a working 22)date farm and a 1,200-seat23)amphitheater; the City of Arabia, which will combine serviced apartments and a theme park stocked with “over 100 24)animatronic dinosaurs”; and 25)Falcon City, where residents will live amid reproductions of ancient pyramids, the Eiffel Tower, and the Taj Mahal.
我本不想让自己听起来像一个哲学系的本科生,可在迪拜,我实在无法控制自己的思想。我一次又一次地思考“现实”的本质。当然,迪拜这个城市有实实在在的人居住其中——132万,这是最新的人口统计数字。但它看起来像是虚幻世界,也给人以同样的感觉,就像是某个电脑游戏的景致一般。隔三差五地就会冒出些光怪陆离的建筑。而现实是,我本来希望看到的一些惊人景观却并不存在,而且很可能永远都不会出现——动态旋转塔就是其中之一,那本应是一座80层建筑,它的每一层楼都可以旋转360度——就像把酒店的酒吧逐个地摇摇晃晃地堆叠起来——转动的时候还可以产生能量(编者注:该塔在作者拜访迪拜期间没有建成,因此作者有此一说)。事实上,迪拜总是艳阳高照,沙尘滚滚,广袤地大,如果霓虹灯一关,这个城市确实会像拉斯维加斯那样让人大失所望。大部分较新的建筑紧挨着坐落在谢赫·扎耶德路两旁,这条路笔直地通往阿布扎比。一开始这周围是荒无人烟的沙漠。如今,样式新颖的高楼就像是在一副古怪的国际象棋盘上的棋子般隔着六车道的马路相互对视。各种项目在热火朝天地进行着,有些项目占地面积就像整个城市般大小。比如说“水岸”,它由荷兰建筑设计师雷姆·库哈斯设计,其灵感来自美国纽约曼哈顿中心区,将来会有150万人在此居住。还有6英里(约9.66公里)长、将建51家酒店的娱乐区巴瓦第,其中包括有6500间客房且预计是世界上最大的酒店——“亚洲—亚洲酒店”。而220座摩天大厦会在新的中心区“商业湾”同时崛起。
在迪拜逗留期间,不停地有人对我说,我现在眼前所看到的一切与将要出现在这个城市里的东西是无法相提并论的。地图上印的建筑有一半还没成形,大片大片的地区标有“建设中”的字样。另外,尽管这个城市的建设依赖大型汽车、巨型空调和极为耗能的海水淡化工厂,但现在,绿色环保建筑才是这里的王道。FXFowle国际建筑设计公司的总经理史蒂芬·米勒说:“我在这里,就像已经死了,来到天堂。”这话说出了大部分驻扎在迪拜的建筑师的心声。即使我觉得自己了解迪拜的某些情况,那些被大肆宣扬的项目也或多或少与我想象得不同。比如说:“棕榈岛”的事我听说了许多——三个建造成树形的群岛;而“世界岛”则是一个人工岛屿群——里面包含300个分别代表世界上的每一个国家和每一块陆地的小岛。
后来,我来到了“迪拜乐土”展示厅,又一个被捧上天的工程。不过此时它向人们展示的只不过是一片到处是搬土机的沙漠和我见过的最为夸张的微缩模型。将来有一天,“迪拜乐土”会成为一个占地108平方英里(约280平方公里)的庞大区域,里面有多个主题公园,其中散建一些住宅和酒店,还包括一个以“泰格·伍兹”命名的高尔夫球场(我猜,这也是为什么邻近接待区有一个住有老虎的玻璃隔离区)。在“迪拜乐土”落成后的景点包括撒哈拉,这将会是一个生态旅游度假村,里面有一个在运作的枣椰树农场;有1200个座位的圆形剧场“阿拉伯之城”,这里有提供全方位服务的公寓和有“一百多只电动恐龙”的主题公园;有“猎鹰城”,里面的居民会生活在有古金字塔、艾菲尔铁塔和泰姬陵复制品的环境里。
Unaccountably, the most satisfying thing I see in Dubai is a modest office tower—a mere 22 stories—that is still being built when I visit. It’s in Business Bay, a new district going up along an inland waterfront that was created by dramatically extending 26)Dubai Creek. Developer Shahab Lutfi is putting up 0-14, the first 27)freestanding work built by the experimental New York firm Reiser + Umemoto, which has turned out to be, in Lutfi’s words, “an adventure.” The 28)undulating, column-free shape is created by pouring concrete into steel molds 29)custom-made in China. The façade’s oddly spaced round 30)openings—think Swiss cheese—are created by cutting into the mold and inserting thick foam 31)plugs. The process is remarkably complex, because each floor is different.
I admire Lutfi’s dedication to his short-but-demanding tower, and I’m also grateful to him for giving me as authentic an experience as it’s possible to have in Dubai: an off-road 32)jaunt around a major construction site. Lutfi 33)observes, “In Dubai, the roads and the buildings get built at the same time. Sometimes the buildings finish before the roads.” And Lutfi’s logic is obvious: “We are trying to build in 10 years what other people take 100 years to build.”
Actually, I think 100 years is an understatement—1,000 years’ worth of city in a decade is more like it. Every 10 seconds I alternate between profound admiration and sheer terror. And one afternoon I 34)max out on the whole big-is-beautiful ethos. I seek refuge in the Palace, a newly opened “historic” Arabian hotel, part of a freshly minted district called Old Town. I sink into a comfortable chair in the Palace’s 35)tranquil 36)Moghul-themed lobby, and then notice that what I’ve got in front of me is the best possible view of a 21st-century icon. There, beyond the 37)Persian arches of the shaded terrace, the lush gardens, and the pool, looms the Burj Dubai. And I figure that this is it—reality, Dubai-style—sipping tea while staring across the ages from a make-believe version of the 16th century to a somewhat 38)implausible version of the 21st.
说不清是什么原因,迪拜最令我满意的是一座不起眼的写字楼,只有22层高,我去的时候它还在建造当中。这座写字楼坐落在商业湾,这是一个沿着内陆水岸打造的新区,这水岸是人为地大幅度延长迪拜河而成。发展商沙哈勃·鲁提夫正在此建造0-14大楼——这是美国纽约实验性建筑设计公司莱瑟+恩门摩脱承建的第一座独立式大楼。用鲁提夫的话说,这个工程是一次“冒险”。这座无柱的波浪形建筑,是将混凝土浇注进在中国订制的钢铸模而成。那些之间间距不均的圆孔散布在建筑的正面(样子就像瑞士硬干酪)。建成这些圆孔要对钢铸模进行切割,并用厚厚的泡沫填充。整个过程非常复杂,因为每层楼都是不一样的。
我欣赏鲁提夫对这座高度不起眼但要求极高的大楼全情投入的精神,我也对他让我能够在迪拜有一次真正的体验——在一个大型建筑工地边上走上一圈——而心存感激。鲁提夫说:“在迪拜,道路和大楼是同期建造的。有时候,大楼比道路的完工时间要早。”他的逻辑毫不隐晦:“我们在十年内能够完成的,别人要花一百年才能完成。”
事实上,我觉得“一百年”这个数字太保守了——应该说迪拜在十年内完成了别人一千年才能完成的工作。每隔十秒钟,我的感受会在衷心钦佩和彻底惊恐之间交替。有一天下午,我对“宏大即是美丽”这种哲学实在有点吃不消了。于是我逃离到“王宫酒店”来,这是一座刚刚开张的“旧式”阿拉伯风格酒店,它坐落在一个新近打造、被称为“老城”的区域里。王宫酒店里的大厅以莫卧儿王朝时代为装饰主题,我坐在宁静的大厅舒服的沙发里,注意到我眼前的应该是21世纪的最佳景致了:在被遮蔽的阳台上的波斯拱门、翠绿的花园和游泳池这一切的后面,迪拜塔隐现(编者注:迪拜塔是一座集休闲、住宅与购物为一体的全球最高的摩天大楼)。我想,这就是现实了,是迪拜风格的现实——呷着茶,看着眼前从人造的16世纪景观到让人难以置信的21世纪景象这一时间跨度颇大的景致。
