写字楼：让功能决定外形 The balance between form and function in the office
The trade-offs between having a prestigious building that makes a mark on the skyline but which is also a good place to work in are notorious. A spectacular landmark, such as London's 30 St Mary Axe, the Lord Foster-designed building known as the “Gherkin”, can literally put a business on the map and broadcast its owner's ambitions to the world. But monuments to corporate pride also create a host of challenges for their occupants. | 建造一栋能够成为城市风景线标记的知名建筑，同时又是一个好的办公场所，这其中的取舍 闻名天下。一栋壮观的标志性建筑——如福斯特爵士(Lord Foster)设计的伦敦圣玛丽斧街30号(30 St Mary Axe)，俗称“小黄瓜(Gherkin)”——真的能让一家企业出名，让全世界了解其主人的雄心。但这些“企业骄傲”丰碑，也会给它们的入驻者带来一系 列挑战。 |
“Curved funky structures use space inefficiently and can be expensive to fit out,” says Hugh Mulcahey, a director at Cyril Sweett, the property consultants. Tall, thin towers often wreak havoc with team working by splitting departments across several floors. And, while a soaring column may look good from the outside, hermetically sealed interiors can leave occupants feeling jaded. | “时髦的曲线形建筑空间利用效率低下，装饰也可能非常昂贵，”房地产咨询公司 Cyril Sweett负责人休•马尔卡希(Hugh Mulcahey)表示。又高又薄的大厦往往会对团队合作造成严重破坏，因为公司的各个部门会被迫分布于好几个楼层上。此外，尽管耸入云霄的大楼从外面看 上去可能很棒，但密不透气的室内环境可能会让居住者感到疲惫。 |
Linda Felmingham, director of administration at Hunton & Williams, a US law firm that rents space in the “Gherkin”, says working in “a lovely building that everyone knows about” definitely has the wow factor. “If I get in a cab I don't give the address, I just say ‘The Gherkin',” she says. | 美国何威律师事务所(Hunton & Williams)在“小黄瓜”内租了办公场所。该公司行政主管琳达•费明厄姆(Linda Felmingham)表示，在“一栋所有人都知道的可爱建筑”内工作，无疑会让人羡慕。“如果我上了一辆出租车，我不用说地址，而只需要说‘小黄瓜 '，”她说道。 |
On the downside, she highlights security, which has to be watertight to guard against the possibility of terrorist attack. “All our visitors have to go through airport-style scanners.” | 至于不利的方面，她着重强调了安全——安保措施必须非常严密，以防范可能的恐怖袭击。 “我们所有的访客都必须经过机场式扫描设备。” |
Bold attempts have been made to resolve the tension between form and function in workplace architecture, and not all have been successful. In the early 1990s, the architect Ralph Erskine designed the Ark, a vast ship-like building next to the Hammersmith flyover in west London, as the perfect space for open-plan working. But for years it stood empty. | 解决办公建筑形状与实用性矛盾的大胆尝试有很多，但并非所有尝试都取得了成功。上世纪 90年代初期，建筑师拉尔夫•厄斯金(Ralph Erskine)设计了伦敦船楼（Ark，靠近伦敦西部汉莫史密斯(Hammersmith)高架道路的一栋像巨型船只的建筑），作为开敞式办公的完美空 间。但这座大楼在很多年里一直无人入驻。 |
The basic problem, says Stuart McLarty a partner at De Novo-Architecture, which radically restructured the inside of the building in 2006, was that the hollow interior mirrored the highly bespoke specification of its intended owner-occupier and could not be partitioned. When that company quit the UK before moving in, the property struggled to attract tenants. | De Novo-Architecture合伙人斯图亚特•麦克拉蒂(Stuart McLarty)表示，这座船楼的根本问题是，空空的内部完全按照其预期业主/居住者的严格要求定制，无法进行分隔，而当那家公司尚未入驻就撤出英国时， 这栋大楼就难以吸引到其他租客。De Novo-Architecture公司于2006年对这栋大楼内部进行了彻底重建。 |
Another drawback was the soaring interior walkways, which terrified vertigo sufferers. “We went to one event [before the redevelopment solved the problem] where a caterer was too scared to cross an internal bridge to get to the reception,” recalls Mr McLarty. | 另一个缺点是高高的内部走道，这让恐高症患者非常害怕。“（在重建解决该问题前），我 们去参加一个活动，一位宴席承办者怕得不敢跨过内部的一座天桥到达招待会现场，”麦克拉蒂回忆说。 |
Germany's tallest building, Commerzbank Tower, home to Commerzbank's Frankfurt headquarters and also designed by Lord Foster, has done a better job of marrying statement architecture and employee comfort. After conducting research among staff, the bank built the tower around garden atria that let in natural light. | 德国的最高建筑——德国商业银行大厦(Commerzbank Tower)在将建筑的宏伟外观与雇员舒适度结合方面做得比较好。这座位于法兰克福的大厦是德国商业银行总部所在地，其设计师也是福斯特爵士。在雇员中进 行调查后，该银行围绕着一座花园中庭建造了该大厦，以便接受自然光照。 |
Creating a double-layer facade solved the problem of how to draw away wind from the upper stories, allowing occupants at the top of the building to open and close windows instead of relying on air-conditioning. “We looked at how we could make working more attractive,” says Arno Walter, the bank's head of organisation. | 双层幕墙解决了高层受风问题，使高层居住者也可以开闭窗口，而不是依赖空调。“我们着 眼于如何能让工作变得更有吸引力，”该银行组织部主管阿诺·沃尔特(Arno Walter)表示。 |
In the financial centre of Shanghai, a futuristic 632m skyscraper is under construction that its backers also hope will resolve some of the tensions between function and design. The Shanghai Tower, scheduled for completion in 2014, will be the third of three super-tall towers that rise from the city's financial centre in the Pudong district. | 在上海的金融中心，一座高632米的未来风格摩天大楼正在建设中，它的开发者也希望解 决外形设计与功能的一些矛盾。定于2014年完工的上海中心大厦(Shanghai Tower)，将成为该市浦东金融区崛起的第三座超高层大厦。 |
According to Christopher Chan, design director with Gensler, the tower's architects, The Shanghai Tower Construction & Development Company, the building's developer, wanted a building that made working in a tall tower more comfortable. “We started by asking how do we want the building to work, and that determined the form,” Mr Chan says. | 据这座大厦的设计公司——Gensler设计总监Christopher Chan表示，该大厦开发商上海中心大厦建设发展有限公司，希望建造一座让工作变得更舒服的大厦。“我们从询问客户希望这座大厦如何运行着手，这决定了大 厦的形式，”Chan表示。 |
As China's tallest building, it will certainly be a landmark. But practicalities rather than aesthetics have decided its shape. To avoid building congestion, the tower is being stacked like a wedding cake in nine self-contained cylindrical tiers, each with access to its own services. These include atrium sky-gardens, cafés, restaurants and shops designed to improve access to natural light and encourage socialising. | 作为中国的最高建筑，它无疑会成为一个新地标。但决定其形状的不是美学，而是实用性。 为了避免建筑拥挤状况发生，这座大厦被设计成了结婚蛋糕的形状，由九个自成一体的圆筒形层段重叠而成，每一层段都有自己的服务，包括空中花园中庭、咖啡 馆、餐厅、商店，从设计上增加自然光照，鼓励社交。 |
The building's twisting, tapering exterior was chosen to minimise the size of supporting columns, increase useable space for work areas and reduce wind loads. Lower wind loads should make life inside the tower more comfortable. | 之所以选择扭曲且愈变愈细的外部形状，主要是为了将支柱的尺寸降到最小、扩大办公区域 的可用空间、降低风载。较低的风载会使大厦内部的生活变得更加舒适。 |
“If you go into restaurants of super-tall towers, you can often feel them sway,” says Callum MacBean, managing director of Gensler's Shanghai office. “After a large lunch the sensation can be quite off-putting.” | “如果你走进超高层大厦的餐厅，你常常会感到它们在摇晃，”Gensler上海办公室 董事总经理卡勒姆•麦克宾(Callum MacBean)表示。“饱餐之后，这种感觉会让人很不舒服。” |
Of course, nesting inside an existing trophy building is generally more affordable than commissioning a monument from scratch. The downside, however, is that the floor-plates may not fit your way of working or even your choice of furniture. So how can businesses make the best of an inherited layout? | 当然，在一栋现有的纪念性建筑中落户，通常比从零开始建造成本要低。不过，缺点是，地 板可能不适合你的工作方式，甚至不适合你的家具选择。那么，企业该如何最有效地利用原有的建筑物呢？ |
One way to get the best out of a building that has not been designed with the needs of your workforce in mind is to use space creatively. Jeremy Myerson, director of the Royal College of Art's Helen Hamlyn Centre and co-author of New Demographics, New Workspace, says “rectilinear glass boxes” found in identikit offices are easy to fill with rows of desks but the awkward pockets in unusually shaped, stylish buildings can provide the quiet nooks in which knowledge workers flourish, provided they are used imaginatively. “As well as areas for collaboration, offices need quiet zones for concentrated work and places for rest and recuperation,” he adds. | 对于一栋在设计时未曾考虑你的员工队伍需求的大厦，最有效的利用方式之一就是创造性地 使用空间。杰里米•迈尔森(Jeremy Myerson)是英国皇家艺术学院海伦•哈姆林中心(Royal College of Art's Helen Hamlyn Centre)的主任，同时也是《新人口结构、新办公区域》(New Demographics, New Workspace)的作者之一。他表示，“直线形玻璃盒”式的普通办公室很容易放置一排排的办公桌，但造型独特、格调高雅办公楼中不便利用的角落，若得 到创造性的利用，则可以提供安静的空间，让知识型工人出色发挥。“除了合作区域，办公室还需要供专心工作使用的安静区域，以及休整区域，”他补充表示。 |
How space is divided up also speaks volumes to employees about how their bosses value them. This can have a huge impact on morale. Working in a nondescript dark interior does not have the feelgood factor of occupying a lofty corner office with a bird's-eye view. | 空间如何分割，也可以告诉雇员：老板对他们有多么看重。这对士气可能会产生巨大影响。 在一间没有任何特色的阴暗安公室内工作，不会有占据高层角落办公室、可临窗观景的良好感觉。 |
Rather than saving the plum spots for executives, Sevil Peach, director of Sevil Peach Architecture and Design, recommends placing communal areas around the edges of buildings so everyone gets a “democratic share” of natural light and panoramic vistas. | Sevil Peach Architecture and Design主管塞维尔·皮奇(Sevil Peach)建议，与其将令人向往的地方留给高管，倒不如围绕大厦边缘建造公共区域，以便让每个人都可以“民主地共享”自然光照与全景式视野。 |
However, it is better not to position desks too close to windows or force employees to walk through narrow glass-sided corridors, cautions Jack Pringle, co-founder of interior architects Pringle Brandon. “People might like the views, but many would rather stand a metre or two back,” he says. | 不过，室内设计公司Pringle Brandon 联合创办人杰克• 普林格尔(Jack Pringle)警告称，最好不要将桌子放置得离窗户太近，或迫使雇员走狭窄的玻璃墙走廊。“人们或许喜欢景色，但许多人宁愿往后退一两米，”他表示。 |
Putting in connecting stairways overlooking work areas can build a sense of community among departments stacked on top of each other, overcoming the problem of tall towers that force teams to split up. | 修建俯瞰工作区的连接楼梯，可以在分布于不同楼层的部门间建立团队感，克服摩天大楼迫 使团队分开的问题。 |
Another way to pull people together is to create a communal floor with cafés and soft seating. “Otherwise people just e-mail each other,” says Ms Peach. | 另一个将人们聚拢在一起的方法，是建一个带有咖啡屋与软沙发的公共区域层。“否则，人 们只会互相发邮件联系，”皮奇表示。 |
A building that makes a splash on the skyline may be high-maintenance, but for some companies, at least, it seems the investment can pay off. | 一栋在城市风景线中引人注目的建筑，可能需要很高的维护费，但至少对于某些公司而言， 这笔投资似乎是值得的。 |
译者/何黎 |
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