BEAUTY AND DISTANCE
美与距离
Viewed from a certain distance and under good light , an ugly city can look lilke the promised land.We know that the atomic mushroom, rising over Hiroshima, was a revelation of immense beauty for American bomber pilots. So by taking an appropriate distance, a cruel spectacle can be appreciated independent of its moral implications.In plays and film we may experience pleasure in observing human suffering. Consequently, the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" needs to be complemented by "when situated at the correct distance from the object of contemplation. A fire is beautiful when the beholder is positioned at an appropriate distance, not when victim of a conflagration. In fact, the appreciation of beauty is, strictly speaking, not a question of subjective judgment but of objective distance. All natural phenomena are beautiful for the observer who holds the correct distance to them, be they a volcanic explosion or an urban slum. Even a pile of rotting trash reveals a degree of beauty when observed from a suitable distance, or al contrario through a powerful microscope.
从一定的距离来看，在阳光下，一个丑陋的城市看起来就像是一片乐土。我们知道，从广岛上空升起的原子蘑菇云，对美国轰炸机飞行员来说，是一种巨大的美。因此，通过适当的距离，一个残酷的场面可以独立于它的道德含义来被欣赏，在戏剧和电影中，我们可以从观察人类的苦难中获得快乐。因此，“美在旁观者的眼中”这句话需要用“当处于与观照对象正确的距离时”来补充。当旁观者处于适当的距离而不是火灾的受害者时，火是美丽的。事实上，严格地说，对于美的欣赏，不是主观判断的问题，而是客观距离的问题。所有的自然现象，无论是火山爆发还是城市贫民窟，只要观察者与之保持正确的距离，都是美丽的。即使是一堆腐烂的垃圾，如果从适当的距离观察，或通过高倍显微镜观察，也会显示出某种程度的美。
If in literature distance and detachment (hiatus) allow us to enjoy tragedy, in architecture no valid aesthetic experience can exist without proximity, without the closeness to the masses and the details, without our experiencing the constructed spaces from within. And it is the intimacy of the inhabitant with home, of the citizen with the city, that has to exclude the tragic and the catastrophic from architecture. While this may appear self-evident, there exists today a tendency in design that confuses literature with architecture; a trend that, through acts of unbalancing, fragmentation, and alienating plastic violence, posits that the tragedy of our time must find expression in and through architecture.For the apologists of this tendency, memories of unprecedented crime must impregnate all architectural design, and as a consequence of the Shoah, architecture must be in mourning. In the writer’s opinion, this attitude is understandable but cannot be sustained because it cannot be generalized. If the proposition were true, it would not only revolutionize architecture but would have to deconstruct all artistic and technical culture, buildings, furniture, tools, industrial and healthcare structures, road systems, vehicles, and landscapes.
如果在文学上的距离和超然(间断)让我们享受悲剧，那么在建筑上，倘若没有接近，没有贴近群众和细节，没有我们从内部体验构建的空间，就没有有效的审美体验。正是由于居民与家，市民与城市所存在的亲密关系，使人们将悲剧和灾难排除在建筑之外。虽然这似乎是不言而喻的，但在今天的设计中存在着一种把文学与建筑混为一谈的趋势;一种通过不平衡、分裂和疏离塑料暴力行为的趋势认为，我们时代的悲剧必须在建筑中并通过建筑得到表达。对于这种倾向的辩护者来说，对前所未有的犯罪的记忆必须渗透到所有的建筑设计中，从纳粹浩劫纪念馆的结果看来，建筑必须处于哀悼之中。在作者看来，这种态度是可以理解的，但不能持久，因为它不能推广。如果这个命题是正确的，它不仅将彻底改变建筑，而且将不得不解构所有的艺术和技术文化、建筑、家具、工具、工业和医疗结构、道路系统、车辆和景观。
We are dealing with an absurd thesisthat confuses the objective and the subjective, the roles of culture and morality, of memorials and memory, of civic buildings and memorials, or more simply of memory and remembrance, of technology and morality, that mixes up intellect andsentiment,that amalgamatesscience and emotion.
我们面对的是一个荒谬的命题，它混淆了客观和主观，文化和道德的角色，记忆和记忆的角色，城市建筑和记忆的角色，或者更简单地说，记忆和回忆的角色，科技和道德的角色，它混合了智慧和情感，融合了科学和情感。
It fails consequently to grasp the diverging means of literature and of architecture. It confuses the roles of the reader-spectator and the actor-inhabitant. We cannot inhabit tragedy without being overwhelmed by pain, and we cannot be passive witnesses of an architecture that aggresses and horrifies.For architectural and urban design, beauty is an objective necessity. Expressing a deadlytestimonycannot be the purpose of architectural and urban design; its objective is to create beautiful buildings and spaces for the everyday user. One’s appreciation should not require theoretical explanation or moral justification.
因此，它未能把握文学与建筑的分化方式。它混淆了读者-观众和演员-居民的角色。我们不能生活在悲剧中而不被痛苦所压倒，我们也不能消极地目睹一个侵略和恐怖的建筑。因为对于建筑和城市设计来说，美是一种客观的需求。表达一个致命的见证不是建筑和城市设计的目的，它的目标是为日常用户创造美丽的建筑和空间。一个人的欣赏不应该要求理论的解释或道德的证明。
