Caroline+James
In a swath1) of jungle near Ubud, Bali, the Green School has just finished the eighth year of operation. The gong2) announces the beginning of class, where students learn in bamboo pavilions3) without walls. A hen and two chicks run across the earth floor. The staff has just cleared the remaining banana-leaf plates used to serve the organic lunch. In a ground-up approach, all of the campus structures are made from bamboo, connecting the design to the pedagogical4) core of the school.
American Cynthia and her husband, Canadian designer John Hardy, have lived on Bali for over 30 years. In 2007, after selling their famous jewelry company, they formed a school as an alternative to the walled-in international schools around Bali. Based upon the 19th century education model of Austrian architect Rudolf Steiner, which emphasizes experiential learning, the Green School aims to educate future leaders in sustainability.
In making the school, John Hardy did not turn to the international architecture competition circuit. Instead he hired a team of designers and artists, as well as architects who specialize in bamboo.
Early experiments in furniture taught the design team how bamboo performs. For example, bamboo can be divided with a lateral5) or cross-sectional6) cut, producing different structural traits. In 2007, they built the first campus structure, the Kul-Kul Bridge that spans 22 meters across the Ayung River. The simplicity of construction enables even the layman7) to understand how the pieces join together. Thus, a stroll around campus is an interactive lesson in building.
Visiting the Green School is to enter an entire aesthetic8) universe, where the architecture is as important as the most minuscule9) of details. Bamboo signs lead the way around to each class area that consists of a bamboo pavilion with Alang Alang grass roof, bamboo desks and chairs and compost10) toilets. Students learn music upon bamboo harps11) and play sports within bamboo fences.
Admissions director Ben Macrory describes the school as a "living laboratory" where the students learn about river ecology, grow rice and even build their own bamboo structures. While learning without walls would seem to cause disciplinary problems, Cynthia classifies the school as "ADD12) friendly". Dyslexic13) children who arrive at Green School are, within a week, focused and comfortable within "the chaos of nature".
With the mission to create "global citizens", the Green School makes an architecture that symbolises the philosophy and pedagogy. The most elaborate structure is the impressive "Heart of the School", with three interweaving cones14) that resemble double helixes15). Three spiral staircases link the floors that house the administration, computer lab, arts spaces and the library. Built from Petung, the most massive bamboo variety, the complex16) is 60 meters long and soars 19 meters into the sky.
Within the restrictions of bamboo, variations of form flourish. In his Essay on Architecture, French architectural theorist Marc-Antoine Laugier declares, "By imitating nature, art was born." Along a similar vein, the design of the Green School inspires a culture of localised creativity, as opposed to high-tech fabrication17). As a craftsman builds upon a few basic techniques and then grows them into infinite variations, the construction of the Green School is similar to the hand weaving of a textile, uniform in the material, yet elaborate in composition.
在巴厘島烏布市附近叢林中的一片土地上,綠學園剛剛走過了創辦以來的第八個年頭。隨著鑼聲響起,上課的時間到了,學生們在沒有圍墻的竹亭中學習。一只母雞和兩只小雞從地面上跑過。學校工作人員剛剛清走了沒用完的香蕉葉——它們被用作盤子,來盛放有機午餐。校園里的所有建筑完完全全都是用竹子建成的,將校園設計與學校的教學要旨聯系到了一起。
來自美國的辛西婭和她那來自加拿大的設計師丈夫約翰·哈迪已經在巴厘島生活了30多年。2007年,他們把自家赫赫有名的珠寶公司賣掉,建了這所學校,用來替代巴厘島附近的那些高墻閉鎖的國際學校。綠學園的教學模式以19世紀奧地利建筑師魯道夫·斯坦納所強調的體驗式學習為基礎,旨在培養未來的領導者們了解有關可持續性生活的知識。
建這個學校的時候,約翰·哈迪并未求助于國際建筑競賽活動,而是聘用了由設計師、藝術家,還有專攻竹建筑的建筑師組成的一隊人馬。
設計團隊先行進行了竹家具的制作試驗,這讓他們知道了竹子都有哪些特性。比如,竹子可以被側切,也可以被橫切,兩種方式會使其具有不同的結構特性。2007年,他們建成了校園里的第一個建筑——庫庫橋。這座橋橫跨愛詠河,長達22米。其建筑結構簡單明了,即使是外行,也能明白橋上的這些竹片是怎么連接在一起的。正因為如此,在校園里漫步就如同在上一堂交互式的建筑課。
來綠學園里參觀就像是走進了一個唯美的世界,這里最微小的細節也與建筑本身同等重要。竹子制成的指示牌指明了通往每個教學區的路,而在教學區里,有屋頂用阿郎阿郎茅草鋪就的竹亭,有竹制的課桌和椅子,還有堆肥廁所。學生們用竹制的豎琴學習音樂,在竹柵欄里進行體育活動。
招生辦主任本·麥克羅里形容這所學校是“活生生的實驗室”。在這里,學生可以學習河流生態學,可以種植水稻,甚至還能建造自己的竹建筑。盡管在沒有圍墻的環境中學習似乎可能會導致紀律問題,但辛西婭卻將她的綠學園歸為“有利于注意力缺陷障礙的”學校。患有閱讀障礙的兒童來到綠學園,不出一星期,就可以在“大自然的嘈雜”之中集中注意力并感到很舒適。
基于培養“世界公民”這個使命,綠學園建造了一個體現這種哲學理念和教學方法的建筑。這個最精美的建筑就是引人矚目的“校園之心”,它由三個互相交織、看起來像是DNA雙螺旋的圓錐式建筑組成。三個旋轉樓梯連接著各個樓層,行政辦公室、計算機實驗室、藝術區和圖書館則分布在不同的樓層。這個復雜的建筑采用馬來甜龍竹這種最大的竹子建成,長60米,高19米,直入云霄。
僅使用竹子這一種材料,就有各種各樣的建筑紛紛涌現出來。法國建筑理論學家馬克-安托萬·洛吉耶在他的《論建筑》一文中宣稱:“藝術是通過對大自然進行模仿而產生的?!迸c這個說法如出一轍,綠學園的設計也激發了一種本土創造性的文化,與利用高科技來建造截然相反。能工巧匠們采用一些基本的建筑技巧,隨后衍化出各式各樣、無窮無盡的建筑,而綠學園的建筑就如同手工編織的織物一般,在材料上別無二致,但在結構上卻別具匠心。
1. swath [sw?θ] n. 長條區域,大塊區域;(尤指)長條田地,大塊田地
2. gong [ɡ??] n. (通常是作為樂器但有時作發信號用的)鑼
3. pavilion [p??v?li?n] n. (花園或公園里的)亭,閣
4. pedagogical [?ped??ɡ?d??kl] adj. 教學法的,教育學的
5. lateral [?l?t?r?l] adj. 側面的;橫向運動的
6. cross-sectional: 橫截面的,橫斷面的,剖面的
7. layman [?le?m?n] n. 外行,門外漢
8. aesthetic [i?s?θet?k] adj. 美的;藝術的
9. minuscule [?m?n?skju?l] adj. 微小的,極小的
10. compost [?k?mp?st] n. 混合肥料;堆肥
11. harp [hɑ?p] n. 豎琴
12. ADD: 注意力缺乏癥,注意力缺陷障礙(全稱attention deficit disorder)
13. dyslexic [d?s?leks?k] adj. 有讀寫障礙的
14. cone [k??n] n. 圓錐體
15. double helix: DNA結構中的雙螺旋。helix [?hi?l?ks] n. 螺旋(形)
16. complex [?k?mpleks] n. 綜合大樓;建筑群
17. fabrication [?f?br??ke??n] n. 制作,制造