西线工作室“上山下乡”

王方戟： 在对西线工作室近期的设计作品进行了解后，我们之间展开了一些对话。这些对话围绕着在西部从事设计时建筑师的思想及生活状态展开，记录了西线工作室对设计的诸多思考。

Fangji Wang: After learning about West-Line’s recent designs, we began a series of conversations. They concern architects’ thinking and ways of living while practising in western China, recording many of the studio’s reflections on design.

王方戟： 那次我路过贵阳拜访西线工作室的时候发现，西线的建筑师们对当代建筑动向都非常关注。后来知道魏浩波带大家出国考察了几次建筑。我特别想了解一下，大家在现场看见那些杂志上刊登建筑后主要感受是什么？

Fangji Wang: When I visited West-Line while passing through Guiyang, I noticed how closely its architects followed contemporary developments. I later learned that Haobo Wei had taken the team abroad several times to study buildings. What struck you most when you encountered buildings that you had previously seen in magazines?

西线： 西线这几年已经逐渐形成了每年1~2次有明确目标的专业考察，考察前3个月开始进行大量的筛选、分析、安排行程与集体学习准备，提出问题与不解之处；实地考察就地解决疑难；考察后定期完成专题考察报告，并与分配奖励机制挂钩，这种方式更趋向为一种学习任务，对提高团队的专业素质有相当作用。至于我（魏）始终认为建筑现场感很重要，在书本上读红蓝尺模度时，常被学者们因柯布自相矛盾模度使用而陷入喋喋不休的争论弄得云里雾里，但当突然身处柯布晚年设计的那座地处法国马丁岬罗克布鲁诺的海滨渡假屋内时，却顿悟：红蓝尺模度竟然是如此精确的空间生成控制系统啊！通过数据系统将人、物、光与环境精密地联系与控制起来，这座极小化居住原型的精确控制方式深刻地影响了我；背熟了朗香教堂与费米尼教堂的平立剖，但当身临其境之际却全然忘却，那蓄意处理光、特定容器与材料共同作用下的光的幻象意境机制更强烈地吸引着我。这类经过长期阅读积累理解与思考的建筑，在现场亲身体验时，所感兴趣的点往往与读书时认为的关键点大相径庭。我想，这或许是因形而上抽象灌输方式与作为物质的建筑存在方式存在本能的差异而导致的吧。

West-Line: In recent years, we have established one or two focused professional study trips each year. Three months beforehand, we begin selecting and analysing destinations, arranging the itinerary and studying collectively, identifying questions and uncertainties. We investigate those questions on site and complete thematic reports afterwards, linked to our remuneration and reward system. The trips are thus learning assignments that contribute substantially to the team’s professional development. I (Wei) have always considered direct experience of architecture essential. Reading about the red and blue Modulor series, I was often bewildered by scholars’ endless debates over Le Corbusier’s contradictory uses of them. Yet inside his late seaside cabin at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in France, I suddenly understood what a precise system of spatial generation the Modulor could be. Through numerical relationships, it coordinates people, objects, light and surroundings. The exact control of this minimal dwelling profoundly influenced me. I had memorised the plans, sections and elevations of Ronchamp and Firminy, but forgot them on arrival: I was drawn instead to the atmosphere of light produced by deliberately modulated illumination, particular spatial containers and materials. In buildings studied and considered for years, the things that interest us on site often differ greatly from what seemed important in books. Perhaps this stems from the fundamental difference between abstract intellectual transmission and architecture’s material existence.

杂志上刊登的建筑比系统专著中的建筑更着力于视觉形象，且更摘要，而书面阅读较容易把握基本空间组织秩序、设计生成的关键点、形体特征等，但为何采取如此的设计组织手段，材料配置系统又是基于怎样的现实等则需要更多复杂的旁征博引，然而一旦进入到现实环境中，很多疑问常能轻松化解，关注的焦点也时有变化，譬如在纸上读穆尔西亚市政厅时，曾纳闷这样的存在方式，而当身心停在那巴洛克广场巨大放射线焦点时，现场则清晰地解答了拉斐尔•莫里欧通过多层次历史关系投射的方式实现今古默契疑虑；老城区山麓脚下封闲小广场一角，隐没在古屋阴影中的阿里坎特当代艺术博物馆，敦实而干净，但在纸上则呈现为酷而异质体量⋯⋯当时我想，这样融洽可能与自柏拉图、阿基米德时代就出现的基本几何体与数据比例系统相关吧。

Buildings in magazines are presented more visually and summarily than in systematic monographs. Reading can reveal spatial organisation, key design-generating decisions and formal characteristics. Understanding why those decisions were made, or the circumstances behind a material system, requires wider investigation. Entering the actual setting often resolves questions easily and shifts our attention. On paper, Murcia Town Hall puzzled me. Standing at the focal point of the great radiating lines of its Baroque square, however, I understood how Rafael Moneo had brought past and present into accord through layered historical relationships. Similarly, the Alicante Museum of Contemporary Art, tucked into the shadow of old buildings at a small, secluded square beneath the hill, felt solid and clear; in print it had appeared cool and alien. I wondered whether this harmony arose from the elementary geometries and proportional systems known since Plato and Archimedes.

黄陂洞烈士纪念场几段混凝土墙体的施工控制就蓄意组织了预防措施，由于该项目地处偏僻的山野乡村，投资仅三四十万元，施工队伍技术力量也相对较弱，尚未有处理清水混凝土经验。该处使用自拌混凝土材料基于几点考虑：1） 该地交通运输极为困难；2）该地高温高湿，腐蚀性强，石材也易变色生霉；3）自拌混凝土易就地取材，并易与山体环境默契；4）混凝土材料无需维护，天长日久，生成所期望的沧桑感。自拌混凝土墙体施工控制防线为：1）图纸上与现场交底详细交待模板规格、浇注方式与脱模剂的使用，并与施工队共同确定施工方案；2）对墙段四角严格控制浇筑的垂直度与水平度；3）刻意组织一群有序布点的红色五星群阴刻于混凝土墙体上。

At Huangpidong Martyrs’ Memorial, we deliberately built preventive measures into the control of several concrete walls. The site was remote, the budget only RMB 300,000–400,000, and the team had limited skills and no experience of exposed concrete. We chose site-mixed concrete because transport was extremely difficult; the hot, humid and corrosive environment caused even stone to discolour and grow mould; concrete could use local materials and blend with the mountain; and it required no maintenance, acquiring the weathered character we desired. Our three lines of control were: first, detailed drawings and site briefings specifying formwork dimensions, pouring methods and release agents, with the construction sequence agreed jointly; second, strict control of vertical and horizontal alignment at the four corners of each wall section; and third, a deliberately ordered field of red five-pointed stars recessed into the concrete.

这三道防线共同形成一套有效的预防体系： 防线一，在于向施工队灌输严格施工意识与有效施工技术；防线二，通过控制四角进而确保墙段的整体性，防线三，用鲜红的五角星群有效地将有可能大面积爆模坍落现象转化为与五角星群共同配置的有意味、有质感的墙体，最终结果是如预想的大面积爆模，如预想被有效控制。而在赤水展陈馆因为考虑墙体为涂料，大面积涂料处理不好则易开裂更难保平整度，在设计时就预先将外墙调整为密条方式，当然这种方式必然是被纳入到整个空间系统考虑了。

Together these formed an effective preventive system. The first established disciplined workmanship and workable techniques. The second secured each wall’s overall integrity by controlling its corners. The third allowed bright red stars to turn potentially widespread formwork failures and irregularities into a meaningful, textured wall composition. The formwork problems occurred as anticipated, but were controlled as intended. At the Chishui Exhibition Hall, we knew that large painted surfaces would be prone to cracking and difficult to keep flat. We therefore designed the external walls as dense strips from the outset, integrating this treatment into the overall spatial system.

王方戟： 难怪黄陂洞烈士纪念场项目看上去清水混凝土的表现力很强，而且完全没有粗糙的感觉，这应该就是您所说的“主动预防”策略带来的结果。我理解这种“主动预防”策略不仅是一种经验，更是一种提炼。通过对现实问题提炼将现实中的困难进行化解，并将它们转化为对设计有积极作用的因素，是一种从地域出发的设计思考带来的成果。另外一个问题是，西线工作室仅仅靠作品中的这些建筑在经济上是很难维持的吧，那西线工作室是如何做到既要全力做好作品，又能保证经济收入呢？

Fangji Wang: That explains why the exposed concrete at Huangpidong is so expressive without appearing crude. Your “active prevention” is more than experience; it is a process of distillation. You identify practical difficulties and turn them into positive design factors through thinking grounded in the region. Another question: it must be difficult for the studio to survive financially on these projects alone. How do you devote yourselves fully to the work while maintaining income?

西线： 西线主要由职业建筑师与职业工程师构成，设计工作是其最主要的生存保障，符合时代的生活质量是必然的要求，离开生存谈理想那只能称做理想化，理想化是要栽跟头的，理想当是在脚踏实地的生存中逐步成长。早期西线是艰苦的，当初很多人认为在现实的贵州造有质量的房子很可笑，何必较真，称我为疯子，的确由于经济的原因很多同事半途走了，我也一度很困惑，但必须直面现实：生存与理想得同步成长；西线的骨干体系逐步转化为技术体系与经营体系的同步前进，到今天已建立了有效的技术运营体系，已具备复杂商业项目与大中型综合性项目相当的设计能力。

West-Line: The studio consists mainly of professional architects and engineers, for whom design is the principal livelihood. A reasonable contemporary standard of living is necessary. Ideals detached from survival are merely idealism, and idealism can fail; ideals must grow from a practical livelihood. Our early years were difficult. Many thought it absurd to insist on good buildings in Guizhou and called me mad. Financial pressures did drive colleagues away, and I too was troubled for a time. But we had to face reality: livelihood and ideals must grow together. Our core organisation gradually developed technical and business systems in parallel. Today, we have an effective technical operating structure and substantial capacity for complex commercial and medium-to-large mixed-use projects.

这些年大中型项目的中标率也比较高，这些项目的实践在保证设计队伍生活质量的同时，也恶补了成熟设计体系的技术与规范常识，也有利于反省成熟体系优势与问题；西线的 “上山下乡”系列正是在如此环境中被保护与成长的，西线乡土项目的技术起步也正是在如此成熟的技术平台的扶持下逐渐自成体系的，但“上山下乡”系列更引导着团队的技术追求，更强化着职业建筑师作为公共知识分子的社会角色。通过长期的基层实践，我觉得建筑师的良心很重要，这很可能影响一个地区的存在状态，尤其在资金极有限的情况下，建造更需要真诚。

In recent years we have won a relatively high proportion of medium and large competitions. These projects support the team’s living standards while rapidly strengthening our knowledge of mature design systems, technologies and regulations. They also help us reflect on those systems’ strengths and weaknesses. This environment has sheltered and nurtured “Up to Mountains & Down to Villages”; its rural technical approach has gradually developed under the support of that mature platform. In turn, the rural series guides the team’s technical aspirations and reinforces the architect’s social role as a public intellectual. Long-term grassroots practice has taught me the importance of an architect’s conscience. It can affect the condition of an entire region. Where funds are extremely limited, building requires particular sincerity.

王方戟： 看来，虽然建筑师对建筑追求是一致的，但不同建筑师还是必须通过与自身契合的方式来接近这种追求！继续同样的话题，与东部沿海地区建筑师相比，你们觉得在西部内地实践的建筑师有哪些优势，又有哪些困难？

Fangji Wang: Although architects share a pursuit of architecture, each must approach it in ways suited to their circumstances. Compared with architects in the eastern coastal regions, what advantages and difficulties do you encounter in the western interior?

西线： 西线工作生活在颇具特点与质感中国西南地区，复杂的地理空间、尚存的传统聚落与时尚当代生活交织在一起。这对于建筑师而言，生逢此时、身在此地是一种幸运，很多可能的存在状态有机会得以预设与完成，大量基层中小型公建更为我们提供了多种探讨的可能与身体力行的实践；但是西部的基层建设工作的确是艰苦的，有近30%的时间同各种观念周旋与斗争，30%的时间在路上颠簸，即使是经过严格的招投程序的施工单位其技术水平与责任心也令人担忧，极有限的建造技术的选择、苛刻的工程造价控制、优秀建筑人才的极度匮乏、新思想的被孤立、专业媒体辐射力偏弱、甲方的偏见与同行的不理解等等，这些都得一步步克服。总之，在西部要做点好东西，多少得有点勇敢的心与坚强心。不过，这种滯后状态又给我们更多时间思考与回味⋯…

West-Line: We live and work in southwestern China, where complex geographical spaces, surviving traditional settlements and fashionable contemporary life interweave. For an architect, being here at this moment is fortunate: many possible forms of existence can be imagined and realised, and the large number of small and medium public buildings offers opportunities for hands-on exploration. Yet grassroots construction in the west is genuinely arduous. Nearly 30 per cent of our time goes into negotiating and contesting ideas, and another 30 per cent into rough journeys. Even contractors selected through strict tendering can have worrying levels of skill and responsibility. Limited technical options, stringent budgets, an acute shortage of talented architects, the isolation of new ideas, weak professional media coverage, clients’ prejudices and colleagues’ incomprehension must all be overcome step by step. To build something worthwhile here takes courage and resilience. Still, this slower development gives us more time to think and reflect.

魏皓严： 我们的名字属于一个系列，明眼人都看得出来我俩是兄弟。你是哥哥我是弟弟，从小就这样，老了也变不了；你做建筑我搞城市设计，相近又相远，平时各忙各，只是节假日或因为父母才相聚。这次好，因为专业而访谈。说实话，你的作品中比较吸引我的是一种似乎按捺不住狂野气息，在我看来，建筑师精神气质与建筑之间有着奇妙联系，这种联系是非常必要的。对此你怎么看？

Haoyan Wei: Our names belong to the same series, so it is obvious we are brothers. You are the elder and I the younger; that has been true since childhood and will never change. You design buildings and I work in urban design—close, yet distant. We are usually busy separately, meeting on holidays or because of our parents. This time, happily, our profession brings us together. What attracts me in your work is a seemingly irrepressible wildness. I believe there is a remarkable and necessary connection between an architect’s temperament and the architecture. What do you think?

魏浩波： 可能是思维习惯、性格与直面的现实影响着我解决问题的方式与着力点吧，这三者的相互制衡决定着建筑最终的呈现状态。在贵州，必须直面大量日常的基层实践，低造价、有限设计与施工水准、紧张的建造周期等等都逼迫着我，建立某种单纯的、单元复加的、易控制的工作模型，通过重复同构的方式以整体性有意识地回避精微性，通过对各单元群施加不同力度的控制手段，击打出多层次、有力量的空间感。如同在一群鼓上，以变化的力量打击不同的鼓，有力量就会有狂野吧。

Haobo Wei: Perhaps my habits of thought, personality and the realities I face shape how and where I address problems. Their mutual balance determines the building’s eventual form. In Guizhou, ordinary grassroots practice means low budgets, limited design and construction skills and tight schedules. These force me to establish simple, additive, easily controlled working models. Repetition and self-similarity allow overall coherence deliberately to take precedence over minute refinement. Applying different degrees of control to different groups of units produces powerful, layered spatial effects. It is like striking a set of drums with varying force: where there is force, there may be wildness.

魏皓严： 我注意到从你早期的“梦溪笔谈”项目到最近几年建成或在建的作品（如丙安码头纪念馆和丹霞世界自然遗产地系列等），在设计手法和形态处理上有个可喜的变化，即开始“自成一套”，逐渐去除一些别人的影子。这是一个艰难的过程——建筑设计总是在向别人（前辈大师或者平庸商业机构）学习中起步，而后又逐渐建立自我——当然这后一步只有较少的人才能做到。我一向坚持应该从作品的角度看待建筑师工作，在强调政治经济学关系当代背景下，该观点确有专业主义与自我膨胀之嫌，但也是一种专业人敢于直面现实和勇于担当的态度。如果建筑师将自己设计的建筑一味地归结于受制于社会政治与经济力量，岂非又有自我免责之嫌？能说说你这“自成一套”的几个关键点吗？

Haoyan Wei: From the early Mengxi Bitan project to recent completed or ongoing work such as the Bingan Wharf Memorial Hall and the Danxia World Natural Heritage series, I see a welcome change in your methods and forms: you are developing a system of your own, gradually shedding others’ shadows. This is difficult. Architectural design begins by learning from others—masters or ordinary commercial firms—and only a few eventually establish themselves. I have always argued that architects should be judged through their works. In a contemporary context that stresses political-economic relationships, this may seem professionally insular or self-important, yet it also means facing reality and accepting responsibility. If architects attribute everything they build to social, political and economic forces, are they not excusing themselves? What are the key points in developing your own system?

魏浩波： 早期的 “梦溪笔谈”项目其实是某种程度的学以致用，恨不得将所学的十八般武艺与自以为是的研究心得都用上，但现实的具体建造与各种限制条件必然会考量你的所学与所想，逼迫你过滤与反思，是某种意义上的实践出真知。正是深度的建造推动了不停地再思考，“梦溪笔谈”当初那些如野火般跳跃的思维火花其实为后续工作留下很多持续的研究专题，如“分岔路径体系”与“公共空间二次划分”。但由于那时系统性的工作平台尚在摸索中，很多问题还看不透彻，缺少有的放矢的贯彻。

Haobo Wei: Early Mengxi Bitan was, to a degree, an attempt to apply everything we had learned, including research insights we believed in. But actual construction and its constraints inevitably tested those ideas, forcing us to filter and reconsider them: learning through practice. Deep engagement with building prompted continuous reflection. The ideas that flickered like wildfire at Mengxi Bitan left enduring research themes, such as the branching-path system and secondary subdivision of public space. Our systematic working platform was still taking shape, however, so many issues were not fully understood or pursued with clear purpose.

两年后的贵阳花溪摆陇苗寨民俗综合体项目，设计条理就清晰了不少，设立了深度调查一村落本质结构的发现→空间控制机制分析与发展的基本工作程序，由此发现村落生成的 “层级嵌套结构”与“基于身体”的建造，并将之投入到实际的建造中。随后的“上山下乡”系列项目均坚持贯彻并发展了这样基本工作方法，西线最核心的“密集组织机制”与“氛围制造”就是其间的重要成果；据此逐步建立了以贵州民居经典剖面（折叠屋顶与起伏底面） 为原型，在其间插入以 “密集组织机制”为空间组织系统基本工作模型用以指导实践。这一基本工作模型的关键点可从两个层面看：第一，工作方法层面有三个关键的控制环节，即乡土本质结构的发现，空间控制机制的建立，与将形态与空间关系分解为控制施工的、以技术规范为依据的标准性控制；第二，建造模型层面：1） 以具有自相似重复同构特征的密集组织机制匹配层级嵌套结构，形成有层次或级差空间控制骨架；2）折叠的屋面同自然光调控方式相结合，制造光的幻象意境：3）天井系统以潜移默化机制为原理实施教化功能；4）基于身体的建造方式。

Two years later, at Bailong Miao Village, the design logic had become much clearer. We established a sequence of in-depth investigation → discovery of the village’s essential structure → analysis and development of spatial control mechanisms. This revealed the village’s hierarchically nested structure and bodily approach to building, which we put into practice. Subsequent projects maintained and developed that method. “Dense organisation” and “atmosphere production”, now central to West-Line, emerged from it. We gradually formed a working model based on the characteristic section of Guizhou dwellings—a folded roof over an undulating ground plane—with a dense spatial organisation inserted between. Its key points operate at two levels. Methodologically: discovering the essential vernacular structure, establishing spatial control, and translating formal and spatial relationships into standardised construction controls based on technical regulations. At the level of the building model: (1) matching dense, self-similar repetition with hierarchical nesting to create a graded spatial framework; (2) combining folded roofs and daylight control to produce luminous illusion; (3) using courtyard systems as mechanisms of subtle education; and (4) building through the body.

魏皓严： 既然天井对于你是惯性的，那么坡屋顶呢？我去过丙安，蛮喜欢那个与周围老式坡屋顶貌合神离的、“V”起来的坡屋顶。这个也是通灵？

Haoyan Wei: If sky wells are instinctive for you, what about pitched roofs? I have been to Bing’an and like the V-shaped roof that resembles the surrounding old roofs outwardly but differs in spirit. Is this also a spiritual connection?

魏浩波： 坡屋顶，尤其是层层叠叠坡屋顶，一片铺开去，很有力量感，那力量可能是源自山川，因转承落起，挤压、释放出性格型的空间。因其灵活应对环境与空间变化的折叠机制，特殊极富韵律感势与其传统渊源的三种特质成为被选的对象，当是理智的结果。至于丙安码头纪念馆屋顶的处理，首先是就势融入大片屋面群中藏起来；其次，以背离常规的、附带控光功能的“V”形顶暗示其表里不一的性格，是自我揭露，以你的说法是揭露其“潜伏者”身份。

Haobo Wei: Pitched roofs, especially layer upon layer spreading across a landscape, have great force. That force may come from the mountains and rivers: their rises, falls and transitions compress and release spaces of distinct character. Three qualities make them a rational choice: a folding mechanism that responds flexibly to changing surroundings and spaces; a particular rhythmic energy; and their traditional lineage. At the Bingan Wharf Memorial Hall, the roof first follows the surrounding roofscape to conceal the building. Second, its unconventional V-shape, which also controls light, hints at the difference between exterior and interior. It reveals itself—or, in your words, exposes its identity as an “undercover agent”.

魏皓严： 对，我是这么说的，掩藏不住的潜伏者，更确切地说是故意暴露的潜伏者。其实在我看来，不考虑文化传统而单从形态上讲的话，坡屋顶有三重意义：关乎建筑室内顶层空间，关乎建筑形态与城镇或者自然背景的关系，关乎建筑与地理气候的关系。尤其在山地城镇，坡屋顶似乎更有得天独厚的优势。不过，作为当代建筑师，用当代通用建造模式生成坡屋顶与基于古老工艺生成的坡屋顶应该是大相径庭的，你能说说自己的看法吗？

Haoyan Wei: Yes, an undercover agent unable—or more precisely, deliberately unwilling—to remain hidden. Setting cultural tradition aside, I see three formal meanings in pitched roofs: their relationship to the uppermost interior space, to the building’s urban or natural setting, and to geography and climate. They seem particularly advantageous in mountain towns. But roofs made with contemporary general construction must differ greatly from those produced by traditional craft. What is your view?

魏浩波： 传统木构建筑已然成熟到建立了一整套完备的系列型材装配组合柔性建构系统，其坡屋面形式与举折深受作为支撑骨架架构体系同屋面相触构件水平间距与垂直间距制约，当然瓦屋面的重量反过来又加强着架构体系整体性与稳定性，这是一个互相作用与依赖的体系；架构体系与屋架浑然一体，成为线状构件组合而成的用于围合空间的构架，整体上呈现为网状编织性肌理；同时受惠于木材料良好的张力、弹性与沉弯度，使得小青瓦这种硬质材料得以无需胶连直接兜架在构架上，这种刚柔相济的方式甚至在斜率很陡之处也安然无恙。于是小青瓦无限交叠，起伏扩张，成为一张有挠度与反弹力的屋面编织系统，这种活性柔屋面编织系统是通用建造模式难以企及。后者屋面是刚性的，由于技术原理不同，其屋面与结构的关系相对分离，屋面解放为有较大自由度与相对独立性的可变形面，这种结构体系丧失了传统屋面那种刚柔相济的建构编织肌理，不得不说是某种很大的遗憾！

Haobo Wei: Traditional timber building developed a complete, flexible assembly system of standardised members. The form and pitch changes of its roofs are constrained by the horizontal and vertical spacing of the supporting members that meet the roof. In turn, the weight of the tiles strengthens the framework’s integrity and stability: the parts act upon and depend on one another. Frame and roof structure form a continuous system of linear members enclosing space, with an overall woven texture. Timber’s tension, elasticity and capacity to bend allow hard grey tiles to sit directly on the frame without adhesive. This balance of rigidity and flexibility works even on steep slopes. Overlapping tiles expand and undulate into a woven roof capable of deflection and rebound. General construction cannot readily achieve this lively, flexible system. Its roofs are rigid; because the technical principles differ, roof and structure are relatively separate, freeing the roof as a deformable surface with greater independence. The loss of the traditional roof’s rigid-flexible woven texture is a considerable regret.

不过，通用建造模式条件下混凝土屋面所具有自由地应物应景与拓扑变形特点，使用好了也有很多吻合乡土状态的处理方法，譬如佛光岩游客接待中心屋面就被处理为有意思的落水系统，这当是传统屋面无法做到的。总之，传统屋面是编织系统，通用建造模式下的屋面则是浇筑系统，两者有根本性的不同，所以还是物尽其用好。你是在提醒我当对技术条件变化有高度敏感与反应吧。

Nevertheless, concrete roofs made through general construction can respond freely to objects and settings and undergo topological transformation. Used well, they offer many ways of engaging vernacular conditions. At Foguangyan Visitor Centre, for example, the roof becomes an interesting rainwater system that a traditional roof could not produce. Traditional roofs are woven systems; contemporary general construction produces cast systems. They are fundamentally different, so each should be used to its best advantage. You are reminding me to remain highly sensitive and responsive to changing technical conditions.

Baums Lab： 你们的建筑就如在其所建造地方深深地扎根一般，旨在与周围环境和当地传统产生多元联系，但却总是立足于现代的视野。它试图以特定方式在既存的环境里消失、融合，但是从另一方面来讲，这样建筑方式在如今建筑秀盛行的当下却是一种呐喊，一种回归基本建造的呐喊。这样的方式对于你深化作品而言，是深思熟虑的结果还是自然而然的发展呢？

BAUMS Lab: Your architecture seems deeply rooted in the place where it is built, establishing multiple relationships with its surroundings and local traditions while remaining firmly contemporary. It tries to disappear into, and merge with, an existing setting. Yet in today’s culture of architectural spectacle, that very approach becomes a call—a call to return to the fundamentals of building. Has this way of developing your work emerged naturally, or through deliberate reflection?

西线： 西线的工作方式很强调对具体地点的空间组织结构、人脉与特殊氛围的观察、分析与理解，试图寻找与地点性达成某种默契机会点，由此将新建建筑潜入到基地原有的机制中，实现如水溶入水般的默契。

West-Line: Our approach emphasises observing, analysing and understanding a particular place’s spatial organisation, human relationships and atmosphere. We seek an opening through which to establish an affinity with the locality, allowing a new building to enter the site’s existing mechanisms as naturally as water dissolving into water.

但这种潜入却在尊重默契的同时，赋予了强烈的异质倾向，从根本上是在当代性学术视野框架下，试图以新建的呈现状态点明并发展该地点的空间生产的控制机制，关注时间性所导致的建造关键环节的变迁与存在地点基本空间原型剖析与生长性再现。总之，我们希望准确地抓住当地建造传统中最基本的控制原理，并进行适时与符合当代通用建造技术特点的再发展，我们将称之为“乡土机制的通用化建造”。至于这样的方式是自然成长必然还是深思熟虑的结果，我更倾向于理解为相辅相成。长期在以特定的自然姿态、高密度分布的传统聚落与丰富的当代性这一构成当代贵州特定存在状态的三角关系中的各方在贵州不同地理段、不同权重的现实条件的周旋中成长的西线人，自然练就了迅速反应地点本质性特质的身体敏感性，而正是这一敏感性引导着工作方向的发展，而发展理性思索过程无疑更推动了敏感性的深入。

Yet this insertion, while respecting that affinity, also introduces a strong element of difference. Within a contemporary intellectual framework, we seek to make the new building reveal and develop the mechanisms that govern the place’s spatial production. We attend to changes over time in critical aspects of construction, and to the analysis and renewed growth of its basic spatial archetypes. In short, we aim to identify the fundamental controls within local building traditions and develop them in ways suited to the time and to contemporary general construction technologies. We call this “general construction through vernacular mechanisms”. Natural growth and deliberate reflection reinforce one another. West-Line has developed amid Guizhou’s triangular relationship between particular natural conditions, densely distributed traditional settlements and a rich contemporary life, each carrying different weight in different locations. This has cultivated a bodily sensitivity that responds quickly to a place’s essential qualities. That sensitivity guides our work, while rational reflection in turn deepens it.

Baums Lab： 和乡土技术关系是西线建筑的一个特征，而这个特征也正是我们特别感兴趣的。你我的共同朋友——塞维利亚大学（西班牙）弗朗西斯科•戈麦斯教授，在周游拉美裔国家时总是解释说建筑师应该以当代的视野重新审视当地建造传统并从中学习。用新视野重视类型学、建造方法以及当地人们使用建筑时方式可能对于发展来说是一个好的起点。你们最近的一些项目应该已经在这个方式的引导下自成建造体系了。我们非常喜欢你在流水接待站（贵州赤水佛光岩游客接待站）上所应用的低技术解决思路，以简单而清晰细节和创新而实用的方式引导当地工人在建造中运用当地的材料建造，与此同时也引发了当代世界应该如何看待传统的思考。那么你如何处理“入乡随俗”？对于低技术，你认为它是某种自我表现还是更贴近、适合这个地方的技术？或是一种既不失去此设计理念，又能克服乡土地区低标准建筑的方式？

BAUMS Lab: Your relationship with vernacular technologies particularly interests us. Our mutual friend Professor Francisco Gómez of the University of Seville often explains, on his travels through Latin America, that architects should reconsider and learn from local building traditions through contemporary eyes. Re-examining typologies, construction methods and how people use buildings may offer a good starting point. Your recent projects seem to have developed a construction system through this approach. We particularly admire the low-tech solutions at Foguangyan Visitor Station in Chishui: simple, clear details and inventive, practical methods guide local workers in using local materials, while raising questions about how the contemporary world should regard tradition. How do you approach “doing as the locals do”? Is low technology a means of self-expression, a technology better suited to the place, or a way of overcoming low construction standards without losing the design idea?

西线： 确切地说，西线乡土技术方式是一种基于理清乡土社会基本社会架构与建造规律基础上的有的放矢的通用技术；是将通用的技术方式浸泡在以“差序格局”为基础的社会结构与熟通“人”与“物”关系中，使通用技术为鲜活的“生活世界”与多元的存在服务，生产出多样而丰富的处理不同乡土现实技术体系与技术思路。

West-Line: More precisely, our vernacular technical approach is the targeted use of general technologies, based on an understanding of rural society’s underlying social structures and building principles. We immerse those technologies in a social structure founded on the “differential mode of association”, and in familiar relationships between people and things. Technology thereby serves a living lifeworld and plural forms of existence, producing diverse technical systems and approaches for different rural realities.

米兰。昆德拉曾指出缺乏经验是人类最常面临一种生存状态，我们刚从城市来到农村或是刚从农村步入城市，两者所需要经验是不同的。而建筑师要掌握就是从一方进入另一方经验调整，否则就要出问题，比如盲目地将通用技术不加控制地带入以人伦为基本结构乡土社会中，这将会是一种很危险状态。

Milan Kundera noted that inexperience is a common condition of human existence. Moving from city to countryside, or countryside to city, requires different experience. Architects need to adjust when passing between them. Otherwise, problems arise—for example, the indiscriminate introduction of general technologies into a rural society whose basic structure is human relationships. That is dangerous.

在社会结构基础上理解乡土社会就有可能掌握将人伦意识形态转化成空间控制机制的研究方法，费孝通关于“差序格局”的理论就引发了我们开始对相关乡土研究方法的基本理论的关注，其中涉及到了列维。施特劳斯著名血缘和地缘学说，以及梅洛。庞蒂关于身体知觉体系现象学成果。我认为这些成就是西线开辟乡土研究的基本理论平台，并将之贯彻到具体实践中，由此发现对于传统村落，以前我们更看重的是它形式结构、材料系统与符号体系；而现在在方法论的指导下，我们找出了藏在现象背后的两种秩序：一种是“体”逻辑生成秩序。也就是说，每一个家庭的房子都是一个很完善的单元，这些单元叠加后就产生了一个更大单元组，这个单元组自身也很完善，这些大单元组继续扩展形成了更大的单元群。这个单元群依然重复着原始单元的基本构架，形成一种空间上呈等级递增的控制关系，简言之是“体”→“体”组→“体”群的自相似扩展逻辑的生成过程，是层级嵌套结构，村落因此确保了其整体生长的稳定性；还有一种隐藏的秩序，是身体的感知秩序，譬如在贵州的小巷里，你经常会觉得路边的石头对你有一种压迫感，迫使你必须靠着冰冷的墙行走，有的时候墙里蹿出的歪脖树会逼迫你弓身弯腰低眉，此时你身体的知觉被悄然地激活，总之传统的村落潜伏着一系列控制“身体”技巧⋯⋯

Understanding rural society through its social structure makes it possible to develop methods that translate relational values into spatial control. Fei Xiaotong’s “differential mode of association” led us towards theories relevant to rural research, including Lévi-Strauss on kinship and territorial relations, and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of bodily perception. These form a theoretical platform that we carry into practice. Previously, we tended to focus on a traditional village’s formal structure, materials and symbols. This methodology revealed two orders beneath appearances. One is the generative order of “bodies”: each household is a complete unit; units combine into larger complete groups, which expand into still larger clusters while repeating the original structure. This is a graded spatial relationship, a self-similar progression from body to group to cluster—a hierarchically nested structure that stabilises the village’s growth. The other is the order of bodily perception. In a Guizhou alley, a roadside rock may press you towards a cold wall, or a crooked tree projecting from behind it may make you bend your body and lower your head. Your senses are quietly activated. Traditional villages harbour a whole series of techniques for controlling the body.

这两个双向结构的发现意味着我们逐渐抓住了乡土空间生产的基本脉络，同时我们的工作也就由此展开了，并且总结出三个基本规律，分别是层级嵌套结构、基于身体的建造以及分岔的路径体系，将这三个规律导入到我们的建筑设计中，就有可能抓住乡土空间生产某些关键环节。在这个时候形式反而不重要了，因为形式是用来服务这个有意思的空间体系的，也就是说即便是新材料、新技术应用也都有可能达到同样的结果，关键是要提炼出当地村落本质性的空间架构，约恩•伍重“单元复加建筑”的模式就是一个很好的例证。所以我希望把21世纪最丰富的学术成就转换成生产力，去探讨、发现地域中最本质的规律，用方法论有效地把握事物的脉络。

Discovering these two structures meant that we were beginning to grasp the basic threads of vernacular spatial production. Our work developed from them, identifying three underlying principles: hierarchical nesting, bodily construction and branching paths. Bringing these into design allows us to grasp critical aspects of how rural space is produced. Form becomes secondary, serving the spatial system. New materials and technologies can therefore achieve comparable effects; what matters is extracting the village’s essential spatial framework. Jørn Utzon’s additive architecture is a good example. We hope to turn the rich intellectual achievements of the twenty-first century into productive tools, discovering fundamental regional principles and using methodology to understand their underlying relationships.

Baums Lab： 我觉得这并不是一个 “伪装”，而是一个能迅速且自然地融入环境建筑，呈现出了永恒的状态。之前我们有一个精彩的谈话，当时你说过你希望将自然的腐蚀性作为项目的另一个要素。仿佛你们建造人工石径有一天真的会变成自然石头一样，竹海公园一百年后会变成什么样呢？还会继续保持“当代性”吗？

BAUMS Lab: This seems less like camouflage than architecture that enters its surroundings rapidly and naturally, acquiring a timeless condition. In an earlier conversation, you said you wanted natural weathering to become another project element—as though the artificial stone path might one day truly become natural stone. What will Bamboo Forest be like in a hundred years? Will it remain contemporary?

西线： 对自然腐蚀状态关注反映了一直纠缠着我的一个设想：时间可以被设计吗？这一想法冒出源自在建造时对天然石材的使用，某些特定的天然石材具有某种特殊生命状态。譬如贵州赤水地区丹霞石，其为砂岩成分，孔隙率高导致吸湿性较强，在其潮湿的背阴面，会随时间增长而大量地生长青苔，经过5~10年左右就会由赤红转为黑里透红；而在长期强烈阳光直射向阳面，则殷红如血，间或还蒸腾雾气。位于中国丹霞世界遗产地核心景区佛光岩入口的游客接待站通体使用丹霞石，在湿润的冬春季，屋面局部生长青苔，石材表面犹如蒙上一层灰褐半透明膜，而一到明媚的夏季，向阳屋面那在冬春蒙层竟龟裂为片状脱壳，灿若丹霞的石材破茧而出⋯⋯

West-Line: My interest in weathering reflects a persistent question: can time be designed? It arose from working with natural stone. Certain stones have a particular life. Danxia stone from Chishui, for instance, is sandstone with high porosity and strong moisture absorption. Its damp, shaded face grows abundant moss over time, changing from red to black tinged with red after roughly five to ten years. Sunlit faces remain blood-red and sometimes give off vapour. Foguangyan Visitor Station, at the entrance to a core Danxia World Heritage landscape, is clad throughout in this stone. In damp winters and springs, moss grows on parts of the roof, veiling the surface in a translucent grey-brown film. In bright summer, the film on sun-facing slopes cracks and flakes away, revealing the glowing stone as if emerging from a cocoon.

在建中的中国丹霞世界遗产赤水展示中心也大面积地使用了这一材料，但在材料的应用中有了些许发展，根据不同分布地的丹霞石矿物质配比不同所导致耐腐蚀、耐候性及色泽不同，而在建筑的不同部位选用不同的材料：有些部位如墙面的材料还刻意以防渗剂浸泡石材，希望保持丹霞石切割时的鲜红状态；而屋面则采用孔隙率高的丹霞石，最好大面积地长出青苔……

The Chishui Danxia Exhibition Centre, then under construction, also uses this material extensively, but with further development. Variations in mineral composition between quarries produce differences in weather resistance and colour, so we select different stones for different parts of the building. Wall stones are sometimes deliberately soaked in water-repellent treatment to retain their freshly cut red colour, while the roof uses highly porous stone, ideally encouraging extensive moss growth.

与此同时，人造材料腐蚀肌理的制造也在贵州黄陂洞烈士纪念场项目中开始摸索，通过蓄意控制自拌混凝土原料与调整施工重点，刻意制造高孔隙率与留痕率，雨天驻留水分，晴日里则产生无数漫布、小的、密集的阴影群，时间的沧桑感由此显现。而在竹海，丹霞石铺面石径，有些路段因阳光直射而鲜红灿烂，有些路段则受竹群蔽日而阴湿暗红，那路在两种对立存在状态纠缠中渐行渐老，还是让时间回答未来吧。至于当代性，我始终坚持是当时、当地状态下的思想力投射的结果。

At Huangpidong Martyrs’ Memorial, we also began exploring the weathered textures of artificial materials. By controlling the ingredients of site-mixed concrete and adjusting construction priorities, we deliberately produced high porosity and retained surface marks. These hold water in rain and create countless small, dense shadows in sunshine, giving a sense of time’s passage. At Bamboo Forest, Danxia-stone paths glow red in direct sun but become damp and dark beneath the bamboo. The path ages between these opposing states. Let time answer what it will become. As for contemporaneity, I have always understood it as the projection of thought within the conditions of a particular time and place.

Baums Lab： 从西方的角度来看“时间”的概念特别有趣，与其说建筑处于永恒静止状态，不如说它是一个体验时间的敏感存在，它甚至会随着年月的变迁而变化，也正因如此建筑被赋予了活性。我们对中国哲理与中国诗歌中的时间概念有了同感，这富有哲理和文学气质的背景是怎么影响你的建筑的呢？是浪漫主义的情怀，还是贵州原生态环境影响？

BAUMS Lab: From a Western perspective, this idea of time is particularly interesting. Rather than existing in eternal stillness, architecture becomes a sensitive means of experiencing time, changing with the years and thereby acquiring vitality. We recognise an affinity with time in Chinese philosophy and poetry. How does this philosophical and literary background affect your architecture? Is it romantic feeling, or the influence of Guizhou’s natural environment?

西线： 诗歌对我们这批人多少是有些影响的，对中国的古诗词与戴望舒、北岛等的现代诗都很有感觉。诗歌使我们意识到人与物是可以通灵的，中国诗词自古以来就擅长以铺陈和排比结合句群渲染某种特定氛围可联想情景，以类比的技巧建立人与物之间特殊主喻体关系，最终达成以咏物言志、应物象形与随类赋彩方式成就一种精神之悦，这种特殊取悦机制根本上是在寻找人与物情绪契合点。

West-Line: Poetry has influenced our generation to some degree. We respond both to classical Chinese verse and to modern poets such as Dai Wangshu and Bei Dao. Poetry makes us aware that people and things can communicate spiritually. Chinese poetry has long used elaboration, parallelism and sequences of phrases to evoke particular atmospheres and associative scenes. Through analogy, it establishes relationships between subjects and objects, expressing aspirations through things and responding to their forms and colours to create a spiritual pleasure. This mechanism fundamentally seeks an emotional point of contact between people and things.

中国诗歌中常见的莫名的乡愁就颇为典型，如戴望舒的那“悠长又寂寥的雨巷”与“丁香一样结着愁怨的姑娘”就透着南国烟雨般的乡愁，在诗人的眼里，作为物的雨巷与丁香是多么有活性，由此可以嗅出诗本性是还乡，灵是诗者致高境界。正因为中国诗歌的这种特殊取悦机制，造就了诗歌中时间的物化与性情化，时间被理解为与人感受及生命体状态一并存在的主观体验，即体验的时间观。唐代大诗人陈子昂的“前不见古人，后不见来者，念天地之悠悠，独怆然而泪下”与当代诗人北岛的 “当守门人沉睡，你和风暴一起转身，拥抱中老去是，时间玫瑰…•”都是极好的佐证，这种体验的时间观引申出我们关于“设计时间”的思考。

The inexplicable homesickness common in Chinese poetry is typical. Dai Wangshu’s long, lonely rainy lane and his girl burdened with lilac-like sorrow convey the misty nostalgia of southern China. To the poet, the lane and lilac are living things. One senses that poetry’s nature is homecoming, and spiritual resonance its highest state. This mechanism gives time a material and emotional character: time is understood as subjective experience inseparable from human feeling and the condition of living beings. Chen Zi’ang’s lament—seeing neither the ancients before him nor those to come, contemplating the immensity of heaven and earth and weeping alone—and Bei Dao’s image of the sleeper, the storm, an ageing embrace and the rose of time both testify to this. Such experienced time leads us to consider “designing time”.

Baums Lab： 你提到过旨在做“渗透自然的建筑”，这确实是一个很酷的想法。透过赤水展陈馆彩色玻璃拍摄树木的情景还历历在目，建筑看起来是如此渗透到了景观中，但是……我们能说它提出了一个特定的过滤器的概念吗？可否认为该建筑是以里面的人的视点为焦点，进而在周边环境和使用者之间创造了一个新的关系？该建筑可能是对既存环境的一种反应，但它是不是也是对周围景观的一种再造方式呢？

BAUMS Lab: You have spoken of architecture that “permeates nature”. I vividly remember photographing trees through the coloured glass of the Chishui Exhibition Hall. The building seemed deeply interwoven with the landscape. Could we call this a particular kind of filter, focused on the viewpoint of the person inside and establishing a new relationship between user and surroundings? Is the building not only responding to the existing environment but also remaking the landscape?

西线： 赤水展陈馆实际上是由两套不同属性的系统控制，一套是内向的展示功能系统，一套是外向而多孔的，并蓄意保留基地中古树、植物、物候等自然状态的天井系统。天井系统又担纲空间的组织系统，通过刻意的布点，以留白的天井群将功能空间分裂为若干大小不同的被天井环绕的展览空间。同时，展览空间与天井间的界面被刻意处理成密集虚实相间的线条集。这密集线条既不同于全玻璃界面的透明性，亦不同于封闭墙体的隔离性，它与明亮的天井、暗的室内空间形成了一种特殊渗透性。自然的状态由此被光线自明向暗的传递路径传递进入，虚（竖立状条玻璃）与实（竖立状墙体）相间的线条集不仅保持着展览空间的独立性，也允许风景与阳光被观察与深入。据此天井中被刻意保留的树与周边环境中的各类乔木默契配合，将建筑拆解为多方向散点透视，化整为线，景观被全面过滤入室内，这是水平渗透处理。

West-Line: The exhibition hall is governed by two systems with different characters. One is the inward-facing exhibition programme; the other is an outward-facing, porous system of sky wells that deliberately retains old trees, plants and climatic conditions on the site. The sky wells also organise the building. Carefully positioned voids divide the programme into exhibition spaces of varying sizes, each surrounded by courtyards. Their interfaces consist of dense lines alternating solid and void. Neither fully transparent like an all-glass façade nor isolating like a closed wall, they establish a particular permeability between bright courtyards and dark interiors. Nature is carried inside along light’s path from brightness to darkness. Alternating vertical glazing and walls preserve the independence of the exhibition rooms while allowing scenery and sunlight to enter. Trees retained in the courtyards work with those outside to break the building into multidirectional, dispersed views, turning the whole into lines and filtering the landscape throughout the interior. This is horizontal permeation.

纪念馆瓦屋面有意组织了一系列的天窗群，其目的是将背部高地的树林与天井中冲天的古木渗透入室内，天窗材料主要为红色玻璃与黄色玻璃，原因是这两种色彩的玻璃在直射阳光的作用下，能产生强烈的击穿力，风景在此力量的推动下，有强烈渗入室内的感受。同时经彩色玻璃转化过的风景有被过滤的特点，使正常的风景升华为记忆般的断片。赤水展陈馆以渗透的方式再现了一种建筑与周围环境的特殊关系，它并非全身心地溶解在自然中，而是一种进行时般的动态的融入与制衡。

A series of rooflights in the tiled roof brings the wooded slope behind and the tall courtyard trees into the interior. The rooflights use mainly red and yellow glass, whose strong penetrating effect under direct sunlight makes the scenery seem to enter forcefully. Coloured glazing also filters ordinary views into fragments resembling memory. The building thus establishes a particular relationship with its surroundings through permeation. It does not dissolve completely into nature, but enters an ongoing, dynamic process of integration and counterbalance.

Baums Lab： “上山下乡”最初聚焦的是乡土社会。但事实上，中国正以令人惊讶速度城镇化。回顾乡土世界可能是一种自身立场，但在中国超速发展的背景下该怎么定义我们所谈论的这些项目？

BAUMS Lab: “Up to Mountains & Down to Villages” originally focused on rural society, yet China is urbanising at an astonishing pace. Returning attention to the vernacular may be a position in itself, but how should these projects be understood within China’s accelerated development?

西线： 提到“乡土”往往会在我的脑海呈现三种不同的场景。

West-Line: The word “vernacular” often brings three different scenes to mind.

一种是我在贵州山寨间触景生情般的身体感官性敏感，这是形而下真实身体乡土；

One is the bodily sensitivity I experience among Guizhou’s mountain villages, where surroundings awaken feeling: a real, physical vernacular.

一种是韩少功的小说《马桥词典》中那火花般跳跃的词组“马桥弓”／“朱牙土”/“乡气”/“三月三”／“飘魂”/“栀子花，茉莉花”，所透出地气/鬼异/情绪/节气，这些似万花筒般交织着呈现在读者面前的断片，悠悠然唤醒人的思维的再建构与想象力，于是脑际中闪现出无数的乡土版本，这是形而上的思维乡土。

Another is the world of flashing phrases in Han Shaogong’s A Dictionary of Maqiao—“Maqiao bow”, “Zhuya soil”, “rural air”, “the third day of the third month”, “wandering souls”, “gardenia and jasmine”. Their earthy, uncanny, emotional and seasonal fragments interweave like a kaleidoscope, awakening reconstruction and imagination in the reader and producing countless versions of the vernacular in the mind. This is a metaphysical vernacular of thought.

还有一种则藏在意大利那部经典影片 《西西里的美丽传说》中，美丽忧郁玛丽娜极富诱惑力的身体/骑车少年好奇而纯洁的眼睛／表情冷漠而拥挤的人群／褐黄而斑驳的巴洛克建筑群以及那些呈复数枯山与无边无际的海，导演以镜头调动着人与物时聚时离的动态的场所感，以揪人心肺的感官性控制，使观者在身临其境的同时潜移默化地接受了乡土观，这是介于形而上和形而下间的特殊乡土，而最后的这种乡土似乎藏匿着技术/媒体/乡土间差异性的较量、制衡与渗透，这也成为我们研究现代社会乡土意识的突破口。

A third lies in the Italian film Malèna: the beautiful, melancholy woman’s alluring body; the curious, innocent eyes of a boy on a bicycle; the indifferent crowd; weathered ochre Baroque buildings; repeated barren hills and the boundless sea. Through the camera, the director creates a dynamic sense of place as people and things come together and separate. Its gripping sensory control draws viewers into the scene while quietly conveying a view of the vernacular. This lies between the physical and metaphysical, harbouring contests, balances and exchanges among technology, media and locality. It became a point of departure for our study of vernacular consciousness in modern society.

说实话，往往直面乡土时更难以认清乡土，我更倾向于从差异性的较量中辩识乡土，这自然引出了乡土社会与生产消费型社会自近代史以来持续较量。在此特别说明一点：当下有很多观点认为是通用技术进步破坏了整个社会的乡土，但我认为技术只是一个手段，关键还在于在乡土社会与在生产消费型社会中运用技术的目的不同，其显现的特质自然产生差异，应该说传统中国的城市是一个乡土综合体，早期的城市基本都属于乡土村落扩张和演变。

In truth, facing the vernacular directly can make it harder to recognise. I prefer to understand it through encounters between differences. This leads to the continuing contest, since the beginning of modern history, between rural society and a society organised around production and consumption. Many now argue that advances in general technology have destroyed the vernacular. I believe technology is only a means: its purpose differs between these social systems, so its manifestations differ. Traditional Chinese cities were themselves vernacular complexes, growing largely from the expansion and transformation of villages.

费孝通教授在1947年出版《乡土中国》一书中，对传统中国社会中社会结构和人际关系提出了一个著名概念——“差序格局”，形象地说如果一颗石头掉进水里，会产生无数的涟漪，涟漪与涟漪存在着差异，这其实是一个伦理观，之所以我们常说“人伦社会”，其中的“伦”就是“水之涟漪”，所以我们看待乡土时，是将它视为人伦社会形成同心圆结构。列维。施特劳斯在对人类学的研究过程中，对这个“同心圆问题”已经给出了很明确的解释。

In From the Soil, published in 1947, Fei Xiaotong proposed the famous “differential mode of association” to describe traditional Chinese social structures and interpersonal relationships. Imagine a stone falling into water and producing countless, differentiated ripples. This is an ethical conception. The lun in renlun—human relations—is likened to those ripples. We therefore understand vernacular society as a concentric structure of relationships. Lévi-Strauss also offered a clear account of this concentric-circle question in his anthropological studies.

我们再来看现代社会，它是从以非常明确功能分区为基础的社会结构逐渐演变成以生产和消费为主社会结构，这种结构与人伦社会的结构有本质的区别，所以说技术发展并没有错，关键是我们如何掌握技术目的性；从这点出发去理解乡土，那么我们对乡土进行身体力行的研究就很顺理成章了。

Modern society, by contrast, evolved from a structure based on clearly separated functions towards one centred on production and consumption. This differs fundamentally from a society of human relations. Technological development is therefore not itself wrong; the key is how we direct its purposes. Understanding the vernacular in this way makes our hands-on research a natural undertaking.

西线工作室一直坚持进行乡土结构和城市结构差异性的探讨和研究，这有助于在实践中为我们提供一个大的方向性坐标。实际上人们在对人类生存环境如城市、聚落结构进行研究时，往往会返回到对本源乡土思考，人们为什么总在讲乡土？就像海德格尔说的，人类的分工越专业，那么也就存在着人对 “存在”的遗忘，也就是说人会越来越不知道自己的本源了。这就引发了一个很有意思的问题：到底“存在”在哪里？

West-Line has consistently studied the differences between rural and urban structures, providing broad directional coordinates for practice. When studying human environments—cities and settlements—people repeatedly return to the vernacular as an origin. Why? As Heidegger suggests, increasing specialisation brings a forgetting of Being: people become less aware of their roots. This raises an intriguing question: where, then, is Being?

可能海德格尔所说的“存在性”更多地是说回归乡土目的是人类在寻找自己存在的根源，相比之下技术最重要的特质则是进步和效率，只有这两点才能体现技术的优势，所以说乡土和技术实际上是两股力量，只有两者同时并存，乡土社会才能正常发展。当人们觉得精神上很无奈时候他要回去寻找乡土，这可能是形而上的也可能是形而下的，还可以是属于中间状态的；与此同时，乡土也是需要改造的，当人们赖以生活的基本条件发生变化的时候，他们就会依赖城市来反哺乡土。在今天中国这个特定的时期，“新农村建设”就是一个从上至下以城市来反哺乡村的例子，西线“上山下乡”系列的这种“乡土+通用技术”探索或许能为新农村建设摸索出一种既保持乡土基本人伦结构，又融入当代生活状态的 “新乡土生存版本”。

Perhaps Heidegger’s account points to the search for the roots of existence through a return to the vernacular. Technology, in contrast, derives its advantage from progress and efficiency. The vernacular and technology are thus two forces, both necessary for rural society’s healthy development. When people feel spiritually helpless, they seek the vernacular, whether physical, metaphysical or between the two. Yet the vernacular also needs transformation. As basic living conditions change, people rely on cities to nourish rural life. In China’s present circumstances, the New Socialist Countryside programme is a top-down example of this urban support. West-Line’s exploration of “vernacular + general technology” may offer a new version of rural existence that retains its basic relational structure while embracing contemporary life.

Baums Lab： 成千上万的人移居大城市。在一些你们邀请我们去过的小村庄里只有老人和小孩，所有的年轻人都外出打工了。如何在保护乡土脆弱本质的前提下实现乡土再发展？乡土世界是否已被宣告死亡还是选择与自然相融合的可持续道路？

BAUMS Lab: Thousands migrate to large cities. Some villages you took us to contained only older people and children; all the young adults had left for work. How can rural development proceed while protecting its fragile essence? Is the vernacular world condemned to die, or can it choose a sustainable path in harmony with nature?

西线： 意大利作家卡尔维诺在他那部迷人书——《看不见的城市》的开篇中曾写道：

West-Line: In the opening to his captivating book Invisible Cities, the Italian writer Italo Calvino writes:

“也许我们正接近城市生活的一个危急时刻，而《看不见城市》则是从这些不可生活城市心中生长出来一个梦想。今天人们以相同的顽固谈论着自然环境破坏和巨大的技术体系的脆弱，这种脆弱有可能制造连锁故障，使整体瘫痪。……我马可。波罗心中想的是要发现使人们生活在这些城市中的秘密理由，是能够胜过所有这些危机的理由。这些城市是众多事物一个整体：记忆的整体，欲望的整体，一种言语的符号的整体；……我的书在幸福城市的图画上打开并合上，这些幸运城市不断地形成并消失，藏在不幸的城市之中。”

“Perhaps we are approaching a critical moment in urban life, and Invisible Cities is a dream that grows from the heart of unliveable cities. Today, people speak with equal concern of the destruction of the natural environment and the fragility of vast technological systems, whose vulnerability may trigger chain failures and paralyse the whole. […] My Marco Polo seeks the hidden reasons that enable people to live in cities, reasons capable of outlasting these crises. Cities are a whole made of many things: memories, desires and signs of a language. […] My book opens and closes with images of happy cities, continually forming and disappearing within unhappy cities.”