跨越类型,为城市的复杂性而设计

类型学方法的优点在于可以使城市设计工作能够进行快速反应并形成标准化成果,但是其缺点在于不能灵活应对复杂的现实情况,在实际应用中难以进行调控,并且消除了多样性和选择性.着重围绕大都市、大都会、碎化大都市以及巨构城市这四种城市模式进行论述,梳理第二次世界大战以来在全球范围内所呈现的城市空间发展线索,探讨其背后所隐含的社会经济过程,以及相应的城市设计方法的发展.认为,城市设计师需要认识到城市空间发展的拼贴性特征,认识到它的复杂性与多样性,在实践中有必要超越类型学固性思维的束缚.城市设计需要包容城市环境中的混沌性与不稳定性,理解城市问题的非线性特征,从而有能力去面对多样性与复杂性,跨越类型以应对新形势的挑战.

Transcending Type: Design for Urban Complexity

Typology offers urban designers the advantage of a speedy response and standardized products,but its disadvantages are its inflexibility,lack of user control,and the elimination of variety and choice.By organizing around four urban models,namely the metropolis,the megalopolis,the fragmented metropolis and the megacity,this paper tries to identify the evolving threads of urban development and urban design since the Second World War,and reflect on the corresponding socio-economic context.This paper argues that,it is very necessary for urban designers to include chaotic variables and value complex urban ecologies,to work in diverse,unstable situations and respond in indirect and non-linear ways to urban problems.Urban designers need to recognize the patchwork nature of the city,its hybridity and diversity,and deforming types to meet new situations when required.