圖: 跟連儂牆一樣的建築物料 – 清水混凝土所建的樓梯，見於兵庫県立美術館 (建築師安藤忠雄設計, 2001竣工, wiki commons)
女孩在清水混凝土牆壁上以粉筆畫上的，並不是甚麼激烈的標語或革命口號，而只是小花兩三朵。警察不合比例的激烈反應的激烈反應，證明了這個行動並非單純的只為應對非法塗鴉的執法，更暴露了現時政府及警方本身的敏感和怯弱。
廣大的一幅牆容不下兩三朵小花，其中一個原因，必然因為政府總部外牆的乾淨，代表了權力本身的面子，更加是政府的管治的一張成績表。法西斯政權在政府建築上愛用白色的牆壁，因為白色能夠表達一種中立性和完美無瑕的感覺。當然這個所謂中立是一個虛構的丶偽造的態度。白色的牆壁亦代表了一種空白，一種和諧共融而沒有反對聲音的空白。因此女孩無論在牆壁上畫上甚麼，都會因為破壞了空白牆壁的完美，而被當作挑戰政府重整社會秩序有功而且令社會重現和諧的表述。
女孩畫花的牆壁，是一道清水混土的牆壁。在現代主義建築之中，清水混凝土一直是建築師酷愛的材料。其中一個帶起這個潮流的是活躍於六丶七十年代的美國建築師路易·簡 (Louis Kahn)。他在建築作品中不喜歡修飾材料本身的質感和外貎。例如，在混凝土的灌槳過程中，牆壁兩面的模板需要靠幾條鐵枝從中間連接起來。混凝土牆壁完成以後，鐵枝原來的位置會剩下一個個小洞。路易·簡選擇留下這些小洞去展示物料的真實狀態。同期的日本的代謝派(Metabolism)建築師如丹下健三丶菊竹清訓等都偏愛同一個技巧。他們亦經常將此技巧用於政府機關的公共建築之中，給予這些機關實事求是，不做作不浮誇的感覺。於戰後正在復甦的英國和日本社會中，這正正符合大眾的主旋律。
公共建築從來都是在服務人民，而不是保護權力。現代主義建築師在建築之中所建立是一種忠實和謙厚的表現，而並非神聖而不可侵犯的牆壁。建築設計給牆壁預設了一種乾淨利落的初始狀態，卻沒有要求建築物必然服從當權者對面子的追求。粉筆落下的一瞬間，牆壁只會服從地照單全收。建築從來不能夠保護不得人心的政權，更甚者，它會是一道照妖鏡，隨時將社會的予盾狠狠地揭露出來。當權者若果仍然自欺欺人，最終受罪的恐怕只是自己。
Reblogged this on NewsHongKong.
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Why don’t you try drawing flowers on the walls of the Hyogo Prefectural Art Museum and see what happens!
The reason why Ando uses fair-faced concrete as his primary building material is very different from the old Brutalist masters.
Reducing the works of Kahn, Tange and Kikutake to merely their materiality is a very superficial interpretation of their architecture. In any case, much of the representative works of the Metabolism movement were not concrete but steel to facilitate the “plug-in" concept, including the famous Nakagin Capsule Tower.
During the proliferation of old Brutalist architecture, private, public, commercial, civic, etc, buildings alike were completed with fair-faced concrete. It is ridiculous to believe that architects working on banks, offices, hotels and other commercial buildings were also trying to “給予這些機關實事求是，不做作不浮誇的感覺。"
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thanks for your comment Joe. I was struggling with the brutalist and Ando’s use of concrete for may be a minute as well. But I think it will be ignorant to deny that Ando, Tange, as well as the other metabolism architects were well-informed and possibly resonant with the idea that the concrete delivers cleanliness and modesty. These were the essence of the post-war modernism. In fact if you look in the difference between Le Corbusier’s pre-WWII and post-WWII works, you will see how concrete were used to substitute white plaster walls as the dominating material. That is the period when his works align with the Brutalist, that was the architectural style for the welfare state, ie. the capitalist version of communism. The modest appearance of the brutalist building were a key factor for the success of the welfare state because the modesty were easily assimilated by the worker class. In my opinion I would even argue that LC, who was a socialist, used that as an example to show the world how his architecture could promote a better living environment without spend money on expensive material (which is also another dogma in Modernism).
Tange worked closely with LC and personally visited LC’s works. It is undeniable that he was influenced by LC in the post-war period. Sure you could say Metabolism is in fact revolve around idea of expandability and ‘growth’ of the mega-structure, but one should keep in mind that Metabolism is also affected by the Marxist idea about the society and its built environment for the working class. So although the structure itself is massive and explicit, the building were never meant to be extravagance. These quality were in-time in Japan during the post-war period when the economy and the society were recovering. That is one of the reason why Tange receive commissions to design headquarters for private companies because they like the fact that the style aligns with the sentiment of the recovering society, especially in the Kansai area that was at the time less developed than the Kanto area. The concrete as a modest material were part of the quality of the architecture. The whole narrative were constructed around the choice of unfurnished concrete as a material to deliver its modesty in a subtle way. This could be applied to almost every post-war Modernism architecture, including but not limited to the works of Kahn, Tange, and Kikutake. Failure to recognize the discourse on fair-face concrete will simply lead to a total mis-understanding of these works.
p.s. Nakagin Capsule Tower were constructed in concrete, although one could argue that the structure itself imitate the tectonics of steel construction.
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Enjoyed the bits on Corb and Tange. Ando’s exclusive use of fair-faced concrete has more to do with his views on the arch-nature-man relationship than the materiality (of cleaniness / modesty) per se, and definitely has nothing to do with its political message. Btw, it takes less than a minute to double check the construction of the capsules. Habitat could be the better reference, though it ended up becoming a high-end residence.
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