剑桥雅思14Test2Passage2阅读原文翻译 Back to the future of skyscraper design
剑桥雅思14 Test2 Passage2阅读原文翻译
A部分
The Recovery of Natural Environments in Architecture by Professor Alan Short is the culmination of 30 years of research and award-winning green building design by Short and colleagues in Architecture, Engineering, Applied Maths and Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge.
Alan Short教授所着的《自然环境在建筑中的复苏》是三十年研究的集大成之作，也是Short及其剑桥大学建筑学、工程学、应用数学和地球科学领域内的同事们共同完成的荣获大奖的环保建筑设计。
‘The crisis in building design is already here,’ said Short. ‘Policy makers think you can solve energy and building problems with gadgets. You can’t. As global temperatures continue to rise, we are going to continue to squander more and more energy on keeping our buildings mechanically cool until we have run out of capacity.’
“建筑设计中的危机已经显现， ” Short这样说。“政策制定者们以为用小零件小设备就能解决能源和建筑问题。其实并不能。随着全球温度持续上升，我们将继续用机械方法挥霍越来越多的能量， 使建筑物内保持凉爽，直到我们再也无能为力为止。
B部分
Short is calling for a sweeping reinvention of how skyscrapers and major public buildings are designed – to end the reliance on sealed buildings which exist solely via the life support’ system of vast air conditioning units.
Short正在呼吁对摩天大楼和大型公共建筑的设计方式进行一场彻底的重塑 – 来结束对封闭式建筑的依赖，它们的存在完全是依靠大型空调设备来提供“生命支持”的。
Instead, he shows it is entirely possible to accommodate natural ventilation and cooling in large buildings by looking into the past, before the widespread introduction of air conditioning systems, which were ‘relentlessly and aggressively marketed’ by their inventors.
与之相反，他证明了：完全有可能在大型建筑中容纳天然的通风和冷却系统，办法就是回溯到过去那个还没有大规模引人空调系统的时代，这些空调系统就是其发明者所“毫不留情、大刀阔斧地”大肆进行宣传推广的。
C部分
Short points out that to make most contemporary buildings habitable, they have to be sealed and air conditioned. The energy use and carbon emissions this generates is spectacular and largely unnecessary. Buildings in the West account for 40-50% of electricity usage, generating substantial carbon emissions, and the rest of the world is catching up at a frightening rate. Short regards glass, steel and air-conditioned skyscrapers as symbols of status, rather than practical ways of meeting our requirements.
Short指出：要让大多数当代建筑里可以住人，它们必须封闭起来、进行空气调控。这种做法所造成的能源消耗和碳排放是极为壮观的，在很大程度上并没有必要。西方建筑物要占用电量的40—50%，产生了巨量的碳排放，而世界上的其他地方正以一种令人惊恐的速度追赶上来。Short认为，由玻璃，钢铁和空调组成的摩天大楼是社会地位的象征，而不是满足我们需要的实用方式。
D部分
Short’s book highlights a developing and sophisticated art and science of ventilating buildings through the 19th and earlier-20th centuries, including the design of ingeniously ventilated hospitals. Of particular interest were those built to the designs of John Shaw Billings, including the first Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US city of Baltimore (1873-1889).
Short的书重点阐述了在19世纪和20世纪初期这个阶段里，为建筑物通风的艺术与科学一直在发展进步、日趋复杂完善，这其中包括通风系统设计精妙的医院。格外引人注目的是那些依照John Shaw Billings的设计搭建而成的建筑，包括位于美国巴尔的摩市的第一家约翰霍普金斯医院（1873—1889）。
‘We spent three years digitally modelling Billings’ final designs,’ says Short. ‘We put pathogens* in the airstreams, modelled for someone with tuberculosis (TB) coughing in the wards and we found the ventilation systems in the room would have kept other patients safe from harm.
“我们花了三年的时间用数字化模拟修建了Billins最后的那些设计方案，” Short这样说。“我们在气流中放入了病原体，以此模仿病房中正在咳嗽的肺结核病患，结果我们发现：房间里的通风系统能保护其他病人不受侵害。”
E部分
‘We discovered that 19th-century hospital wards could generate up to 24 air changes an hour – that’s similar to the performance of a modern-day, computer-controlled operating theatre. We believe you could build wards based on these principles now.
“我们发现19世纪的医院病房在1小时内能够制造多达24次的空气交换 – 类似于一家现代化的、由电脑中控的剧院可达成的效果。我们相信你现在完全可以基于这些原理来建造病房。
Single rooms are not appropriate for all patients. Communal wards appropriate for certain patients – older people with dementia, for example – would work just as well in today’s hospitals, at a fraction of the energy cost.’
单人间并非适合于所有的病人。对某些病患比较合适的公共病房 – 例如患痴呆的较年长病人 – 在今天的医院里也同样适用，所消耗的能量却只有一丁点儿。”
Professor Short contends the mindset and skill-sets behind these designs have been completely lost, lamenting the disappearance of expertly designed theatres, opera houses, and other buildings where up to half the volume of the building was given over to ensuring everyone got fresh air.
Short 教授感到这些设计背后的思维理念和精巧技艺已经完全丢失了，他痛惜那些消失了的、经由专家精心设计建造的剧院、歌剧院和其他同类建筑，这些建筑中多达一半的空间都用于确保每个人都能获得新鲜空气。
F部分
Much of the ingenuity present in 19th-century hospital and building design was driven by a panicked public clamouring for buildings that could protect against what was thought to be the lethal threat of miasmas – toxic air that spread disease. Miasmas were feared as the principal agents of disease and epidemics for centuries, and were used to explain the spread of infection from the Middle Ages right through to the cholera outbreaks in London and Paris during the 1850s. Foul air, rather than germs, was believed to be the main driver of ‘hospital fever’, leading to disease and frequent death. The prosperous steered clear of hospitals.
存在于19世纪的医院和其他建筑中的那种精巧设计在很大程度上是被恐慌的公众所催生的，这些人大声疾呼，要求建筑物能给他们提供保护，使自己不受当时被认为是致命威胁的瘴气 – 会传播疾病的有毒气体 – 所侵袭。几个世纪以来，瘴气一直被看作疾病和传染病的主要致病源而深受畏俱，从中世纪以来直到19世纪50年代爆发在伦敦和巴黎的大霍乱，人们都用瘴气来解释感染的传播原因。污秽的空气，而非病菌，被认为是“医院热病”的主要元凶，引发了疾病与频繁的死亡。富人都对医院唯恐避之不及。
While miasma theory has been long since disproved, Short has for the last 30 years advocated a return to some of the building design principles produced in its wake.
虽然瘴气理论很久以前就被证明了是错的，但Short在过去三十年间一直在支持重拾一些建筑设计原理，而这些原理正是在这一错误理论的催生下才发展起来的。
G部分
Today, huge amounts of a building’s space and construction cost are given over to air conditioning. ‘But I have designed and built a series of buildings over the past three decades which have tried to reinvent some of these ideas and then measure what happens.
今天，一栋建筑的大量空间和建造费用都奉献给了空调系统。“但是我在过去三十年间设计和主持建成了一系列楼宇，尝试重新用上我所说的这些理念，然后测试了接下来的效果”。
‘To go forward into our new low-energy, low-carbon future, we would be well advised to look back at design before our high-energy, high-carbon present appeared. What is surprising is what a rich legacy we have abandoned.’
“要向前去到我们全新的低能源、低碳排的未来，一个非常明智的做法就是回首过去，向我们高能源、 高碳排的当下出现之前的那个时代去学习。令人惊异的是我们抛弃了一份多么丰厚的遗产”。
H部分
Successful examples of Short’s approach include the Queen’s Building at De Montfort University in Leicester. Containing as many as 2,000 staff and students, the entire building is naturally ventilated, passively cooled and naturally lit, including the two largest auditoria, each seating more than 150 people. The award-winning building uses a fraction of the electricity of comparable buildings in the UK.
Short所倡导的方法的成功案例之一是位于莱斯特的德蒙特福德大学的女王大楼。 楼内能容纳2000名员工和学生，整栋建筑都依靠自然通风、非人工手段制冷和天然照明，其中两座分别能坐下150多人的最大的礼堂也不例外。这座曾经获奖的建筑所使用的电量与英国其他同类建筑的用电量相比只是九牛一毛。
Short contends that glass skyscrapers in London and around the world will become a liability over the next 20 or 30 years if climate modelling predictions and energy price rises come to pass as expected.
Short认为，如果气候模型预测的情况和能源价格上涨真的如人们所预期的那样到来了的话，那么在接下来的二十或三十年间，伦敦乃至全球的玻璃摩天高楼都将会成为沉重的累赘。
I部分
He is convinced that sufficiently cooled skyscrapers using the natural environment can be produced in almost any climate. He and his team have worked on hybrid buildings in the harsh climates of Beijing and Chicago – built with natural ventilation assisted by back-up air conditioning – which, surprisingly perhaps, can be switched off more than half the time on milder days and during the spring and autumn.
他坚信：利用自然环境而进行充足制冷的高楼大厦在几乎任何气候里都是可以建成并运转的。他和他的团队在北京和芝加哥的严酷气候里在各种各样的建筑上都进行过试验 – 这些建筑里设立了天然通风系统，同时辅以备用空调设备 – 也许会令人大吃一惊的是，在比较温和的日子里以及在春秋季节，这些空调有一半以上的时间都可以关闭不用。
Short looks at how we might reimagine the cities, offices and homes of the future. Maybe it’s time we changed our outlook.
Short所着眼的是我们也许可以重新设计未来的城市、办公室和家庭。也许是时候改变我们的看法了。
