Acomputer generated image of the garden bridge across the Thames in London.Photograph: -/AFP/Getty Images
由计算机生成的花园桥横跨泰晤士河的图像。照片：/AFP/盖帝图像
London’s garden bridge will be a jewel in a great world city thatis still let down by its public spaces. Our streets and squares – places thatshould be for people – are still dominated by cars, and blighted by poor pavingand street furniture.
伦敦花园桥将成为这座重要的世界城里的一颗宝石，但是它的公共空间仍然让人感到失望。我们的街道和广场——这些应该为民所用的地方——却依旧被汽车所占用，被劣质的铺路材料和街区公共设施所摧残。
The Thames,passing through the heart of London, is part of this problem. For many years it was an industrialriver, and its south bank was a no-go area. Now the river has been cleaned upand the South Bank is one of the great urban promenades of the world, but westill have far fewer bridges in the centre than Paris has; the river is still abarrier rather than a setting for city life.
流经伦敦中心地带的泰晤士河成为这个问题的一部分。多年以前，它还是一条工业河，南岸区更是禁区。如今，这条河早已清理干净，南岸区成为世界主要的城市步行区之一，可是我们建于城中心桥的数量却远远不及巴黎；泰晤士河也依然是一围屏障而不是一个能与都市生活相融合的环境。
Thomas Heatherwick’s brilliant garden bridge will enhance our public realm and reconnect thecity, strengthening London’s renaissance, celebrating theriver, creating an oasis of calm and beauty, and opening up new perspectives onLondon – for locals and visitors alike.
托马斯·赫斯维克设计的这座构思绝妙的花园桥，可以增加公共领域面积以及重新连接起这座城市，加紧伦敦的复兴脚步，赞美泰晤士河，把这座花园桥变成一处令人心旷神怡的绿洲，然后开发出当地人和外来游客同样的伦敦新视角。
The bridge isperfectly located in the heart of London. It’s a vital meeting point, a hingebetween central London’s neighbourhoods. On the north bank, Aldwych (which willalso be partially pedestrianised) marks the transition from Covent Gardentheatres to Temple legal chambers. On the other axis, walking routes lead norththrough Bloomsbury and Lincoln’s Inn, to King’s Cross and Euston. But thisroute comes to a dead end at Aldwych; the Thames lies unnoticed down a dingyside street over a fast-moving high street. This is where the garden bridgestarts.
花园桥的位置极佳，它正好坐落于伦敦的中心。这是一个至关重要的汇合点——它是链接附近城郊的枢纽。在北岸区，奥德维奇（也将部分改造为步行区）标志着由考文特花园歌剧院向坦普尔法律会所的过渡在另一条轴上，有条路线通往北边：穿过布鲁姆斯伯里和林肯律师协会通向国王十字和尤斯顿，然而这条路线却止于奥德维奇；泰晤士河沿着阴暗肮脏的小巷顺流而下悄悄地流经到熙熙攘攘的大街。而此处便是花园桥的起始点。
On the southside of the river, the bridge will land on the spectacular riverside walkwaythat has done so much for what was once a no-go area, crossing the river wherethere is a 900m gap between existing bridges, and offering Londoners a newstitch across the river, as well as an unrivalled moment of calm and beauty inthe middle of the hubbub of a busy city.
河岸的南面，花园桥将横跨壮观的河畔人行道，可想而知这条人行道为了曾是一片禁区的南岸做出了巨大的贡献。横跨泰晤士河的在用桥梁有900米长，这也给伦敦人渡过这条河提供了一种崭新的方式。同时这也是一个可以在喧闹忙碌的城市中心享受一番宁静与美妙的绝佳时刻。
I have toconfess to unfinished business along this stretch of the Thames. In the late1970s, we were asked to redesign an office development on Coin Street, betweenWaterloo and the riverfront. We proposed a new bridge over the Thames, just afew metres east of the garden bridge’s location. Our proposals got caught inthe cross-fire between developers, the local community and the GLC, and werenever built. Ten years later, in my Royal Academy exhibition London As It CouldBe, I set out a strategy to make central London a more humane city. I proposedpedestrianising Trafalgar Square, building pedestrian bridges and creating alinear park along the north side of the Thames, to replace the four-lanehighway that blocks the river with a torrent of traffic or a parking lot forcoaches. I still believe this would create an incredible renaissance on thenorth bank, complementing the south.
我不得不坦白，顺着泰晤士河延伸的任务并未完成。1970年末，我们被要求重新设计位于可茵街（介于滑铁卢和滨河地带之间）的一项官方发展项目。我们提议在泰晤士河上建造一座新桥，就在离花园桥东面的不远处。我们的提案受到了开发商、地方社区以及大伦敦市议会的强烈拒绝，所以它夭折了。十年之后，在我主题为“伦敦，如其所能”的皇家艺术学院展上，为了使伦敦市中心变得更富人性化，我提出了一个建议——我建议把特拉法加广场改造为行人步行区，沿着泰晤士河的北侧地区修建人行天桥和带状公园，以此来取代因交通洪流而阻碍水域的四车道公路和客车停车场。我仍然坚信，这项提议将会给北岸区带来惊人的复兴，并为南岸区作补充。
Now we have a renewed opportunity to build a bridge at the verycentre of the city, and to use it to create better public space on both sidesof the Thames, cementing London’s transition to being a city that is friendlyto pedestrians and cyclists as well as drivers. Learning from how the HighLine revitalised a rundownarea of western midtown Manhattan, the bridge is formed of two planters, cladin a warm-coloured metallic skin, with paths meandering through gardens designedby Dan Pearson (who was gold medallist at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show), andviewing points and niches offering secluded space to enjoy the new views overLondon.
如今，我们有一次全新的机会在市中心建造桥梁，使它可以在泰晤士河两岸创建出更好的公共空间，巩固伦敦向“行人、非机动车与机动车驾驶员‘友好型’城市”的转型。学习纽约高线公园的修建是如何复兴曼哈顿中城西侧这样一个原本破败的地区。这座桥由两个呈现出柔和金属色的大托盘组成，小路蜿蜒穿过由丹•皮尔逊设计的花园（本届切尔西花卉展的金牌得主），观景点和壁龛可以给游客提供隐秘的空间去享受伦敦的新景色。
The bridge will be a beautiful structure, helping Londoners torediscover their city, and creating new links between the cultural, academicand legal centres on either side of the Thames.
这座桥将是一个出色的建筑物，它能帮助伦敦人重新发现他们所居住的这座城，也能在泰晤士河两岸创建文化、学术以及法律中心之间新的纽带。
The proposal has been controversial. Every good idea has its opponents.St Paul’s was attacked for its modernism, the Eiffel Tower was described as auseless monstrosity, and the High Line was hated – until it opened, when itbecame one of New York’s most loved attractions.
这项提案已经引发了很多争议。每一个好想法都难免听到持反对意见的声音。就像圣保罗大教堂遭受了现代主义的攻击，埃菲尔铁塔被描述成废物畸形建筑，高线公园在正式对公众开放之前也曾饱受诟病——但却在开放后成为纽约最受人喜爱的景点之一。
And some of the criticism entirely misses the point, or is basedon misinformation. The garden bridge will be free to visit and closed off forprivate events for a maximum of 12 days a year. Building the bridge is not analternative to building urgently needed river crossings in east London; theywere not competitors for a pot of money, and two-thirds of the cost will beraised from donations. In any case, if we accept that road bridges can bepublicly funded, why shouldn’t we allocate a fraction of the spending onpedestrian bridges – when walking is the most sustainable way of moving roundthe city?
一些批评完全没有抓住要点，或者说他们建立在错误的信息上。花园桥可以免费参观，因私人活动的原因暂停参观的时间一年也不得超过十二天。这座桥并不是一个迫切地需要修建于东伦敦的河流桥渡的代替品。他们不是金钱的竞争者，因为修建这座桥所需三分之二的花费都是由捐款募集到的。无论如何，假若我们同意公路桥可以由公众经费资助，那么为什么我们不应该拨出一小部分开支用于建设人行天桥呢？——当步行已然成为漫步于这座城市的一种最具可持续化的方式。
There are some restrictions on how the bridge will be used; itoffers a meandering promenade, not a superhighway with segregated cycle paths(cycling is also prohibited on the South Bank); limits on the size of crowdsare to stop the bridge being swamped by tour groups at peak times (as Londonbecomes a bigger tourist draw, preserving an air of calm will be critical); andclosure at night (like all the royal parks) will prevent delicate plantingbeing put at risk of drunken uprooting. If these restrictions do not work, thenno doubt they will be revisited, just as the planting itself will be refreshedand retuned over time.
关于如何使用这座桥，这里有一些限制。它有一条蜿蜒的散步长廊，而并非一条带有专门自行车道的超级公路（南岸区也禁止骑自行车）；限制人群的数量，以防旅游团在高峰时间拥堵桥面（因为伦敦已经成为一个更大的旅游胜地，保留它神韵里应有的宁静将至关重要）；在晚间关闭开放（这与所有的皇家公园一样）将能防止幼嫩的植物被醉汉连根拔起。倘若这些限制都起不了作用，那么毋庸置疑他们将被重新考虑重游，正如植物自身可以随着时间的推移重新焕发出生机。
We should not be attacking the garden bridge for what it is not,but should appreciate and celebrate it for what it is – a jewel of publicspace, a vital new connection, and an oasis at the heart of the city.
我们不应该抨击这座桥不是什么，而是应该欣赏和赞美它是什么——它是一颗镶嵌在公共空间里的宝石，一条至关重要而又无比崭新的纽带，更是繁华都市中心的一片绿洲。
翻译仅供学习交流，严禁用于商业用途
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发表于 2015-9-26 15:09:38
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