中國的雙子塔 杭州高樓看起來似曾相識
Hangzhou, a city in eastern China with apopulation of 9 million, is best known for its tourist-magnet WestLake area and historic buildings – even if local authorities haveallowed the latter to be convertedinto McDonald’s and Starbucks branches.
擁有900萬人口的中國東部城市杭州以西湖和歷史建築聞名，儘管當局允許後者變成麥當勞和星巴克店面。
Despite the pace of recent developments –partly due to Hangzhou becoming a business hub for technology companies – thecity has largely left the machotower-building to its neighbour Shanghai, located 180km northeast, andChina’s other expanding megacities.
儘管最近的發展——部分歸因於杭州成爲了科技公司集結的商業中心——在高樓建築方面實在不及上海和中國其他正在擴張的大城市。
There is, however, another reason whyartist’s impressions of a major new Hangzhou development, set to beginconstruction next year, have caused a stir. The Zhejiang Gate Towers, designedby Australian-Germanfirm Lava, bear a striking resemblance to New York’s twintowers. Their shape is so similar to the old oneand two World Trade Center buildings that, on first glance, it’s hard to quellsuspicions that this yet another case ofChina’sobsession with copycat architecture. Hangzhou already has its ownversion of the Eiffel Tower, while in Tianjin, north-east China, a versionof Manhattan is being launched.
然而杭州最近的一個新的高樓項目引發了騷動，當然這另有原因，預計明年動工。這兩棟浙江門塔由澳洲-德國的Lava公司設計，看起來像極了紐約的雙子塔。乍看之下，像極了紐約世貿大廈，所以很難一下子就讓人平息這是中國對山寨建築的迷戀的懷疑。杭州已經擁有了自己的埃菲爾鐵塔，也天津版本的曼哈頓也即將啓動。
But talking to the Guardian from his Berlinoffice, Lava’s co-founder Tobias Wallisser laughs off the twin towerscomparison. “Well, I did live in New York when I studied there, and of coursethe World Trade Center was an iconic structure,” he says, adding that a WorldTrade Center copy was never part of Lava’s Hangzhou design brief orspecifically mentioned as a marker point.
但是在柏林辦公室接受衛報採訪時該公司的聯合創辦人Tobias Wallisser對這種比較一笑置之。“好吧，我確實在紐約生活過，當時在那裏學習，當然世貿大樓是個標誌性的建築，”他說在Lava此次的杭州大樓設計中根本沒有涉及世貿大樓。
“Put any two buildings together and theywill probably resemble the World Trade Center,” Wallisser adds. “But there area few famous twin structures we have compared our new one to recently, such asPetronas Towers [in Kuala Lumpur]. The client wanted to have a simple,commercially viable building with a simple silhouette.”
“將任何兩棟建築放在一起看起來都會像世貿大樓，”他說。“但是最近我們將我們的建築和一些著名的雙子結構進行了比較，比如吉隆坡的雙子星塔。客戶想要一個簡單輪廓的具有商業可行性的建築而已。”
Zhejiang Gate Towers will stand at 280 metres, making them the tallest buildings in Hangzhou, and as is the modern trend, will feature a mixture of retail, residential and office space. According to Wallisser, the original design had been more complicated than a basic twin tower structure, but was simplified to lower costs.
浙江門塔將高達280米，將成爲杭州最高樓，集零售，住房和辦公於一身。據Wallisser，原來的設計要比雙子塔複雜，但是爲了降低成本被簡單化了。
Rather than New York’s famous twin towers, one of the main design ideas for the new Hangzhou structure was to have it reflect the Chinese character for the word “gate”: 門
比起紐約著名的雙子塔結構，杭州這個新大樓的設計理念要反映出中國的漢字：門。
