大家之言

Interview by Madeline, photo by Lee E'jun, Translation by Leo

大家之言

Interview by Madeline, photo by Lee E'jun, Translation by Leo

In October, the Palace Museum decided to remove all steel structures and temporary structures (14,800 sqm) within the complex as part of its grand “Safety Palace” project initiated in 2013. It means that no other architecture except the ancient buildings will have a place within the walls of the Forbidden City. This also ref l ects the central government’s strong will to protect the intactness of the former imperial palace.

今年10月，故宫博物院决定开启“平安故宫”工程，预计将院内原有共计14800平方米的彩钢房建筑和临时建筑全部拆除。

这不仅意味着紫禁城内将只有古代建筑，同时也代表了国家开始重视古建保护的决心。

Dai Zhijian戴志坚

At present, a major obstacle to the protection of ancient architecture is the practices of local tourism authorities, who are in charge of the ancient buildings. They seem to be more interested in developing and managing them as cash cows. A second problem lies in the lack of expertise and skills of some ancient building conservation teams and in the existing defective bidding and procurement processes, which have given rise to corruption.

Local governments should organize professional conservation teams to focus on preserving the rural character, integrity and originality of ancient buildings without overdoing the conservation work. Take Fujian Tulou (or earthen houses) as an example. Instead of modelling after an urban garden and building pavilions and other structures near them, efforts should be made to make them stay the way they are in a rural setting. The restoration of earthen houses, as with other ancient buildings, should be based on original materials, original craftsmanship and original practices.

I strongly urge that the following should be done∶ a return to the traditional way of making bricks in kilns; and a strengthening of the training of craftsmen to revive traditional craftsmanship on the edge of extinction such as wood, brick and stone carving, ash sculpture, clay sculpture and ceramic inlaying.

目前古建筑保护的一大障碍是地方政府将古建筑下放给旅游局，利用古建筑来开发景区赚钱。其次，不少古建筑维修队伍鱼龙混杂，现有招投标机制有缺陷，产生了腐败现象，存在买标、卖标现象。

各个地方政府应该组成专业的维修队伍，注重保护土楼建筑维修的乡土性、田园性、原真性，不做过分的维修。

举福建土楼为例，其周边不该模仿城市园林并修建亭台楼阁，而应该保持原本农村的样子。土楼乃至古建筑维修，都应讲究“三原”：原材料、原工艺、原做法。

我强烈呼吁：恢复原生态的砖瓦窑，生产合格的传统建筑产品；加强工匠队伍的培训，抢救面临消失的传统工艺，如三雕（木雕、砖雕、石雕），三塑（灰塑、泥塑、嵌瓷）等。

Liu Su柳肃Professor & doctoral supervisor at Hunan University School of Architecture湖南大学建筑学院教授、博士生导师

I agree with the idea behind the project. Though the temporary buildings to be removed are not next to any palace or hall, their very existence may spoil the view of the ancient complex. Architecture in every part of the complex should remain purely classical in style.

As China's economy continues to grow and our standard of living keeps improving, Chinese people's awareness of ancient building protection as well as our ability to protect heritage will only increase over time. At the same time, people's attitude towards traditional culture will also change. They will increasingly embrace it. More people will keep an eye on ancient building conservation work by making their voices heard via media or the internet.

我赞同“平安故宫”计划。虽然要拆除的临时建筑都不在主要殿堂旁边，但是还是会影响古建筑风貌。故宫是一个整体，它的每个角落都应该是古典建筑的形式。

在未来，我国会逐渐开始加深对古建保护的意识。因为当国家经济发展到一定程度，我们保护文物的能力也逐渐增强。同时，民众的道德观念也开始改变，对传统文化开始重视。越来越多人开始协助监督古建筑保护，并通过网络和媒体传达呼声。

Shan Jixiang

单霁翔

Director of the Palace Museum

故宫博物院院长

“Cultural heritage” is a relatively new term in China as the country is only decades into cultural heritage protection. The history of architectural heritage conservation is even shorter. Mr. Liang Sicheng, the father of modern Chinese architecture, began the study of heritage buildings in the 1930s, but was not able to initiate protection work due to various limits. Even if protection work did begin years later, they were limited to restoration. In recent years, the central government has increased funding for cultural heritage protection and related technology development. However, an abundance of funds should never mean that they could be squandered or that projects should be rushed out. Every conservation worker in the cultural heritage sector should have a down-to-earth attitude towards each and every cultural heritage item or site, and truly embrace the idea of “respecting history and science”. (From web)

“文物”一词在中国尚属年轻，文物保护开始得较晚，文物建筑的保护刚刚开始了几十年。梁思成先生上世纪30年代就开始了文物建筑的研究，但限于各种条件，保护工作尚未展开，历史上的文物建筑仅是修缮工程，还未上升到文化工程，给保护工作留下不少遗憾。近年来，国家加大了对文物保护工作资金和技术上的投入，但充盈的“钱袋”换来的不应是保护项目中的浮夸与粗制滥造。去除浮躁，以沉稳之心面对每一件文物，是我们每一个文保工作者所应具有的工作态度；应让“尊重历史、崇尚科学”的保护理念深入到每一个文保工作者心中。（摘自网络）