篇首語

《世界建筑》的讀者朋友，

本期的《世界建筑》關注當今中國建筑的一個重要領域——歷史保護。

現(xiàn)代中國對現(xiàn)代性的狂熱擁抱曾經(jīng)使我們主動摒棄歷史：先是1960年代至1970年代的文化大革命，它留給我們的歷史觀影響遠未像它的政治影響那樣被自上而下地肅清；后是1990年代中期至今天的消費主義和大眾傳媒，我們曾經(jīng)認為班納姆的“沒有一個城市不會從橫掃一切的現(xiàn)代化中受益”或斯汀的“歷史不會教會我們?nèi)魏螙|西”是新文明和新解放的代表。終于，在經(jīng)歷近兩個10年的對“新”和“更新”的不知疲倦的追求之后，我們開始意識到，文化不是在短時間內(nèi)僅僅依靠勇氣和激情就可以創(chuàng)造的，文化需要根，而我們的根恰恰存在于一度被我們忘卻的歷史之中。

然而，重新學會善待歷史和善用歷史是何等的艱難。當主流敘事把歷史從簡單的“壞”變回簡單的“好”之后，我們在中國各地的歷史保護項目中不停看到的是實現(xiàn)簡單“好”的愿望與解決復雜“難”的現(xiàn)實之間的巨大反差：歷史遺存的真實性與建成區(qū)域的運營效果之間的矛盾；原住民社區(qū)的傳統(tǒng)生產(chǎn)生活方式與中產(chǎn)階級的全球生產(chǎn)生活方式之間的摩擦；誠實記錄差異的形態(tài)演進與強調舊世場景的風貌控制之間的對抗；等等。任何歷史保護項目都會成為眾說紛紜的焦點，任何歷史保護項目的主持人都必須同時是勇敢和睿智的人。

所幸的是，總是會出現(xiàn)勇敢且睿智的人。我們在本期所收錄項目的作者就是這樣的人，不論他們的背景是偏重學術、工程還是管理，他們都有一個共同的特點：即對項目所處地方歷史的通曉與熱愛。正是這種熱愛使他們更樂于把過去的記憶與今天的生活連接起來，使歷史恢復其連續(xù)與鮮活的本性，雖然這往往意味著更多的爭論與更大的不可預測。

我們真心希望每一位建筑師都能夠對歷史有類似的熱愛——在今天，歷史是還能夠使無所畏懼的建筑師們變得稍微謙恭些的為數(shù)不多的東西之一了。畢竟，對于飽受現(xiàn)代性與“后現(xiàn)代性”漂洗的當代建筑師來說，最大的諷刺就在于，當窮畢生之功試圖擺脫歷史之后，你最終發(fā)現(xiàn)，你從未真正離開過它。

特別感謝呂舟教授，是他使本期雜志成為可能。

《世界建筑》主編（2013-）

清華大學建筑學院教授

Dear Reader,

In this issue of World Architecture, we focus on preservation projects in contemporary China.

The zealous reception of modernity in modern China used to result in voluntary separations with our own history. Firstly, there was the Cultural Revolution from the 1960s to 1970s, the historical argument of which still lingers around in China quite unlike its political argument. Secondly, there has been the consumerism and mass communication from the 1990s up to now. We genuinely believed that Banham's "There isn't a city in the world that wouldn't benefit from some ruthless modernization." and Sting's "History will teach us nothing." are omens of a new and better civilization. Finally, we come to the understanding now that no culture can be forged rapidly by sheer courage and passion. For every culture there is a root. And our root resides right in the history that we have chosen to forget.

Yet what a hard mission it is to retake history. After the mainstream narrative has turned history from "the simply bad" to "the simply good", what we see in all Chinese preservation projects is the stark contrasts between a will of "the simply good" and a reality of the consistently complicated. There are the contradictions between historical authenticity and economic viability. There are conflicts between the local life style of the aboriginal community and the global life style of the newly gentrified community. There are clashes between the honesty of recording the morphological evolution and the scenography of forging a whole scale historical appearance. And so on. Every preservation project is destined to be a focus of public controversy. Everyone who steers such a project needs to be not only intellectual, but also brave.

Fortunately, there are always brave intellectuals, like the ones that we are publishing in this issue. Whether coming from an academic, engineering or administrative background, they share one thing in common: the true love of history of the place. It is out of this love that all of them have tried to connect the memories of the past to the lives of the present in a creative way, even if this means more controversy and more unpredictability.

We do hope that every architect today would have the same love of historytoday, history is one of the few things that still can humble an arrogant architect. For one who has been repetitively washed by the beliefs of modernity (or "post-modernity"), the biggest irony would be that, after a lifetime of endeavors trying to separate from history, in the end he (she) finds out the he (she) has never truly left it.

Our special thanks to Professor LU Zhou who made this issue possible.

Editor-in-Chief (2013-), World Architecture

Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University