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龙应台一旦写到北京，永远都忘不了集权这个标签，这篇文章秉承龙氏风格，明写北京，实赞台北。

比尔堡(Bilbao，毕尔巴鄂)曾是西班牙北部巴斯克地区一个衰败了的工业港口，除了足球队以外无可称道。1990年代，巴斯克地区的自治权使得15亿美元的投资成为可能，Gehry, Foster, Pelli, Sterling, Wildford, Pei, Soriano, Palacio 和 Calatrava等著名建筑师在此对城市进行改造。其中Gehry的古根海姆博物馆设计最为著名，值得注意的是，建造古根海姆的经费只是100万美元。－－人文与社会

他做的事，长期以来被概括为"为农民盖房子"。这位设计者，因之也被许作"人道主义建筑师"。无人资助，破产三次，从台湾跑到大陆，数十年不改其 志。农民管他叫"老谢"，同行揶揄他"灾难王子"，学界说，他是包豪斯在世。他站在台上笑，我不过想让"九亿农民赏我一碗饭吃"。The thing he did has long been described as "to build houses for farmers." The designer is consequently called "humanitarian architect." From Taiwan to China's mainland, he never gives up even he's got no funds and went bankrupt three times. Farmers call him "Old Xie", Peers ridicule him "prince of the disaster" and the academic says that he is Bauhaus alive. He stood on stage laughing; all I want is "earning a life from 900 million farmers." 生活在这个时代的建筑师，人人都想成为库哈斯。设计那些形态夸张、造价高昂，全身上下都包裹着高科技的城市地标，而不用太考虑成本和能耗。谢英俊却反其道 而行之，琢磨怎么用便宜材料和简易工法，让普通民众也能参与建造，设计出成本低又环保的好房子。在他长达数十年的营造生涯里，乡村住宅绝对算得上是其中最 为"惊艳"的一笔，摊开这张薄薄的项目清单，灾后重建总是一个绕不开的话题：1999年台湾"9﹒21"大地震，谢英俊和他的事务所进入南投日月潭地区，带领邵族人以环保材料和简单工具，用极少的经费完成了部落重 建。2004年，谢英俊进入大陆，在河北、河南、安徽推广他的农民建房与协力造屋计划。2008年，四川发生"5﹒12"大地震，谢英俊及其乡村建筑工作 室成员协助四川偏远山区灾后重建，完成示范房500余套。2009年，台湾"8﹒8水灾"，谢英俊接受"世界展望会"委托，兴建原住民部落中继屋与永久安 置房，完成13个部落1000户家屋的重建工作...... 盖房子，所为何事？生于台湾，祖籍苗栗，现年57岁的谢英俊讲话温和，打扮户外，前额的头发已大半脱落，脑后的小辫儿仍倔强挺立着。1973年，谢英俊就读于淡江大学建筑系。这里是台湾文青和愤青的大本营，台湾民歌运动的肇始地。谢英俊住"动物园"（淡江大学出租给学生的民房，也是民歌运动发起人李双泽创作的一首歌），混水源街，唱着李双泽的《 愚公移山》毕业了。服兵役时，他做的是工程兵，修筑营房、工事、道路桥梁。退役后并没有急于成为一名执业建筑师，又在施工队里打混了8年。出图纸、跑现场、协 调矛盾、监控质量，他在这个过程中观察各种各样的材料与工艺，对工程造价也渐渐了如指掌。 成立事务所后，他又做了不少公建，最多的还是现代化厂房，集成电路芯片厂的超洁净室，那种需要缜密考虑各种设计规范与生产工艺要求的房子。大量一线施工的实践经验让谢英俊开始反思"工业化的标准建造模式"，也让他重新评估起建筑师的角色与社会价值。盖房子，所为何事？建筑师为 什么做、为谁而做、怎么做、从何处着手？听起来，这些似乎都是些形而上的问题，但事实上，却又是直指核心。"广大农村地区是70%人类居住生存的居所，村 民们一直在采用他们不熟悉的工法和材料，穷一生之力建造昂贵、不抗震、不环保、不合理的钢筋混凝土或砖瓦新房，而建筑专业者无法也未曾踏入这个领域"。谢 英俊说。"为农民盖房子"--当外界把他看成是"人道主义建筑师"，或者用包豪斯和现代主义建筑运动来评价和阐释自己的建构理念时，谢英俊的回答却 更加接近常识。在他看来，短短数百年的现代文明已使人类和地球走向不可持续的瓶颈，"可持续"三字，足以颠覆所有的"现代性"。它绝不仅仅局限在技术层 面，还包含衣、食、住、行，与经济、社会、文化、环境等诸多因素紧密联系，从观念到行动都需与之适应，是一场社会居住关系的革命。谢英俊为自己的"可持续建构"找到的理论支持来自哈贝马斯的"互为主体"，其核心是：让建筑跳脱出纯粹技术和商品化的思维，将庞大的农村富 余劳动力与互助换工的优良传统结合，并在其中植入绿色环保、族群文化等多样性因素，建立一个社区自主的建造体系。一言以蔽之：建筑师指导农民参与，一起动 手盖房子。 建筑师•农民 互为主体思辨过后，谢英俊开始着手他"乡村住宅计划"的实施。在长达10年的时间里，他都是一边做政府工程，用赚来的钱投入研发，一边埋头于材料结 构的试验，不断改进自己的建构体系。起初接不到任何项目，他就游说身边的朋友做"小白鼠"，一个个台南乡村的小型私宅，就是谢英俊"轻钢生态房"的实践起 步。直到1999年"台湾9•21大地震"，日月潭地区的邵族部落遭受重创，谢英俊才算等来了英雄用武之机。地震后几个礼拜，他就带着事务所开进了灾区， 带领邵族人用轻钢架和竹子，在废墟上打造出新的社区。邵族部落重建，谢英俊所做的第一件事是"说服"。在工业化和现代化浪潮席卷下，包括邵族在内，世代以土地为生的农民们不仅逐渐抛弃了往昔建 造房子的材料和工法，更抛弃了与传统建筑紧密结合在一起的生活习惯、空间氛围、协力劳动、财务操作等一系列价值观，人与土地、人与自然的关系被一刀斩断。 谢英俊试图用自己的建构体系和实地重建让邵族人相信：采用他设计的轻钢房屋结构，即使没有专业经验的人也能够参与施工，大家交换劳动，互帮互助，不必完全 依赖政府资助和慈善捐款，不受制于市场机制，也能重建家园。由于村民也是重建过程中的另一个主体，整个房屋从设计、结构、材料、施工，到整体空间的规划布局，都不是谢英俊一人意志的反映，还融入了邵 族人对于个体生活和族群生命的想象力。房屋功能在尊重当地生态环境和空间使用习惯的基础上，既满足了村民的一般家庭生活需要，又考虑到族群祭仪的特殊需 求。重建的，还不仅仅是物理上的空间，在这个相互协作、积极创造的过程中，邵族人也逐渐克服掉灾难的创伤，找回了自己的精神信仰与身份认同。而对谢英俊来 说，他也为自己的"乡村住宅计划"摸索出一条可行之路--永续建造，协力造屋。这个项目最终获得了巨大的成功。谢英俊一下子蜚声岛内，声名鹊起，变成媒体眼中的"传奇建筑师"与"人民英雄"，不仅获颁台湾建筑界最高荣 誉的"远东建筑奖"，也为国际建筑界所瞩目。而在鲜花与掌声之外，这种完全不依靠开发商、不需要银行贷款、不采用钢筋水泥的建房模式，实际上又与主流建造 市场相背离。喧嚣过后，谢英俊需要重新思考乡村住宅的发展方向。2004年，他经人指引找到了著名三农问题专家温铁军，决定来大陆推广他的"乡村住宅计 划"。 乡村住宅产业化大陆幅员辽阔的地盘让谢英俊兴奋不已。无论有钱没钱，南北东西，盖房子都是农民一生中的头等大事，这让谢英俊坚信自己的乡村住宅必定大有可 为。然而，他期待中的热火场面却并没有出现。除了在河北定州的乡建学院地球屋，河南兰考农村合作建房等几个项目，在大陆一待三年，并没有几个农民找上门 来。更有甚者，听说他帮农民盖房子，就跑到乡村建筑工作室来请求资助。"真当我们是慈善机构了"，谢英俊哭笑不得。这一次，又是发生在大陆的另一场大地 震，让陷入困顿谢英俊柳暗花明又一村。 　 2008年5月12日，中国四川发生里氏8.0级特大地震，13万平方公里受灾，200多万户房屋损毁需要重建。谢英俊在地震第三天就带领团队赶到灾区， 从一个粪尿分集式生态厕所开始，先后在青川、茂县、汶川几地，重建房屋500座。这些房子全部采用谢英俊的轻钢结构设计，不仅抗震性好，而且施工快速，造 价便宜，平均每平米400元不到（传统的砖混结构农房则需800元左右），一度成为灾后重建市场上的"主力户型"。甚至有施工队老板混进志愿者团队，靠着 流出的图纸和工料单推出"山寨版"。这次事件之后，谢英俊不得不为关键技术申请了专利。找上门来合作的人也是一拨又一拨。政府想用他的技术推示范项目，承包商认为重建市场"有利可图"，"国营的，私营的，团体的，民间的，加起 来一共有近十万套"谢英俊说。由于这些合作者无一例外都沿用设计院+施工队的传统模式，灾区的重建任务又相当紧张繁重，双方的观念差异导致建造过程的完全 不可控，谢英俊最终选择退出了这些重建项目。"有1000万名农民等在那里，任何想用工业化大量生产，将农民劳动力与创造力排斥在外的观念与作为，均不切 实际。"--谢英俊在震区日记中这样记述。"只要不是协力造屋，那就和我们的理念有相当大的偏离。"采访中，他又特别加上一句。然而，不论是被人山寨，还是退出重建项目，也都从一个侧面证明了轻钢房在市场上的竞争力与接受度，之所以目前还不能批量化建造，主要是由于 还没有形成一套乡村住宅的产业链条。"我觉得我们有这个能力，想，就能做"，谢英俊说。在今天的大陆农村盖房子，以一户一栋两层，面积150平米的砖混结 构农房计，造价大概在10-12万元人民币。而同等的面积，如果采用谢英俊的轻钢结构和协力造屋模式，成本大约只有市场价的60%。低成本，是谢英俊判定 轻钢房在农村市场具有强大竞争力的首要原因。便宜之外，房子的结构功能还要能够满足村民的生活生产需求。轻钢结构是国际主流的低层住宅结构，它抗震性好，但造价高昂。谢英俊通过10年 试验简化了这个结构，使其变得可预置、开放性、空间灵活、组装简易，所有衔接处均采用螺栓固定，让村民不请专业施工队也能够把房子盖起。因地制宜，就地取 材，是这套结构体系的另一大优势，农村所能找到的一切资源都可能用来建造房子。"没木头，用石头；没石头，用泥土；没泥土，那就竹子；竹子也没，秸秆你总 有吧。"谢英俊说。完全不设门槛的建房技术，材料充分本地化后所降低的成本支出，是谢英俊认为轻钢房与其他农房相比，具有无可替代优势的第二个原因。但除去这两项之外，产业化还有生产、营销、品管、服务等一系列环节需要建立和成熟。谢英俊"乡村建筑工作室"目前的组织架构是：台湾的事务 所和第三建筑工作室、北京的常民世纪科技和成都的常民建筑科技公司。三个工作站各有一个人主持，负责包括业务推广、技术指导、品质管理在内的所有工作。成 都公司专门研究乡村住宅建设，并设有一个工厂提供轻钢结构所需的配件。北京则主要负责研发，优化产品的前后端设计。除此外，谢英俊还在与都江堰"晏阳初工 程学校"筹备建立一个农村建筑专业学校，培养乡村住宅项目所需的技术、管理和销售人才。在农村摸爬滚打多年，基层组织庞大严密的体系与盘根错节的利益关系让谢英俊渐渐明白， 要将乡村住宅产业化，就一定要借助农村当地的力量，任何市场上现有的商业模式都不能够完全适用。谢英俊的计划是，未来与施工队进行合作，他作为总包商出设 计方案、材料和技术指导，再发包给一个个施工队，通过他们来组织村民施工，集中培训管理，仍然坚持以协力造屋的形式，互助建房。尽管这一切还只是初步的商业构想，能否达到批量化复制谁也说不清。但谢英俊却有着异乎寻常的乐观与自信，"这辈子做不完还有下辈子嘛"，他 相信"乡村住宅产业化"只是个时间问题。这乐观一半来自于对自己技术的"盲目自信"，另一半，则是他骨子里为挑战而生的勇气。"我们是走钢索的人。"他 说。然后头也不回的走下去。 

很多情况下，包工头自己也是一个工资和利润被拖欠的对象。在现代包工体制下，管理责任下放到包工头一级的做法将建筑工人推入了一种被遮蔽的劳资关系中。一方面，传统的社会关系，为劳资关系盖上了一层温情脉脉的面纱，一定程度上消解了工人的反抗；另一方面，遮蔽了的劳资关系像一剂慢性毒药，在资本贪婪的追求剩余价值的过程中，不断腐蚀并破坏传统的社会信任体系。

长年生活工作在一个地方究竟会不会成为真正的限制？

中国式媚俗的另一个表现形式是其"前卫艺术"的媚俗性。中国至今其实还没有产生真正意义上的"前卫艺术"。中国的所谓"前卫"艺术的制造者还是更多的把它们的作品看成是针对标榜前卫艺术消费者的商品而投其所好。

川震后我们在汶川银杏乡看到这样的情况：近几年盖的房子全倒，但传统穿斗式的房子连屋瓦都没掉。现代的聪明人到底做了什么事？这全都是我们认为老百姓可以自己解决的事情，我们的现代化到底出了什么问题？建筑专业者不参与其事有可能吗？

60年代，日本的城市环境十分恶劣，有明显的污染和噪声。当时，城市是为经济而存在，而不是为人而存在的。所以，当时的闭合、封闭的自我天地成为我体现自我存在意义的方式，当然，这是一种简化的比喻。而之后，日本的城市有了变化，越来越多的花园、美术馆，城市变得越来越宜人。所以在建筑上，也有了开放的可能。

“批判的地域主义持一种辩证和批判的态度。它对以全球化和大同文化为主导的现代主义建筑持强烈的批评态度，它也对地方和地域主义，尤其是那种矫情的、浪漫风的和风景化的地域主义持批评态度。它强调场址、地点和地形、地貌在建筑设计中的作用，它也保持了现代建筑的进步和解放的思想。这是一种严肃的、具有生命力的、进行自我反思和批判的建筑思想。”

李伯斯金，设计了柏林的犹太博物馆，纽约的ground zero，最近设计德累斯顿的军事历史博物馆（将于2011年10月14日开幕）。建筑与历史记忆的关系是怎样在他的作品中体现出来的？他又怎样理解德累斯顿这个在二战中被盟军炸弹摧毁的城市？

2009年3月17日，蔡国强来到欧洲另外一个航海强国西班牙的著名港口城市毕尔堡，那个远远驶来的东方人的身影，现在已经成为毕尔堡古根海姆博物馆（Guggenheim Bilbao）盛大回顾展的主角。这是他的全球回顾展在纽约、北京之后的第三站，也是最后一站的展览。

“从100米高空拍下杭州，只见毫无规划、杂乱的建筑，水泥丛林，到处都是覆盖物，看不到一块完整的土地。哪里能看出是杭州？哪里还像人间天堂，简直像地狱！”

The world's tallest skyscraper will open soon in Dubai, even as the emirate continues to be battered by the financial crisis. Is Burj Dubai an expression of failed megalomania or proof of Dubai leader Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's stunning vision?The view is clear, the air is soft and silky, and only a thick strip of red separates the sky and the sea at sundown. The boundary between grandeur and kitsch becomes blurred here, halfway up the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest tower.It smells of paint, varnish and new leather, and the steps of female visitors on parquet and marble produce an elegant-sounding echo that suddenly disappears when they step onto soft carpets. An artificial island in the shape of a palm tree is visible to the southwest, and farther to the north is a man-made archipelago that looks like a map of the world.But only the furniture, the carpets, the smells and the sounds are real. The rest is an illusion. The visitor isn't gazing out at the Persian Gulf from 400 meters (1,312 feet) up in the air; in fact, he or she is standing at ground level -- in a model apartment with an enormous mural stretched outside its floor-to-ceiling windows -- at the foot of a hermetically sealed building.The model apartment is located at the recently closed sales office of Emaar Properties, the real estate development company behind the Burj Dubai, which has over-extended itself -- with projects from India to Morocco -- and is now selling some of its condominiums at half the list price. After falling by 32 percent in last two weeks, Emaar's stock price gained 15 percentage points again last Thursday. Emaar, like the entire city, is on the brink of ruin, and yet it behaves as if nothing has happened.Dubai, like no other place in the world, epitomizes globalization, "innovation" and "astonishing progress," as US President Barack Obama said admiringly in his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo in June. But it also stands for mind-boggling excess. In Dubai, utopias almost feel real sometimes, and reality is sometimes nothing but a mirage.The tower, at any rate, is real. With its 160 habitable stories, it juts 818 meters (2,683 feet) into the sky. Tourists have to kneel down on the sidewalk to photograph the building in its entirety, from base to tip.The Burj Dubai is so tall that Bedouins can see it from their oases 100 kilometers (63 miles) inland and sailors can see it from their supertankers, 50 nautical miles out in the Gulf -- at least on the few winter days when the air is as clear as it's portrayed on the mural in front of the model apartment window.The tower is so enormous that the air temperature at the top is up to 8 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) lower than at the base. If anyone ever hit upon the idea of opening a door at the top and a door at the bottom, as well as the airlocks in between, a storm would rush through the air-conditioned building that would destroy most everything in its wake, except perhaps the heavy marble tiles in the luxury apartments. The phenomenon is called the "chimney effect."AN ARMY OF IMMIGRANT WORKERSAn army of immigrant workers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, who make up about two-thirds of Dubai's residents, built the Burj. Only one in five residents is considered a "local" entitled to a United Arab Emirates passport. Scores of marketing strategists take steps to ensure that no one scrapes away at the silver varnish of this architectural marvel.Security guards quickly remind anyone who comes too close to the construction site of the meaning of the word "unauthorized." Those who are invited to tour the building, or even just the grounds, are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement, the terms of which are to be obey "finally, irrevocably and unconditionally." Anyone who violates the terms can expect to face a judge in Dubai.All of this will apply for only a little more than two weeks, until Jan. 4, 2010, the official opening date -- already rescheduled several times -- when the developers hope that the tower will begin serving its purpose as a magnet for a two-square-kilometer new development zone, where the wind was still blowing empty plastic bags across the desert sand only five years ago. And when the Burj Dubai opens, it will likely be one of the last major projects for some time in a city that has risen to dizzying heights and now faces the prospect of a precipitous fall.On a single day, Tuesday of last week, prices on Dubai's stock exchange fell by an average of 6 percent. The Islamic bond issued by real estate developer Nakheel fell to 52 cents a share, at a face value of $1 per share. The rating agency Moody's downgraded six other government-related firms to junk status. Hardly anyone believes that Dubai World, the largest of these companies, will be able to refinance its $26 billion debt within six months, as originally scheduled. The US bank Morgan Stanley predicts another drastic increase in the debt restructuring needs of Dubai's government-related firms to double the current level, or about $47 billion."Within a year, Dubai went from being the best-performing real estate market to one of the world's worst," writes the International Herald Tribune. Has the Persian Gulf emirate, once praised for its seemingly dazzling future, bitten off more than it can chew? Is the role model for a future-oriented Arabian Peninsula, with aspirations to become a hub of globalization between the East and the West, nothing less than a model for the future -- a failure?Ironically, it was the Wall Street Journal, standard-bearer of the West's brand of conservative capitalism, that warned against American and European arrogance and the tendency to write off the upstarts in the Gulf region and in the Third World in general. "The old centers ... view the Dubais, the Shanghais and the Rios with suspicion and with errant conviction that their models are built on foundations of sand, ready to collapse, when it was their own foundations that have proved to be weak," the paper writes. "Judging from the misguided reaction to Dubai's challenges, the past year hasn't changed those attitudes. That should make us worried, very worried, but not about Dubai."It is too early to sound the death bell for Dubai. That, at least, is the impression the sheikhs will try to make when they open the Burj Dubai in early January.A SUPREMELY ELEGANT EDIFICEStill, it would be condescending to dispute that the tower is an impressive, supremely elegant edifice, or that it is nothing less than graceful compared with the plain, cuboids from the age of functionalism or the gaudy, modern towers in places like Kuala Lumpur and Taipei.According to the tower's US architect, Adrian Smith, the floor plan, a central core surrounded by three lobes, is patterned on the blossom structure of the Hymenocallis flower, a shape that simultaneously creates more visible surface area and reduces the wind pressure acting on buildings this tall. As it tapers upward, one of the three lobes is shifted slightly backward about every eight floors, an effect that is reminiscent of an Islamic spiral minaret and provides the tower with 26 terraces. There will be an outdoor pool on one of the terraces, on the 78th floor, and the 124th floor (at 442 meters, or 1,450 feet, above sea level) will feature the world's third-highest observation deck.Uwe Hinrichs, 68, a native of the northern German city of Bremen, had already been involved in the construction of another Dubai landmark, the sail-shaped Burj-al-Arab Hotel, when he arrived on the construction site of his life in late 2004. The concrete foundation had already been poured, on top of 850 piles, driven up to 55 meters into the desert floor to support a load of 230,000 cubic meters of concrete and 31,000 tons of steel."From a construction standpoint," says Hinrichs, "the Burj Dubai is a relatively simple structure." One of the biggest challenges, according to Hinrichs, was the logistics of the project, an around-the-clock effort that lasted five years -- five years during which people, machines and material always had to be in the right place at the right time, 24 hours a day. Coordinating the whole thing was Hinrichs' job. His levelheaded northern German disposition proved advantageous in his position as chief coordinator, as did the fact that the people he reported to had no objection to the fact that he occassionally leaves Dubai to attend a concert in Vienna or a Rembrandt exhibition in Muscat in the neighboring country of Oman.PART 2: BAILOUTS FROM ABU DHABIIn 2004, a crew of about 2,000 people began building one floor at a time, completing an average of one per week. When interior construction entered its final phase in the fall of 2009, there were 14,000 people working on the project, people from 45 nations, speaking 35 different languages -- engineers in white helmets, security personnel in red helmets and laborers in blue helmets -- and yet there was no Babylonian linguistic confusion on the site. The workers completed a total of 95 million working hours, many at starvation wages. A skilled carpenter earned no more than €12 a day, while ordinary laborers made even less.Façade components were shipped from China, marble panels from Italy and veneers from Brazil. German companies were also involved in Burj Dubai's construction: Lopark, from the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, supplied parquet flooring, entire football fields of it. The German branch of the US firm Guardian, based in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, provided 174,000 square meters (1.8 million square feet) of solar glass. Dorma, from Ennepetal in North Rhine-Westphalia, supplied hinges and fittings. Duravit provided approximately 4,000 bidets and toilets. And Miele delivered 7,650 household appliances -- the biggest single order in the company's history. Designer Giorgio Armani bought 15,200 plates and cups from Bavarian porcelain maker Rosenthal for his hotel on the first eight floors of the building.German companies also played important roles in the development and processing of the basic core material of the Burj Dubai: concrete. Because concrete dries too quickly at daytime temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), the concrete was poured at night. German chemical giant BASF developed a special chemical to make the concrete more malleable initially and later rigid. Putzmeister, a maker of concrete pumps near Stuttgart, provided special high-performance pumps to pump the concrete up to the 160th floor.Quietly and uneventfully, which was entirely to Hinrichs' liking, the tower grew, floor after floor -- until June 6, 2007, when the weather service at the airport e-mailed Hinrichs a satellite image showing a cyclone that had developed over the Indian Ocean, the biggest storm ever recorded in the region, which was heading directly for the Strait of Hormuz. "That was the only day in five years," says Hinrichs, "when we had to close the construction site."The Dubai tower had already surpassed all superlatives in building history. It had overtaken the 509-meter Taipei 101 Tower as the tallest inhabited building in the world, as well as Toronto's 553-meter CN Tower as the tallest freestanding structure. Dubai had arrived at what had become the most ambitious of its goals. The city, a village of pearl divers only a generation earlier, had brought a world record back to the Middle East. For almost four millennia, the Great Pyramid of Giza (138.8 meters) was the world's tallest man-made structure, before it was overtaken by Lincoln Cathedral in England (160 meters, at the time) in 1311.TREMORSWhat could now unhinge this economic miracle on the Gulf? A terrorist attack? A new Gulf war, this time against Iran? Another earthquake, even stronger than the one that hit the region on Sept. 10, 2008?On the day of the cyclone on Sept. 10, 2008, a crane operator working 700 meters above the ground had called Hinrichs to report that it was "shaking" where he was standing. Tremors had shaken the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, but in Dubai, few (other than the crane operator) had even noticed.Five days later, Dubai was struck by another sort of tremor, but this one had its epicenter in New York, another city of skyscrapers. On Sept. 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers, the world's fourth-largest investment bank, filed for bankruptcy.Not just Dubai, but the West, too, had been building a tower in the years of the real estate boom, a tower of debt, which now came crashing down. But despite the vast sums of money involved in the crisis in the West, it was and largely remains a strangely abstract phenomenon. Not so in Dubai, however, which reflects the financial debacle more vividly than any other city in the world."Classic megalomania seems to have migrated from people's minds to the system itself. Nowadays the system is crazier than the people," says German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk. "That's why we, as human beings, are terribly disappointed by the course of the crisis. There was not a single colorful individual (in Europe) to make the crisis more interesting. I've never seen such an enormous conspiracy of petty bourgeoise people than at the moment."Sloterdijk may be right when it comes to the bankers, analysts and finance ministers of the West. But he apparently has never heard of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 60, a horse breeder and poet, a lover of fast powerful cars, an avid falconer and a juggler of billions. Maktoum is the ruler of Dubai and the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. "Many leaders make promises," he said in February 2008, when the Free University of Berlin awarded him its medal of honor, "but we deliver."Maktoum had artificial islands built in the waters off his city, with names like The Palm, The World and The Universe. Not just the Free University, but the entire West was fascinated by his energy and optimism. Like the thoroughbred horses in his racing stable, he sent the most capable of his lieutenants into the orbit of globalization, and along the way they built new towers, bought ports and sent airliners out into the world.'CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?'One real estate company after the next was founded -- Dubai Holding, Dubai Properties, Tatweer, Meraas, Sama -- and it soon became difficult to keep track of who was building what and with whose money. Apparently not even the sheikh himself was always in the know.Only about a year ago, investors were still crowding into the "CityScape Dubai" real estate convention. Former race-car driver Michael Schumacher was there, touting a skyscraper with a covered yacht berth. Nakheel, which is now in very dire financial straits, was seriously talking about the possibility of building a 1,000-meter tower. And, on the palm-shaped Jumeirah island, Dubai spent $20 million on fireworks to celebrate the opening of the fairytale Atlantis Hotel. "Crisis?" the city seemed to ask, "what crisis?"A year few weeks later, one of Sheikh Mohammed's officials presented the bill: Dubai had amassed $80 billion in debt, $50 billion of which, or about two-thirds of its gross domestic product, was scheduled to mature by 2013.For a few days, the sheikh suddenly disappeared from the scene. Rumors emerged he was ill and that he was "melancholy." Then he reappeared and began to whitewash the situation, claiming that the crisis had not affected Dubai, that Dubai had actually overcome the crisis, and that Dubai and its wealthy neighbor, Abu Dhabi, were as close and inseparable as brothers.But the "brothers" from the neighboring sheikdom, with whom the Dubaians form the bulk of the United Arab Emirates, no longer wanted any part of Dubai's excesses. Abu Dhabi has 7 percent of worldwide oil reserves, and its 64-year-old emir, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, is the president of the UAE, while Dubai's Sheikh Mohammed is only its premier -- and Abu Dhabi now views the prestigious activities of his relative in the neighboring emirate with growing mistrust, and probably some envy.At the beginning of the year, Abu Dhabi rescued Dubai from the worst of its problems with a $20 billion cash injection. The emirate stepped in again earlier this week, providing Dubai with an additional $10 billion in financial aid. The emirate may have abundant assets in its $500 billion sovereign wealth fund, but how much longer will it be willing to bailout its neighbor? The sheikhs of Abu Dhabi seem to prefer to spend their money on sounder, more sustainable projects, such as an emissions-free eco-city called Masdar, where the emirate plans to conduct research on projects for the post-petroleum age.In the last four weeks, the sheikh has revealed -- not always voluntarily -- how serious the crisis is and how deeply it affects him. At first, the normally restrained sheikh lost his composure and told the critical Western media to "shut up," and then he dismissed three of his closest advisers on the emirate's central financial council. A short time later, he waxed poetic when he described the crisis as "the fruit-bearing tree that becomes the target of stone-throwers."PART 3: A SYMBOL OF EARTHLY TEMPTATIONIn truth, Sheikh Mohammed, the poet-prince, has good reasons to look forward to the day when the Burj Dubai opens its doors. With one snip of the red ribbon, he will be taking up the thread of a great epic, a saga of humanity that goes well beyond the financial problems of a debt-ridden Gulf emirate. Once before, the Eastern World is said to have been the home another groundbreaking tower, in Babylon, the legendary Mesopotamian city between the Tigris and the Euphrates.Archeologists have confirmed that the Tower of Babel did indeed exist in the 3rd century B.C. They estimate that the skyscraper of antiquity was 90 meters tall, a marvel of the day, and was constructed on a platform that was 90 meters square. If this were true, the tower would have been one-ninth as tall as the latest wonder of the modern world. According to the Bible, the Tower of Babel was much more than a building, but rather a symbol of earthly temptation. "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves." These words, which sound strikingly like a motto of today's rulers of Dubai, are in fact from the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament. Even today, many of the faithful believe that endeavoring to be like God is a presumption that must invariably lead to punishment.MEGALOMANIA OR A GRAND ACHIEVEMENT?Nevertheless, the excessive building of cities and towers seems to be a cross-cultural constant, a dream and nightmare alike for mankind, from the Babylonians to the heroes and villains of the present. The ruler of Dubai isn't the only one who has carried out his plans in reinforced concrete and gleaming facades.President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan had Astana, an entire city of monumental avenues, triumphal arches and pyramids built as his new capital, where marble contrasts with granite, buildings are topped by gigantic glass domes and, on the Bayterek Tower, every subject can place his or her hand in a golden imprint of the president's hand.In the Burmese jungle, dictatorial generals had an absurd new capital, Naypyidaw, or "Seat of the Kings," conjured up out of nothing. Yamoussoukro, the capital of Côte d'Ivoire and a memorial to the country's now-deceased first president, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, is even a step closer to the brink. The city is filled with grandiose buildings, but there are hardly any people to be seen. The Basilica of Notre Dame de la Paix is a piece of lunacy inspired by the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, but the African church is even bigger than St. Peter's. Indeed, it is the world's largest Catholic church.It is easy to ridicule the megalomaniacs and their hubris and to rail against the record-breaking mania reflected in their ostentatious buildings, phallic symbols of the rise to power of nouveau-riche potentates.And yet, aren't Brasilia and Canberra, the South American and Australian versions of the man-made model city, remarkable successes? Hasn't history proven at least a few visionaries right, people whose achievements we continue to marvel at today: the creators of Giza on the Nile, Machu Picchu in the Andes and Angkor in Cambodia, or the planners of St. Petersburg?Today, the pyramids of the pharaohs, the mountain fortress of the Incas and the sacral ruins of the Khmer are admired as part of the world's cultural heritage, places that attest to man's greatness. They are the great and magnificent achievements of past eras. Nowadays, the center of St. Petersburg -- designed on the drawing board, like Dubai today, more than 300 years ago -- is still considered an ideal city and an example of successful urban planning.Where the emirates are built on sand, the banks of the Neva River were once swampland. At the behest of the czar, St. Petersburg was not just created as Russia's window to the West, but as a reflection of what the modernists of the day defined as utopian. "Now, city of Peter, stand thou fast, Foursquare, like Russia; vaunt thy splendor! The very element shall surrender And make her peace with thee at last," Alexander Pushkin, the congenial poetic counterpart to Peter the Great, wrote in his poem "The Bronze Horseman." It was pure hubris, cast in the form of magnificent verse.What happens today in Dubai -- or in Shanghai or Astana -- generally happens under the conditions of an authoritarian form of government. In democracies, people cannot be dispossessed and driven off their property but, instead, can hire attorneys to assert their rights. In democracies, more or less reasonable building codes and ordinances, as well as licensed appraisers, ensure that uncontrolled growth and injustices are kept in check. But this limiting effect also applies to creativity, spontaneity and "positive" megalomania, resulting in a general leveling of things.THE VIRTUE OF TAKING THE PLUNGE"This society is mediocre," the poet and sharp-tongued contemporary critic Hans Magnus Enzensberger once wrote about German reality. "Its political leaders and its works of art are mediocre, as are its representatives and its taste, its joys, its opinions, its architecture, its media, its fears, vices and afflictions." And then, in his essay "Mediocrity and Delusion," Enzensberger writes: "There is something cathartic about this realization."Somewhere between Western suburbs and Yamoussoukro lies Dubai. Whether its Burj, its tower, will ever become a part of the world's cultural heritage is still open, as is the question of how long it will remain the world's tallest structure. China, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are already planning towers that will be much taller than the Burj Dubai, reaching more than 1,000 meters into the sky.In the Book of Isaiah, the Bible describes the fall of Babel as follows: "And suddenly your downfall will come, and it will come unexpectedly." If the words of the Old Testament are to be believed, the megalomaniacal tower builders of today cannot expect external support: "Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast labored, even thy merchants, from thy youth: They shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee."The Burj Dubai was not cheap, and perhaps it was even unaffordable. But at least the sheikhs of Dubai have taught their contemporaries one virtue: the virtue of taking the plunge.

“在所有这些不确定的张力之中，北京并没有像墨西哥城、布宜诺斯艾利斯，或者南亚的诸多大城市那样，陷入某种发展的恐慌与无序。相反，北京的城市发展一直有着某种确定的未来——这个希望就是2008年奥运会。至少在眼下，一切都以此为临界点来运作，包括旧城改造、新项目的核准、政治与经济的运行指标……北京正在患上难以医治的2008临界症，仿佛把城市的未来仅仅设定在这个‘可见的节庆’，真正的未来被放逐了，‘漂浮’了。”

根据史学家的资料，中国古典园林起源于房前屋后的果木蔬圃。园、囿这些文字由象形文字演化而来，外围的方框表示一定的边界或墙垣，方框内则表示栽培植物或蓄养动物。而在西方，景观设计师也主要来源农场主、牧场主。可以说，生产是景观的最早的功能。在中国，五、六十年代也曾出现过"园林结合生产"的运动。而在当今快速的城市化之下，大量的农田被蚕食，残存在城市中的农业也一度被认为是阻碍城市发展的隐患。当景观的生产性功能再一次被强调，为了避免重蹈历史的错误，我们应该以怎样的态度来看待生产性景观呢？

《世界城市状况报告》由联合国人居署编著出版，两年一版，自2001年问世以来已经发行三版（分别为2001、2004/2005、2006 /2007），是人居署根据城市人口和城市政策制定者所面临的现实问题，对人居议程所涉及的主要领域进行监测、分析的专门报告。

一个建筑师，一个艺术评论家，谈到中国当代建筑，一样有心杀敌，无力回天。

1999年6月23日，国际建协第20届世界建筑师大会在北京召开，大会一致通过了由吴良镛教授起草的《北京宪章》。《北京宪章》总结了百年来建筑发展的历程，并在剖析和整合20世纪的历史与现实、理论与实践、成就与问题以及各种新思路和新观点的基础上，展望了21世纪建筑学的前进方向。
　　这一宪章被公认为是指导二十一世纪建筑发展的重要纲领性文献，标志着吴良镛的广义建筑学与人居环境学说，已被全球建筑师普遍接受和推崇，从而扭转了长期以来西方建筑理论占主导地位的局面。

我国的城中村与19世纪西方的贫民窟具有较多相似性，二者都是以进城农民为主的流动人口低成本居住区。简要比较19世纪前后西方国家的贫民窟问题与当前国内的城中村问题，指出城中村问题将具有长期性，社会问题和流动人口问题是解决城中村问题的关键。

“中国城市空间的虚无化，所牵涉的不仅是城市竞争力或在未来世界城市格局中的地位问题，更是中国的民族文化以及各城市的地方文化的生存，传承，衔接，转型的问题，是市民的文化认同和地方归属感的问题。这里的城市文化不是政治经济所利用的工具，它直接关系人的存在状态，生活世界和意义世界。只有我们认识到这点并贯穿于城市发展之中，也许才能稍稍抵制或限制城市空间的虚无化及相伴的问题。 ”