采访档案 |张西
瑞士苏黎世| 建筑师
进入位于苏黎世市中心的EXH Design欧洲办公室，游客立即被那几乎从地面到天花板的窗户吸引到，在这里可以一览无余地欣赏苏黎世湖和Uetliberg山的景色。
Entering the European office of EXH Design in central Zurich, visitors are immediately drawn towards the nearly floor-to-ceiling windows, which offer unobstructed views of Lake Zurich and the Uetliberg Mountain.
EXH创始合伙人兼CEO张西说：“风水不错吧?”。她打开窗户，在清新的空气、迷人的风景和张西的存在之间，积极的情绪在空间中流动。
“Good feng shui, right?” says EXH founding partner and CEO Zhang Xi. She throws open the windows and between the fresh air, stunning scenery, and Xi’s presence, positivity flows through the space.
风水的原则渗透到张西的建筑理念中。她说：“它是关于如何最大化好的能量和转移坏的能量。”在传统的中国，没有建筑师，是由风水师来决定房子的位置，只有这样工匠们才能开始建造。张西进一步解释道：“亚洲哲学的核心是人与自然的和谐。”在这种程度上，她将建筑师的工作看作是后退一步，实现这种和谐的流程。
The principles of feng shui permeate Xi’s approach to architecture: “It’s about how to maximize the good energy and divert the bad energy,” she says. In traditional China, where there were no architects as such, it was the feng shui master who would determine where the house should go; only then could the craftsmen begin construction. “At the core of much of Asian philosophy is the harmonization of man and nature,” Xi further explains. To that extent, she sees the job of the architect as one of stepping back and enabling this harmonious flow.
20世纪80年代，张西在中国陕西省长大，但建筑并不是张西的第一职业选择。在学校，她是一个有天赋的孩子，在她所在的省名列前茅。她的老师希望她成为该地区的物理冠军，但她的父亲是一位画家，鼓励她追求艺术。她花了几周时间和他一起学习国画，直到他意识到她缺乏跟随他脚步的耐心。张西记得他告诉她，回学校去，你很有天赋，但你的大脑太忙了。最终，建筑产生于她对物理和艺术的兴趣的融合。
Growing up in the Chinese province of Shaanxi in the 1980s, architecture wasn’t Xi’s first choice of career. At school, she was a gifted child, among the top few in her province. Her teacher wanted her to become the region’s physics champion, but her father—a painter—encouraged her to pursue art. She spent a few weeks with him learning guóhuà, a form of traditional Chinese painting, until he realized that she lacked the patience to follow in his footsteps. Xi recalls him telling her, “‘go back to school. You have the talent, but your mind is too busy.’” Eventually, architecture emerged from a fusion of her interests in physics and art.
学习期间，在上海同济大学一间有八张床位的宿舍里，张西学会了回到她的脑海中，屏蔽噪音。张西生动地回忆起那次经历：即使是在聚会上，我也可以看书或复习备考。我可以脱离环境，所以我发现我有抵抗力。这种抵抗力至今仍在她的工作生活中扮演着重要的角色。现在，张西在苏黎世和上海都设有EXH办事处，每个地方的时间间隔为一个月，另外还会访问香港、新加坡或伦敦的客户项目。她应对如此多的旅行的策略是退入自己的内心。她说，我有一种特殊的能力，我可以打开或关闭它：如果外部世界没有那么有趣，我就会转到我的内部世界。这是处理全球旅行的一个很好的策略，也是推动她的建筑工作向前发展的一个策略。我做很多设计，但只要我有空闲的时间，我就会拿起一个项目，想一个细节，画一个草图，把纸折成一个三维的物体，或者她渴望的表面，只是观察一棵树的影子也行。
During her studies, in an eight-bed dormitory at Shanghai’s Tongji University, Xi learned to retreat into her mind, and block out noise. Xi recalls the experience vividly: “I could read a book or study for examinations even if a party was going on. I could become detached from the environment. So there I discovered I had… resistance.” This ‘resistance’ still plays an important role in her work life to this day. Now, with EXH offices in Zurich and Shanghai, Xi alternates between a month in each place, with additional visits to client projects in Hong Kong, Singapore, or London. Her tactic for coping with so much travel is to turn inwards. “I have a special ability that I can turn on or off: if the outside world is not that interesting I switch to my inside world,” she says. It’s a great strategy for dealing with global travel, and one that also pushes her architectural work forward. “I work on a lot of designs at the same time. As soon as I have a free moment, I pick up a project, think about a detail, make a sketch, fold paper into a three-dimensional object, or…” her wistfulness surfaces, “…just observe the shadow of a tree.”
张西后来了解到，她自称的“超活跃思维”可以为她所用。它就像一个大水库，或者一个图书馆。对于任何项目，我都可以选择一些相关的东西，然后从那里开始。我积累的知识越多，我与外部世界的联系就越多。
Xi has subsequently learned that her self-proclaimed “hyperactive mind” can be used to her advantage. “It’s like a big reservoir, or a library; for any project I can pick something related and then start from there. The more knowledge I build up, the more associations I can relate to the outside world.”
其结果是，她对学习可以应用于实践的新事物有着永不满足的欲望。这也是EXH以其对不同设计学科的流畅方法而闻名的部分原因。他们选择门把手或坐垫的可能性和选择地基的可能性是一样的。因为EXH建筑是整体的：内部、外部、形式和功能都会影响建筑及其使用者。
The result is an insatiable appetite for learning new things that can be applied to her practice. It’s also part of the reason EXH is renowned for its fluid approach to different design disciplines; they are just as likely to be selecting door handles or cushions as constructing foundations. For EXH architecture is holistic: interior, exterior, form, and function all affect the energy of a building and its users.
以上海Matsu旗舰店的外观为例：整个项目的线索是建筑周围的银杏树。EXH用银杏叶的图案构建了一个新的外骨骼，内部的阴影带来了与外部自然的连续性。由此产生的镇静效果会传递给工作人员和来访者。
Take the facade for the Matsu Flagship Store, Shanghai: the cue for the whole project is the gingko trees that surround the building. EXH built a new exoskeleton using a gingko leaf motif, the shadows created inside bring continuity with the nature outside. The resulting calming effect is passed on to staff and visitors alike.
当她谈到像这样的具体项目时，张西总是在讨论她的解决方案之前首先解释客户的预算、时间表和需求。这证明了她的谦虚和对建筑师角色的信念。也许这是她在瑞士生活时产生的一种冲动。瑞士有句俗语“Liefere, nid lafere”，大致翻译过来就是“deliver don’t babble”。这是瑞士人的态度的缩影，他们认为成功就是一切。
As she talks about specific projects such as this one, Xi always explains the budget, timescale, and requirements of the client first before discussing her solution. It’s a testament to her modesty and belief in the role of architect as an enabler. Perhaps it’s an impulse she picked up as a result of living in Switzerland—where the saying “Liefere, nid lafere,” which roughly translates to “deliver don’t babble,” epitomises the Swiss attitude that success should speak for itself.
张西被世界顶级建筑学术机构的声誉所吸引，于2002年迁往瑞士苏黎世联邦理工学院学习。她在这里的学习，以及在传奇建筑师Herzog和de Meuron的学徒经历，确保了她接受的是瑞士设计风格的教育：注重细节、高质量和功能性。
Attracted by its reputation as the world’s top academic institution for architecture, Xi moved to Switzerland to study at ETH Zürich in 2002. Her studies here, along with an apprenticeship at legendary architects Herzog & de Meuron, ensured she was schooled in the Swiss design style: detail-oriented, high-quality, and functional.
凭借她世界级的教育和多年的经验，张西于2006年与Herzog校友Erich Diserens共同创立EXH Shanghai。这种做法是将瑞士的原则引入当时日益成熟的中国市场。该团队不缺乏客户，并因其令人印象深刻的建筑、室内设计和景观设计而吸引了国际媒体的关注。但张西认为，真正使他们有别于其他公司的是他们的工程专业知识。我们专注于先进的技术解决方案，包括可再生能源概念和数据中心的冷却系统，她说Gerd Voith是一位著名的工程师，也是我们的第三位合作伙伴。10年后的2016年，张西回到瑞士，在苏黎世开设了办事处。
Drawing on her world class education and years of experience, in 2006, Xi co-founded EXH Shanghai alongside fellow Herzog alumni Erich Diserens. The practice brought principles from Switzerland to a Chinese market that was then increasing in sophistication. The team found no shortage of clients, and garnered international press for their impressive array of buildings, interior designs, and landscaping. But Xi believes that what really set them apart from other firms is their engineering expertise. “We specialize in advanced technology solutions that include renewable energy concepts and cooling systems for data centers,” she says. “Gerd Voith, a renowned engineer and our third partner is an authority on the subject.” A decade later, in 2016, Xi returned to Switzerland to open the Zurich office.
正是在ETH，张西开始理解西方如何对待其历史的差异。对我来说，欧洲就像一座建筑博物馆，她说。每个时代看起来都不一样，你可以随意穿越它们，因为这些建筑保存得很好。相比之下，她认为，在中国，历史建筑如果不再具有某种用途，就不那么受人尊敬，因为它可以被取代。在EXH为瑞士驻北京大使馆的签证办公室设计的设计中，体现了这种西方传统的对过去的尊重。他们没有拆除现有的建筑，而是建造了一个砖砌的亭子和一个玻璃扩建物，将其包围起来。其效果是保存历史，延续结构的叙述，同时开放建筑，接受自然的影响。瑞士人对历史的接受是在中国风水的推动下完成的。
It was at ETH that Xi began to understand the difference in how the West approached its history. “Europe is like an architecture museum to me,” she says. “Each epoch looks different and you can literally meander through them because the buildings are so well preserved.” By contrast, she argues, in China historic buildings are treated with less reverence—if something no longer serves a purpose it can be replaced. This Western tradition of honouring the past is demonstrated in EXH’s design for the Visa office at the Swiss Embassy in Beijing. Rather than demolish the existing building, a brick pavilion, a glass expansion was built, enveloping it. The effect was to preserve history and continue the structure’s narrative, while opening the building up to the influence of nature. The Swiss embrace of history was thus performed, driven by Chinese feng shui.
张西当然意识到了这两种文化之间的差异。对于张西来说，中国是忙碌、混乱、嘈杂的；这与苏黎世优雅的步调相去甚远。她还笑着说瑞士人做事的方式也不一样：当我的中国办事处对瑞士办事处说，“两三天后”会有什么安排时，瑞士人会问：“是哪一天?”两三天?”
Xi is certainly conscious of differences between these two cultures. China, for Xi, is “busy chaotic, and noisy”; a far cry from Zurich’s genteel pace. She laughs about how the Swiss do things differently too: “When my Chinese office speaks to the Swiss office and say they will have something in ‘two or three days,’ the Swiss ask, ‘Which is it? Two, or three days?’”
这些比较可能会永远持续下去，但它们或许可以在最新出版的专著《EXH Design: Swiss Quality Chinese Speed(2018)》的标题中得到最好的概括。张西试图将这一主张体现在她的公司的工作中，在中国，质量是困难的，因为建筑的速度。在瑞士，速度是困难的，因为一切都是板上钉钉的。但我们之所以这样命名这本书，是因为我们相信我们可以提供高质量和高速度。
These comparisons could go on forever, but they’re perhaps best summarized in the title of the newly published monograph, EXH Design: Swiss Quality—Chinese Speed (2018). It’s a claim Xi tries to embody in her firm’s work, “In China, quality is difficult because of the speed in which buildings are built, and in Switzerland speed is difficult because everything is set in stone. But we named [the book] that way because we believe that we can offer both quality and speed.”
世界上最大的银行——中国工商银行(ICBC)的苏黎世分行就属于这两种分法。一个新的办公空间被整合到一个传统建筑中，建筑受到政府耗时的监管。作为该项目的总承包商，EXH负责整个设计和施工的管理，在项目还在监管机构的咨询阶段，EXH就通过预制许多元素加快了设计和施工的进度。
One building encompassing this dichotomy is the Zurich branch of the world’s largest bank, Industrial and Commerce Bank of China (ICBC). A new office space to be integrated into a heritage building, construction was subject to time-consuming governmental regulation. As the project’s general contractor, EXH managed design and construction in their entirety and sped up the process by prefabricating many elements while the project was still under the regulator’s consultation.
在这个项目中，工商银行希望自己的品牌能够引人注目，但瑞士的监管规定意味着这栋历史建筑的外观不能被篡改。于是，由照明合作伙伴 Zumtobel定制的照明标识被安装在会议室的桌子上方。张西兴奋地解释道：“这样就可以从街上就能看到，这就是为什么我们不在项目结束时设计照明，有时照明可能是整个想法的灵感来源。”
For this project, ICBC wanted visibility for their brand, but Swiss regulations meant the historic building’s exterior couldn’t be tampered with. So an illuminated logo, built bespoke by lighting partner Zumtobel, was installed above the boardroom table. “It’s visible from the street,” Xi explains with excitement. “That’s why we don’t design lighting at the end of a project, sometimes the lighting could be the inspiration for the whole idea.”
张西似乎自然而然地为中国和瑞士文化架起了桥梁。通过将她的中国哲学思想深入到她的学科中，她创造了能源与技术、人性与自然、速度与质量、历史与现代之间的对话。生活在瑞士和中国之间，无论是身体上还是文化上，西都体现了全球化的理念。就像所有的杂化产物一样，产生的东西可能比它各部分的总和还要大。她创造了一种新的方法，从哲学和历史中仔细地选择参考，并用它们来创造一种微妙的综合。和张西一样，EXH的建筑散发着低调的自信和充沛的能量。
Bridging Chinese and Swiss cultures seems to come naturally to Xi. By bringing her deep-seated Chinese philosophy to her discipline, she creates dialogues between energy and technology, humanity and nature, speed and quality, history and modernity. Living between Switzerland and China, both physically and culturally, Xi embodies the very idea of globalization. As with all hybrids, what emerges can be greater than the sum of its parts. She has created a new methodology that chooses its references from philosophy and history carefully, and uses them to create a subtle synthesis. Like Xi herself, EXH’s buildings exude an understated confidence and an abundance of good energy.
EXH Design
2006年，张西在苏黎世联邦理工大学建筑学硕士毕业后，与人合作在上海成立EXH，致力于为城市规划、建筑和室内设计提供全面的解决方案，同时为追求品质的客户提供创造性的建筑解决方案。EXH design在中国拥有10年的规划和建筑经验，已经完成了数十个高质量的项目，懂得如何将约束转化为潜力。它的国际团队结合了两个世界的精华，从技术知识到文化灵感。2016年，张西与Erich Diserens、Gerd Voith、Peter a . Marti共同创立瑞士苏黎世EXH Design，为欧洲客户提供设计与施工的整体解决方案。
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Text © Luc Benyon for FvF Productions
Photos © Yves Bachmann for FvF Productions
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厉害的美女建筑师