论物：时空与穿梭

   将一本不厚的书写成很有漫长人生的跨越感，是阮昕教授（后简称阮教授）的新作《浮生•建筑》（商务印书馆，2020年1月版）于我阅读后形成的第一印象。开篇阮教授即言：“浮生与建筑是一对永久的矛盾。人的心灵深处总有浮生之愿望，即现今所谓‘对自由之向往’矣。正因为人思浮生，而建筑让人安居乐业，于是建筑成为一门‘保守’艺术”。

   该书是阮教授多年论文的集子，共计八篇，似有起承转合，我称之为“八幕”。前三篇均以《浮生与建筑》为主题，是本书重点，均为有关建筑的水平与垂直的猜想。其突出之处是论述主题涉及天地之间的建筑，却不囿于时空局限，从希腊到罗马，从中国到西方，从西周到汉唐，从中世纪到文艺复兴，从宗教建筑到风景建筑，从礼仪空间到世俗场所，从个人意识到集体意识，从多房密室到建筑的透明性，阮教授将经典建筑的案例融于历史长河、将出色建筑师的思想聚焦于作品、将各类各色建筑置于天地之轴中进行演绎，这种穿梭给人有很大的想象空间和启发力量。尤其在论述中，阮教授始终以人生的感悟阐发关于对于建筑之“物”的设计猜想并进行评判，这使得建筑与人之间产生了密切关联，并对浮生与建筑之间产生矛盾和窘境的忧虑给予了人文关怀，也为后文的铺展打下了伏笔。

论人：人学与教育

   接下来三篇我理解是阮教授对于作为个体的人的建筑专业生涯之价值及其教育本质的探索。《建筑历史与人学》论述的是波兰裔英国籍学者约瑟夫•里克沃克（Joseph Rykwert）及其经典名著《城之理念》（The Idea of a Town）、《亚当之家》（On Adam’s House in Paradise）和《柱式之舞》（The Dancing Column），阮教授选择论述其人和其学问，主要看中的是其“边缘人”的角色——没有鲜明的理论旗帜，却将建筑历史作为一门人类学，强调人与城市和建筑必须建立有意味之关联，注重城市或建筑形制背后的历史成因。有趣的是阮教授将约瑟夫•里克沃克的生平、经历、教学历程与受其影响的一批当代著名建筑师、理论家、教育家们相联系，如荷兰建筑师也是“十人小组”的领导A•范艾克（Aldo van Eyck）等，便可真实洞见这位学者的学术和普世价值。

   第二位纳入阮教授研究视野的是中国建筑师和教育家王澍教授，阮教授以《获奖•建筑》为切入点，从王澍获得普利兹克奖（Pritzker）认知王澍其人尤其是文人建筑师的特别，并以校友的身份回顾了王澍的治学趣味和在东南大学（原南京工学院）与之专业交往的细节，及后来两人间长期的书信切磋历程。阮教授特别关注“文如其人”这件事，并延伸到对广泛的获奖建筑师的性情及其处世为人的秒杀。

   从而，我阅读之后的一篇《无用之用——从建筑论人文教育》就似乎触摸到阮教授的用意，这是一篇考察建筑教育的批判性文章，毫无疑问，阮教授是崇尚无用的人文教育的，或者说，相对于开篇关于建筑作为“物”的考察，这三篇更重视通过人的个体本身来阐述在创造城市与建筑的过程中人文思想所起到的作用。

论事：传统与现代

   相对于将建筑作为一种学科，阮教授更倾向于将建筑作为文化人类学中的一种事情进行考察。当人类走过漫漫长河，建筑作为一种事情必然经历传统与现代的接续、变革、回望、反思。《文化人类学与传统民居》便是很好的考察视角，文中不仅将民居、人类学与现代建筑的研究成果作了方法论层面的审视，更结合侗寨鼓楼之社会生活的现场考察，展示了鼓楼是怎样成为了一种“能动性的象征资本”以及权威力量的，作者还特别关注到其在当代进行重建过程中的仪式化背后的文化寓意，这就将传统和现代的探讨落位到具体的事上而独具说服力。

   另一件事情会令人充满好奇：这就是设计著名的悉尼歌剧院的建筑师《伍重真想现代吗》？毫无疑问，悉尼歌剧院是幢现代建筑，而阮教授试图挖掘的是丹麦建筑师伍重（Jorn Utzon）在设计时对现代性的求索以及对传统性诸如“坚固而稳定”之内心需求的运作，悉尼歌剧院以及伍重自宅，仅是阮教授剖析的建筑载体，而衍生的关于传统与现代的矛盾与救赎的可能，是该文的核心思想，也是整本书成集的宗旨，阮教授借用莎士比亚、钱锺书、艾略特等人的文学语句以及书中反复提到的17世纪荷兰绘画，试图破解迷局：是一束光？是浮生•建筑之间的一种关照？“于是我们不妨试问，在同时代的柯布西耶、巴拉干、霍普、康和格雷的行列中，伍重真想现代吗？”书尾以问号结束，解答已成竹在胸。

   《浮生•建筑》简介曰该书以散文札记为基础，于我读来，更像是一本悬疑剧，共八幕，起始三幕气势很大，时空交错，古今杂糅，倘若少些基本常识和功底，很难理出线索，却埋下思想重笔；再三幕是承接，徐徐道来，铺陈有序，层层推进，光亮呈现；再二幕为转合，人证物证事实在，云开雾散，水落石出，作者的先前理论和思想普惠天下，令人信服，予人启迪。唯一让人存疑的是作者身份和年龄？如此通晓内外专业，如此兼具艺术门类，如此将物、人、事形成网络、贯穿始终又各有侧重，想必是均衡很好的智者。仅可透露的是：阮昕教授，出走半生，归来仍是少年。

陈薇，东南大学建筑学院教授

书评精简版发表于《中华读书报》 （2020年09月09日 10 版）

“[Ruan’s] recognition of the limitations of the text metaphor – that texts have their own special conventions and do not embrace practical or symbolic action as architecture does – is long overdue. […] By helping to demonstrate that meaning in architecture was traditionally carried as much by the ritual resonance of its spaces as by its objects, and again no less in the circumstances of its construction, Xing Ruan has done us all a service.”

Peter Blundell Jones, The Architectural Review (UK, May 2008)

“This is a rich, multi-layered, and provoking book, and one which displays a huge heart. The clarion call is that ‘meaningful engagement of the inhabitants with their built world requires conscious efforts from the designers as well as from the inhabitants themselves. And indeed there is artifice on both sides that needs to be learned’ (p.x). How both groups of participants are to re-educate themselves in developing this ‘artifice’ remains the challenge that this relevant, impassioned work lays before us.”

Christopher Cowell, Journal of Oriental Studies (Vol. 17, 2007, Stanford University and University of Hong Kong)

“This is the first book I have seen in the English language that provides a detailed and sophisticated study of architecture as imaged and lived by minority groups in South China. […The author] argues for a lived, allegorical, and bodily understanding of architecture as opposed to simply a textual one. […] This book, though not without flaws, succeeds admirably.”

“I very much like the way he introduces several sections of the book by telling the reader a story or anecdote from Western architectural history. It is a compelling approach as it highlights the difficulties of looking at heretofore understudied groups in Chinese society. It also highlights the fact that a focus on a vernacular architecture is fast becoming an essential way of going beyond a textual understanding of human beings and the structures they build to define themselves.”

Michael J. Walsh, China Review International (Vol. 14, No. 2, Fall 2007, University of Hawaii Press)

“Starting again with a modernist reference – to Le Corbusier’s famous pilotis – the author delves into the wider distribution, prehistory and history of the type in what is for this reviewer a fascinating exploration. He constantly keeps in mind his theme that ‘A type of dwelling, after all, is only materialized in its making and becomes legible in its inhabiting’. This is as true in its way of Le Corbusier’s pilotis as of the Dong pile house.”

“[The readers] will surely be richly rewarded by consideration of both the documentation of Dong architecture and the subtle and multi-faceted methodological approach to the study of vernacular architecture.”

Philip Denwood, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (2008, 71:385-386, Issue 2, Cambridge University Press)

“By providing a ‘thick description’ of the Dong’s physical and social spaces and comparing them with the dwellings of other ethnic groups in China and Southeast Asia, Ruan presents some refreshing and provocative arguments.”

Samuel Liang, The Journal of Asian Studies (67:01, 2008, Cambridge University Press)

“A fascinating book, illustrated by equally fascinating black and white photos and line drawings, mainly by Xing Ruan himself.”

Paul McGillick, Indesign (Vol. 30, 2007)

“A beautiful and interesting exploration of the architecture of southern China steeped as it is in its cultural context. Ideas of public space and the contribution that buildings make to civic interactions in these cultures give much food for thought.”

Virginia Kirton, Architect Victoria (Summer, 2007)

“[T]he author’s original arguments and insights, and the very attractive illustrations with which he accompanies them, should equally entertain and instruct readers curious about China’s fascinating building traditions.”

 César Guillén-Nuňez, Chinese Cross Currents (No.1 Vol.7, January 2010)

“Allegorical Architecture is a truly remarkable achievement in that it is both a detailed ethno-architectural study of a small minority group, the Dong, in China, and also a work of far broader scope, one that boldly and subtly addresses major issues in built form and life, such as the importance of architecture as conveyor of meaning in the absence of written texts, the impact of majority culture on minority culture and vice versa, change within tradition, tradition as change, and the implications of these findings and concepts for modern architecture and the modern world.”

Yi-Fu Tuan, J.K. Wright and Vilas Professor Emeritus of Geography, University of Wisconsin

“This may seem a specialized study of a minority group in South-East China – whose partially transcribed language that he learnt while studying their buildings – yet Xing Ruan has used this marvellous miniature to illuminate the complex relation between many other societies, their daily life, their rituals and ceremonies, and their buildings. But the book is much more. Xing Ruan extrapolates from his miniature a timely and very important reminder of how building and behaviour interweave and how essential some understanding of that complex and vital relation must be for the future of the built environment.”

Joseph Rykwert, Paul Philippe Cret Professor of Architecture Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania

“Xing Ruan unpacks the conceptual and historical complexities that are entangled within modern Chinese architectural and discusses the lack of attention it has received from the West.”

Architecture Australia (May/June 2006)

“[Xing Ruan writes] succinctly, but with sufficient passion and detail to enable the reader to appreciate the architecture in the book without losing sight of the broader picture, including the historical dimension. […] The critical tone of Xing Ruan’s introduction is continued in the project descriptions which are exemplary – extensive, personalised and critical. […]This is a fine book.”

Indesign (May 2006)

“The West has largely ignored Chinese architecture for almost a century. Xing Ruan’s New China Architecture shows why it now demands a discourse of its own.”

Business Times Singapore (21 July 2006)

“New China Architecture is the most professional one of all.”

The Nation (Thailand, 13 May 2008)

Reviews of New China Architecture have also appeared in: Silkroad, Hong Kong Dragon Air inflight magazine, June, 2006; Library Journal, Vol. 131 Issue 13, 2006; Space, Singapore, Issue 2, 2006; Bangkok Post (The Magazine), 11 May, 2006; Today, 2 Feb. 2006; Condé Nast Traveller, UK, Feb. 2006; The Peak, Malaysia, Vol. 17, No. 3, 2006; Lifestyle + Travel, Thailand, Vol. 12, March/April, 2006; Her World, Singapore, April 2006; Blueprint Asia, October 2007; Travel + Leisure Australia, November, 2007; interview with ABC Radio National Artworks Program, New Chinese Architecture, 22 April 2007

(http://www.abc.net.au/rn/artworks/stories/2007/1902807.htm)

“This book’s somewhat daunting title belies the fascinating essays contained in it – indeed, the subject itself is fascinating. […] But basically it is about whether you like or loathe where you are at, the role of the environment in nomos-building (that is, a sense of self or identity) or its role in alienating us. […] All up this is a very stimulating survey of how our environment shapes us who we are, how it effects our well-being, and indeed our creativity.”

 Indesign (Vol. 35, November 2008)

“From what is shown here BVN has worked hard at context and region. This sense of effort is bolstered in the two essays, which are direct and engagingly personal – particularly in Xing’s, where he makes a good argument for a sense of care in the firm’s buildings and response to circumstance.”

Conrad Hamann, Architectural Review Australia (Vol. 96, 2006)