張利

作者單位：清華大學建筑學院/《世界建筑》

現(xiàn)在也許不是談論機場的最佳時刻：受疫情的影響，全球的航空業(yè)正在經(jīng)歷前所未有的低谷。曾經(jīng)令人羨慕的各大航空公司機群呈現(xiàn)大面積停飛，曾經(jīng)代表各大城市前庭的主要機場門可羅雀。結(jié)合此前已有的激進環(huán)境主義者對航空器作為交通工具的批判，人們甚至質(zhì)疑航空業(yè)還有沒有可能重振如初，機場還有沒有可能繁華如故。

但現(xiàn)在也許正是談論機場的最佳時刻：如古語所云，止而后能觀。剝離了平日喧囂、淡漠了過往忙碌，反倒使我們有了不僅從一種交通樞紐、更從一種重要的現(xiàn)代公共空間的角度來審視機場建筑的機會。我們可以穿越機場復雜的工藝組織與人流模型，而考察機場與其他大型公共建筑都必須解答的話題：重力的傳遞、文化的加載、尺度的消解、環(huán)境的響應，等等。

毫無疑問，機場是壯麗的。自從載人航空器被發(fā)明的那一天起，對重力的終極抵抗、藍天、速度、激情就賦予了與飛行相關的任何東西一種不可抵御的英雄性。自20 世紀中葉以來，民用航空業(yè)從社會頂端人群向普通人群的大規(guī)?；菁安⑽锤淖儥C場建筑的特殊身份。隨著全球化的到來與飛行的頻繁，機場建筑日益成為每一個城市打動造訪者、傳播城市第一印象的窗口，成為改寫建筑紀錄的最佳載體：更大的跨度，更宏偉的結(jié)構(gòu)，更光彩的造型，更炫爛的科技。雖然極少有人能夠在起飛或降落過程當中真正飽覽一座機場的全部壯麗，但無論是對于希思羅（LHR）、關西（KIX）、香港國際（HKG）還是迪拜（DXB），來自3000m 高空的俯視仍然主宰著建筑壯麗的愿景。

然而，值得注意的是，當代的機場也在試圖與人親近。零距離換乘、登機口安檢等一系列機場運營策略的革新使得機場得以呈現(xiàn)出更大的公共性，更能以普通公共空間的面貌，成為開放社會中的一員。因而，我們在很多21 世紀的機場中看到固有的航空交通屬性在一定程度上被淡化，應運而生的是與更多的人性化尺度空間和生活設施的復合。我們甚至可以從這種復合中體察出機場所在城市的特有空間氛圍：史基浦（AMS）與阿姆斯特丹的環(huán)狀商業(yè)街，維也納國際（VIE）與維也納街頭放松的公共家具，溫哥華（YVR）與惠斯勒山區(qū)的印第安傳統(tǒng)，等等。

最后，也是最重要的，如果說壯麗與親切曾經(jīng)是機場傳統(tǒng)奏鳴曲式的主副主題，當今全球?qū)Νh(huán)境的關注已經(jīng)把新的關于機場的討論帶到了這個傳統(tǒng)曲式之外——環(huán)境已經(jīng)成為了一個不能回避的新的話題。要想舉證說明飛行所必須的至少兩次大幅度豎向做功在能源有效性上的貢獻恐怕是極其困難的。因而除了對電動飛行器的試驗外，機場建筑的可持續(xù)性設計實際上承載著航空業(yè)對環(huán)境問題的最大響應。顯然，在所有人都決定采取桑伯格式的“棄空從?！币郧埃档秃娇諛屑~的資源消耗不失為明智之舉，像奧斯陸（OSL）那樣從結(jié)構(gòu)、裝配、材料到照明的北歐式自然主義是有參考價值的。

這正是我們在本期探討機場，特別是我國大型基礎設施建設新思路下的機場的原因。感謝陳雄大師，是他的努力使本期《世界建筑》成為可能。

This might not be a perfect time to talk about airports. Because of COVID-19, global aviation industry is taking the hardest hit ever. Formidable fleets of major airlines are being grounded. Airports in major capital cities are getting empty. All these added to the existing criticisms from radical environmentalists challenging the legitimacy of air travel as a means of modern transportation, there seems to be a hovering doubt of whether the air industry and the airports around the world would recover at all.

In another sense, this might be a perfect time to talk about airports. As our ancient sages said: stop, and you see. Only when detached from its daily busyness, purged from its routine crowd and noise, can an airport be looked at from a different view angle. Indeed, when an airport is regarded more as a public space than a pure transportation terminal, we do return to the basics of architecture: gravity transmissions, cultural embeddings, scale dissolutions, and environmental responses.

Without doubt, airports are objects of spectacularity. Ever since the invention of manned aviation, the ultimately fast and furious denial of gravity and all things related to it have been associated with an irresistible heroism. Even with the rapid shift of aviation industry from the upper social tier towards normal people, a certain exclusiveness of airports still manages to remain. With rapid globalisation and a growing frequentf lier population, airports actually have become more spectacular than ever. They are the first sights to impress visitors. They are the first shows to present a city. They are the creators of all kinds of firsts in all kinds of records. The spans get ever larger. The structures get ever more splendid. The forms get ever more impressive. The techs get ever more dazzling. Although only a few may have the luck to enjoy the full grandeur of any airport during taking off or touching down, to the likes of Heathrow (LHR), Kansai (KIX), Hong Kong Intl. (HKG) and Dubai (DXB), what matters most is still the view from 3000 metres in the air.

Yet contemporary airports are also intimate, or at least trying to be so. Innovations in airport management, the concepts of transit hubs and security-checks-at-gate, all make airports more public and more accessible, therefore more capable to be part of an open society. What we see in some new airports built in the 21st century is the traditional circulation priorities giving way to contemporary hybridity, the merging of airport functions with generic civic activities. We can even have a preliminary touch of the cities where the airports belong: Schiphol (AMS) and the ring shaped shopping streets of Amsterdam, Vienna Intl. (VIE) and the relaxing polyshapes of Vienna street furniture, Vancouver (YVR) and the aboriginal Indian elements of Whistler forest, etc.

Most importantly, all airports today must react to the environmental challenge. If spectacularity and intimacy were the first and second subjects in the airport sonata, climate change has brought the entire debate beyond the two subjects. There is a key new subject: sustainable design. Justifying the energy efficiency of at least two power-intensive vertical movements of each flight is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Before the emerging of any commercially viable electric aircraft, one good way to practice sustainability in the air industry is to design more sustainable airports. Fortunately few people are going to take the Greta Thunberg approach any time soon, therefore sustainable airports are still very much in demand. The Scandinavian naturalism of Oslo (OSL), in which prefabs, recycled materials and low energy lightings are combined to make an airport more sustainable than its peers, does still make sense.

This is why we are focusing on airports, particularly Chinese airports with new approaches in this new wave of infrastructure update in China. Our special thanks to Mr CHEN Xiong, whose effort makes this number of World Architecture possible.