Pro filing Ieoh Ming Pei:China’s Best-Known Architect

Dario Cantatore

飲譽世界的華裔建筑大師貝聿銘于2019年5月16日去世，享年102歲。被譽為“現代建筑最后的大師”的貝聿銘，代表建筑有美國華盛頓國家美術館東館、法國巴黎盧浮宮擴建工程等。他貫通中西、匯合古今，將現代主義、地域主義及未來主義的設計理念運用在不同的建筑作品上，為后世留下了一系列影響深遠的杰出建筑寶藏。

W hen the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)awarded its Royal Gold Medal to I. M. Pei in 2010,RIBA President Ruth Reed commented, “The Royal Gold Medal has been called, often erroneously,1. Royal Institute of British Architects: 英國皇家建筑師協(xié)會，1834年以“英國建筑師協(xié)會”的名稱成立，1837年取得英國皇家協(xié)會資格，宗旨是開展學術討論，提高建筑設計水平，保障建筑師的職業(yè)標準。該協(xié)會頒發(fā)的“皇家金獎”（Royal Gold Medal）為英國建筑界最高獎項；erroneously: 錯誤地。a lifetime achievement award. Seldom has it been so true as it is in the case of I. M. Pei. At 92 he is that rarity; an officially retired architect,though there is still work in the pipeline to be delivered, work that will crown the extraordinary achievements of six decades in which he has reinvented the housing,2. rarity: 罕見；crown: 圓滿地結束，使達到頂峰；reinvent: 徹底改造。gallery, and commercial building types. He is truly an inspiration3. inspiration: 啟發(fā)靈感的人（或事物）。for all architects.”

Born in 1917 in Guangzhou, China, I. M. Pei earned a B.A.in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT) in 1940 and a Master’s in architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1946, where he studied under German architect Walter Gropius, a pioneer of modernist architecture and founder of the Bauhaus school.4. Walter Gropius: 沃爾特·格羅皮烏斯，著名現代建筑師和建筑教育家，現代主義建筑學派的倡導人和奠基人之一；Bauhaus school: 包豪斯學院。1919年3月16日，魏瑪政府內務大臣弗里希正式任命格羅皮烏斯為魏瑪的撒克森大公藝術學院和撒克森大公藝術與工藝學校校長。3月20日，兩校合并為國立建筑設計學院，即“包豪斯”。從字面上講，“包豪斯”的意思是“造房子”，而作為一個專有名詞，它是指格羅皮烏斯1919年在魏瑪創(chuàng)立的德國古典現代主義中最為著名的一個藝術和設計流派，該派于1919—1933年在建筑、工藝設計方面的作品對世界的建筑藝術和工藝設計的發(fā)展產生了重大的影響。

Pei received many awards and recognitions throughout his career,including the Pritzker Prize in 1983, with a jury citation stating that he“has given this century some of its most beautiful interior spaces and exterior forms.”5. Pritzker Prize: 普里茨克獎，被譽為“建筑界的諾貝爾獎”；citation: 引文，引語。Pei used his $100,000 prize to establish a scholarship fund for Chinese students to study architecture in the United States,and then return to China to practice their profession.

Pei was also elected an Honorary Academician of the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1993 and received various honorary doctorates,6. Honorary Academician: 榮譽院士；Royal Academy of Arts: 英國皇家美術研究院，1768年成立，為培育繪畫、雕刻、建筑藝術方面的人才作出了巨大貢獻；doctorate: 博士學位。including from Harvard University, Columbia University,the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the American University of Paris and the University of Rome, among others.

Modernist Localism7. modernist: 現代主義的，現代派的；localism: 地域主義。

Although a member of the modernist generation, Pei has stood out for rejecting the implications of globalism inherent in the International Style of architecture that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s; a key movement of the formative decades of modernist architecture.8. stand out: 突出，引人注意；inherent: 本質的，內在的；formative: 形成的，發(fā)展的。The most common characteristics of the style, evident also in Pei’s work, are rectilinear forms; light, taut plane surfaces stripped of ornamentation and decoration; open interior spaces; and a visually weightless quality re flected by the cantilever construction.9. rectilinear: 直線的；taut: 簡潔的；ornamentation: 裝飾；cantilever: 懸臂。The favored materials are glass and steel, with a combination of less visible reinforced concrete.

Pei adapted to the style’s characteristics, but instead of creating globally homogenized structures, he advocated contextual development and variation in style,10. homogenized: 類同化的；contextual: 上下文的，視環(huán)境而定的。inspired by the locality and the purpose of a project. Pei toldArchDailythat “the important distinction is between a stylistic approach to the design, and an analytical approach giving the process of due consideration to time, place, and purpose.” The Pritzker Prize citation also wrote of the architect, “His concern has always been the surroundings in which his buildings rise.”

When he first returned to China in 1974, to design the Fragrant Hills Hotel11. Fragrant Hills Hotel: 香山飯店。位于北京西山風景區(qū)的香山公園內，建筑獨具特色，1984年曾獲美國建筑師協(xié)會榮譽獎。整座飯店憑借山勢，高低錯落，蜿蜒曲折，院落相間，內有十八景觀，山石、湖水、花草、樹木與白墻灰瓦式的主體建筑相映成趣，是“具有中國傳統(tǒng)建筑韻味的現代建筑”。, which was completed in 1982, Pei urged Chinese architects to take inspiration from their architectural traditions, rather than just emulating the West. The Hotel, located in a public park in the former Imperial Hunting Grounds outside Beijing, includes a central skylight space that preserves the existing ancient trees, with 325 rooms zigzagging out from it, in a balance of symmetry and asymmetry.12. skylight: 天窗；zigzag: 呈“之”字形，曲折前行；symmetry: 對稱；asymmetry: 不對稱。

Intimately merging building and gardens, interior and exterior,the hotel features individual rooms, in which a “window picture”framing the landscape opens onto the courtyard.13. merge: 結合，融入；courtyard: 庭院，天井。Advanced Western technology is combined with Chinese vernacular architecture,avoiding literal imitation: all built by local craftsmen with age-old materials and techniques,14. vernacular: 本土的，地方（特有）的；literal: 刻板的，缺乏想象力的；craftsman: 工匠，手藝人。the only imported element was the skylight. With this project, Pei contributed to forming a distinctly Chinese style of modern architecture that can be applied to a variety of buildings.

In the Luce Memorial Chapel (1963) in Taiwan, originally conceived as a wooden structure, the concrete beams, thicker at the base and tapering towards the tip of the tent-like design, form a latticework on the inside walls of the chapel.15. Luce Memorial Chapel: 路思義教堂；tapering: 尖端細的，上粗下細的；latticework: 斜條格構。Its architecture combines complex technology and advanced engineering with a modernist aesthetic expression through its irregular hexagonal base and curved planes, adapted to the humid and seismic conditions and the landscape of its location.16. aesthetic: 美學的；hexagonal: 六邊形的；seismic: 地震的。The structure evokes Le Corbusier’s Philips Pavilion at Expo ’58 in Brussels.17. evoke: 使人想起；Philips Pavilion:1958年布魯塞爾世界博覽會的飛利浦館，其造型奇特，恰似沖天的飛機，由著名建筑家勒·柯布西耶（Le Corbusier）設計。作為主辦國對1958年世博會主題“科學、文明和人性”的生動詮釋，它打動了無數參觀者的心。

In the 1990s, Pei worked on two projects in Japan including Miho Museum, a French limestone and glass roof structure completed in

Opened to the public in 2006, the Suzhou Museum20. Suzhou Museum: 蘇州博物館。建于1960年，館址太平天國忠王府為首批全國重點文物保護單位，是國內保存完整的一組太平天國歷史建筑物。1999年由貝聿銘負責設計蘇州博物館新館。新館于2006年10月6日建成并正式對外開放，是一座集現代化館舍建筑、古建筑與創(chuàng)新山水園林三位一體的綜合性博物館。was seen as a second chance by Pei, who toldThe New York Timesthat the Fragrant Hills Hotel was a disappointment, commenting, “I was saved by the trees.” Suzhou has a personal signi ficance for Pei, whose grandfather had a house there that he would visit during the summer,so accepting the Suzhou government project came naturally. The large white stucco museum is situated on hallowed ground adjoining a complex of historical structures and two gardens listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.21. stucco:（拉毛）粉飾灰泥；hallowed: 受崇敬的，神圣（化）的；adjoin: 緊挨，毗鄰。

Pei used grey and white, “Suzhou colors,” combined with a modern structure, commenting, “[In China] architecture and the garden are one. A Western building is a building, and a garden is a garden. They’re related in spirit. But they are one in China.”

MUDAM, Luxembourg, opened in 2006, serves as another example of Pei’s adherence to the adaptation of a design to its context.22. MUDAM: 讓大公現代藝術博物館（法語：Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean），簡稱“穆旦”，是盧森堡大公國的國家美術館，展出現代暨當代藝術作品；adherence: 堅持，遵循。With an asymmetrical V shape, a glass topped bell turret and another octagonal wing, the museum rises over the ruins of a fortress.23. turret: 角樓，塔樓；octagonal: 八邊形的；fortress: 堡壘，要塞。The new, formalist structure not only re flects the ancient,but blends with it; its monumental, geometrical volumes becoming an extension of the past.24. formalist: 形式主義的；monumental:巨大的，雄偉的；geometrical: 幾何圖形的。

A Futuristic25. futuristic: 未來主義的。 Vision

Pei’s most well-known work worldwide is probably his underground extension to the Louvre26. Louvre: 盧浮宮，位于法國巴黎市中心的塞納河北岸，位居世界四大博物館之首，始建于1204年，原是法國的王宮，居住過50位法國國王和王后，是法國文藝復興時期最珍貴的建筑物之一，以收藏豐富的古典繪畫和雕刻而聞名于世。盧浮宮博物館分新老兩部分，宮前的金字塔形玻璃入口系貝聿銘設計。in Paris, including the crystal pyramid. It is one of many that adopt a “futuristic” vision, brutally27. brutally: 冷酷無情地。breaking from tradition. Originally a point of controversy after its completion in 1989, the pyramid has been accepted over the years and is now hailed as one of his most iconic projects.28. controversy: 沖突，爭論；hail: 熱情贊揚，歡呼認可；iconic: 標志性的。Pei said,“Formally, [the pyramid] is the most compatible with the architecture of the Louvre…, it is also one of the most structurally stable of forms,which assures its transparency, as it is constructed of glass and steel,it signi fies a break with the architectural traditions of the past. It is a work of our time.”

The Bank of China Tower29. Bank of China Tower: 香港中銀大廈，是中國銀行在香港的總部。in Hong Kong, opened in 1990,was the tallest building in Asia until 1992 and is still one of the tallest in Hong Kong. Inspired by bamboo, a symbol of hope and revitalization30. revitalization: 新生，復活。in China, the trunk of the building emulates the growth patterns of the plant, reducing its mass towards the top. The composite structural system also resists high winds and eliminates the need for many internal vertical supports, a usual requirement in the typhoon-prone location.31. composite: 合成的，復合的；typhoonprone: 易遭受臺風影響的。

The JFK Presidential Library32. The JFK Presidential Library: 約翰·肯尼迪總統(tǒng)圖書館，于1964年為紀念已故美國總統(tǒng)約翰·肯尼迪而建造，并于1979年建成，坐落于波士頓近郊的哥倫比亞角。由于設計新穎、造型大膽、技術高超，該圖書館在美國建筑界引起轟動，被公認為美國建筑史上最佳杰作之一。美國建筑界宣布1979年是“貝聿銘年”，并授予他該年度的美國建筑師協(xié)會金獎。(1979) at Columbia Point peninsula in Boston has been said to exemplify an “architectural presence representing both memorial and monument.” With Pei’s play of space and light, and his iconic geometric structures,the library’s understated form comprises a singular and brilliant triangular tower protruding from an expanding base of geometric forms,33. understated: 樸素的，低調的；singular:獨特的；protrude: 突出，伸出。with a cube of glass and steel rising along with the tower.

The East Building of the National Gallery of Art (1978) in Washington D.C. was designed to re flect the trapezoidal form of the plot it stands on.34. The East Building of the National Gallery of Art: 華盛頓國家美術館東館，為美國國家美術館（即西館）的擴建部分。造型新穎獨特，平面為三角形，既與周圍環(huán)境和諧一致，又造成醒目的效果，內部設計豐富多彩，采光與展出效果極佳；trapezoidal: 梯形的。Pei started from two triangular sections,and used the isosceles as a unifying motif of the building,35. isosceles: 等腰三角形；unifying: 統(tǒng)一的，一致的；motif: 主題。in the marble floors, steel frame and glass skylights. Other triangular forms are repeated in a variety of elements, while the interior features softened, rounder lines. In the plaza36. plaza: 露天廣場。between the East and West Buildings are glass pyramids referencing the East Building’s ceiling. The pyramids subsequently became a trademark37. trademark: 標記，特征。of Pei’s museum designs, as seen in the Louvre.

I. M. Pei has contributed to elevating architecture to a unique and individual form of artistic expression, while creating a harmonious relationship with its surroundings and its social function.38. elevate: 抬高，提升；harmonious: 和諧的，協(xié)調的。Pei said in his acceptance speech for the 1983 Pritzker Prize, “I believe that architecture is a pragmatic39. pragmatic: 實用的，務實的。art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity.”