房地產:紐約颳起荷蘭設計風

On Sept. 24, in an avant-garde condo tower that butts up against the High Line, an unusual gallery called Chamber will open in Chelsea. Like a 17th-century cabinet of curiosities, it will be filled with the eclectic treasures of intrepid explorers.

9月24日，在切爾西(Chelsea)，一座名爲Chamber的獨特畫廊將在一棟毗鄰高線(High Line)的前衛共管公寓樓內開業。和17世紀的珍奇百寶屋(Cabinet of Curiosities)一樣，畫廊內將擺滿各種珍寶，都是從大膽無畏的探索者那裏蒐羅來的。

Chamber will sell objects like a wall lamp mounted with a pair of nerdy black spectacles and a sound-diffusing cabinet that looks like a chaotic pile of raw wood. (The piece has functional drawers, but how many and where they are takes some guessing.) There will even be a limited-edition perfume distilled exclusively for the gallery, its scent "based on the experience of a Louis Kahn structure." (That's the news release talking.)

Chamber畫廊將銷售一系列物品，比如一盞裝在一副另類黑框眼鏡上的壁燈；一臺聲學擴散器，看起來就像一堆雜亂無章的原木（這臺機器配備了具有實用功能的抽屜，但是這些抽屜在哪裏、具體有多少個，還有待猜測）；甚至還將有一款專爲Chamber畫廊蒸餾製成的限量版香水，其香味“基礎是路易·卡恩(Louis Kahn)的一座建築給人的審美體驗。”（新聞發佈會上是這麼說的。）

Chamber's contents may seem offbeat, but they will not be random. They have been selected by Studio Job, an atelier based in Belgium and the Netherlands that is itself sprinkled with the dust of the Wunderkammer. Founded in 2000 by Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel, a married couple, Studio Job has produced furniture dense with Bavarian-folk-themed marquetry, a lamp shaped like a construction crane and bronze cat sculptures with eyes that literally glow. For Chamber, it acquired, designed or collaborated with other artists in the production of 100 objects. These will be sold at the gallery over the next two years. After that, a new curator will step in with a different collection.

Chamber的展品或許看似奇異，但它們並不是隨意挑選出來的。負責遴選展品的是一家位於比利時和荷蘭的工作室Studio Job，本身就有着珍奇百寶屋的風格。該工作室創立於2000年，創始人是一對已婚夫婦——喬布·斯密茨(Job Smeets)和妮科·塔娜傑(Nynke Tynagel)。Studio Job的作品包括：飾有巴伐利亞民俗風情鑲嵌細工的傢俱、一臺形似建築起重機的電燈和幾座眼睛能發光的青銅貓雕像。爲了Chamber，該工作室購置、設計並與其它藝術家合作製作了100件物品，將於未來兩年裏在畫廊銷售。兩年之後，新的畫廊館長將走馬上任，帶來新一批的藏品。

Not unexpectedly, given Studio Job's Low Countries provenance, many of the designers contributing to Chamber are Dutch. Some, like Mr. Smeets, were members of Droog, the influential Dutch collaborative known for high-concept objects. Gijs Bakker, for instance, a jewelry designer who founded Droog in 1993 with Renny Ramakers, a writer, has produced a stippled titanium brooch for the gallery that represents the moon as it was first photographed in 1968 from outer space.

毫無懸念的是，考慮到Studio Job的出身於荷蘭的背景，許多爲Chamber貢獻展品的設計師也是荷蘭人。有些人，比如斯密茨，是荷蘭的業界合作組織楚格設計(Droog)的成員。楚格設計擁有重大的影響力，以高度概念化的作品著稱。舉個例子，珠寶設計師海斯·巴克(Gijs Bakker)和撰稿人芮妮·瑞梅格(Renny Ramakers)於1993年創立楚格設計時，爲Chamber畫廊製作了一枚點刻的鈦胸針，體現了1968年人類首次從外太空拍下的月球的樣子。

Others whose work will be on display are graduates of the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands, which remains a training ground for designers in the Droog mold. (Mr. Smeets and Ms. Tynagel met there as students.)

其它展品的作者，都是荷蘭埃因霍芬設計學院(Design Academy Eindhoven)的畢業生。這家學院始終爲楚格設計這片沃土源源不斷地輸送着設計師（斯密茨和瑞梅格就是在那裏上學的時候認識的）。

Maarten Baas, for example, made a sensation with his 2002 Eindhoven thesis project: traditional furniture pieces blackened with a blowtorch. He has returned to his Smoke series many times since. For Chamber, he crisped a workbench produced by Manufactum, a German company that is a favorite of the gallery's 26-year-old Argentine founder, Juan Garcia Mosqueda.

舉個例子，馬騰·巴斯(Maarten Baas)就曾憑藉其2002年在埃因霍芬設計學院的畢業作品引起轟動。該系列的作品定名爲“煙”(Smoke)，是幾件用噴燈燒黑的傳統傢俱。自此以後，他經常在自己的作品中如法炮製。他爲Chamber烘烤了一張Manufactum生產的工作臺。Manufactum是Studio Job畫廊26歲的阿根廷創始人胡安·加西亞·莫斯奎達(Juan Garcia Mosqueda)所鍾愛的一家德國設計公司。

It has been a while since so many thought-provoking Netherlandish designs congregated in a single New York venue. In the mid-1990s, at the SoHo gallery Moss, you could catch your first glimpse of work by Hella Jongerius, Marcel Wanders and Jurgen Bey, Droog designers who grew into superstars. In 1995, the curator Paola Antonelli installed pieces by Tejo Remy, Joep van Lieshout and other contemporary Dutch artists in the Museum of Modern Art's cafe. (Mr. Garcia Mosqueda later did internships at Moss and with Ms. Antonelli.)

如此衆多啓迪人心的荷蘭設計作品在紐約的同一個場所亮相，這樣的盛況已經有一段時間沒出現過了。20世紀90年代中期，在蘇豪區的Moss畫廊，你一眼就能看到海拉·榮格里斯(Hella Jongerius)、馬塞爾·萬德斯(Marcel Wanders)和于爾根·貝(Jurgen Bey)的作品，這些人都是從楚格設計走出來的超級明星。1995年，現代藝術博物館(Museum of Modern Art)館長保拉·安特那利(Paola Antonelli)在博物館的咖啡廳裏擺設了提歐·雷米(Tejo Remy)、瓊普·凡·萊斯豪特(Joep van Lieshout)等當代荷蘭藝術家的作品。

In 2009, Droog itself created a SoHo shop. It lasted less than two years, a casualty of an awkward duplex space and a global economic crisis. Mr. Bakker and Ms. Ramakers ended their partnership soon after it opened.

2009年，楚格設計在蘇豪區開了一家自己的商店，經營不到兩年時間，最終變成了一處古怪的複式空間，和全球經濟危機的犧牲品。巴克和瑞梅格在商店開張後不久就結束了合夥關係。

But Chamber is only one token of a new Dutch design invasion here. Three hundred and fifty years after the Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, several of their more creative descendants are reclaiming this turf.

不過，Chamber並非荷蘭設計界向紐約進軍的唯一一座橋頭堡。350年前，荷蘭人將新阿姆斯特丹(New Amsterdam)割讓給了英國；如今，他們有幾個富有創造力的後裔正在奪回這處陣地。

In March, the first American branch of the Dutch hotel chain CitizenM opened in Times Square. Like its European siblings, it has tiny guest rooms, streamlined services and vibrant public spaces exploding with color. The design template is by Concrete, an architecture and branding company based in Amsterdam that is now working on a three-tower residential project on the New Jersey waterfront as well as affordable housing on Staten Island.

3月，荷蘭連鎖酒店CitizenM在時代廣場開設了其在美國的第一家分店。跟歐洲的店面一樣，這家店有着較小的客房、高效的服務和色彩耀眼、充滿活力的公共空間。設計方案出自總部設在阿姆斯特丹的一家建築與品牌公司Concrete之手。他們目前正在新澤西碼頭開展一個包含三座大樓的住宅項目，同時在斯塔騰島(Staten Island)建造保障性住房。

This month, finishing touches are being put on Huys, an office building at Park Avenue and 28th Street that has been converted into a 58-unit luxury condo. Huys (which is pronounced, and means, “house") is an all-Dutch affair: The developer is Kroonenberg Groep, based in Amsterdam, and the designer is Piet Boon, who practices a lush, restrained international style. Karin Meyn, Mr. Boon's wife, styled the cream-colored décor and selected the art, much of it by her compatriots. Piet Oudolf, the landscape designer probably best known to New Yorkers for planting feathery perennials on the High Line, is in charge of the rooftop garden. And at press time, workers were preparing to hoist Frederik Molenschot's biomorphic cast-bronze chandelier in the lobby. (Mr. Molenschot, an Amsterdam artist, also supplied all of the room numbers, which are solid brass.)

本月（9月——譯註），Huys大樓正在做最後的修整。這座大樓位於公園大道(Park Avenue)和第28街，以前是座辦公樓，目前已被改建成了包含58個單元的奢華共管公寓樓。Huys（其發音和意思都同"house"一樣）從裏到外都出自荷蘭人的手筆：開發商是來自阿姆斯特丹的Kroonenberg Groep，設計師皮特·布恩(Piet Boon)採用了講究而不浮華的國際風格。布恩的妻子卡琳·梅恩(Karin Meyn)設計了奶油色的裝潢，並甄選了藝術裝飾品，其中大多爲荷蘭人的作品。園林設計師皮特·奧多夫(Piet Oudolf)負責屋頂花園，或許他最爲紐約人所熟知的地方，就是爲高線公園種植了羽狀多年生植物。在本文發稿時，工人們正準備將弗雷德裏克·莫倫紹特(Frederik Molenschot)的鑄銅生物形態枝形吊燈懸掛在大廳裏（阿姆斯特丹藝術家莫倫紹特還製作了所有實心黃銅製的房間號碼）。

With Huys getting ready to open in October, Mr. Boon has moved on — to Brooklyn. He designed Oosten (Dutch for "east"), a condominium to be built on the two-acre site of a former brewery at 429 Kent Avenue in South Williamsburg. Scheduled for completion in 2016, the complex, the first ground-up American project of the Chinese XIN Development Group International, will have 216 units, including 15 townhouses, and a 55-foot-long swimming pool.

Huys已準備好於10月開放。因此，布恩已經開始轉戰布魯克林。他設計了名爲“東河灣”（Oosten，荷蘭語，意爲“東方”）的共管公寓樓，它將建在南威廉斯堡肯特大道(Kent Avenue)429號的一處佔地2英畝（約合0.81公頃）的地皮上，這裏以前是家釀酒廠。該建築羣定於2016年完工，是中國房企鑫苑置業旗下的XIN Development Group International在美國建起的首個項目。它將建造216個單元，包括15套聯排住宅和一座55英尺長（約合17米）的游泳池。

And then there's Moooi ("beautiful" in Dutch, with an extra "o" for emphasis). The design company, founded 14 years ago by Marcel Wanders, is known for selling eccentricities like Studio Job's massive, stripped-down furniture made of paper. Early next year, it will open its first American showroom on East 31st Street and Madison Avenue.

此外還有Moooi（荷蘭語，意爲“美麗”，原本只有兩個“o”，多出來的那個“o”是爲了表強調）。這家設計公司於14年前由馬塞爾·萬德斯創立，其銷售的產品出了名的古怪，比如Studio Job那巨大的極簡主義紙質傢俱。明年初，它將在東31街和麥迪遜大道(Madison Avenue)開設其在美國的第一間陳列室。

Why New York? Why now? Like a chorus of old vaudevillians, the people who were asked to explain the recent influx of Dutch design all used the same word: timing. The American economy has bounced back faster than Europe's, they said, and New York remains a cultural capital, with an international assortment of big spenders.

爲何要來紐約？爲何要選在現在？當被問及爲什麼最近荷蘭設計師紛紛涌向紐約時，所有人都不約而同地說出了一個詞：時機。他們說，美國經濟比歐洲復甦得快，而且紐約依然是個文化之都，這裏有來自各國的、形形色色的大金主。

Lesley Bamberger, chief executive of Kroonenberg Groep, Huys's developer, said he bought the building at 404 Park Avenue South 14 years ago as an investment. Then the New York real estate market heated up, and there is no one like the Dutch to seize a commercial opportunity. "The Dutch have always been tradesmen," he said, adding that Huys is 90 percent sold. All that remains available (and only because they haven't been listed) are five of the six penthouses, priced from $6.75 million.

Huys的開發商Kroonenberg Groep的首席執行官萊斯利·班貝爾格爾(Lesley Bamberger)說，14年前，他買下了公園大道南404號的這棟大樓，用作投資。接着，紐約房市火了起來，沒有人像荷蘭人那樣善於抓住商業機會。“荷蘭人向來是生意人。”他說，同時指出，Huys有90%的房源已經售出了。其餘的待售房源（之所以沒賣出去，只因尚未掛牌）包括6套頂層公寓中的5套，起價在675萬美元（約合人民幣4146萬元）。

"There are lots of business reasons and lots of emotional reasons" for the decision to open in New York, said Casper Vissers, Moooi's co-founder and chief executive. Over the last four years, the company's American sales have doubled every year and now represent 25 percent of its business.

之所以決定在紐約開拓市場，“是有很多商業和情感上的原因。”Moooi的聯合創始人兼首席執行官卡斯珀·菲瑟斯(Casper Vissers)說。近四年裏，公司在美國的銷售額每年都翻一番，美國業務的佔比如今已達到了25%。

On top of that, he added, New York is filled with architects and designers who are Moooi's primary customers, although they may not realize that the company produces furniture. (Eighty percent of what Americans buy from Moooi is lighting, Mr. Vissers said, including a wiry LED-studded sphere called Raimond that is currently the company's biggest seller in the States.) Moooi is also looking to expand to the West Coast and Chicago.

他還說，最重要的是，紐約到處都是建築師和設計師，他們是Moooi的主要客戶。只不過他們可能沒有意識到，Moooi公司也生產傢俱（菲瑟斯說，美國人從Moooi購買的產品有8%是燈具，包括一款名爲Raimond、點綴着LED的球形燈，是公司目前在美國賣得最好的產品）。Moooi還在尋求向西海岸和芝加哥擴張。

Robert Kloos, director for visual arts, architecture and design at the Netherlands Consulate General in New York, said that the recession did some Dutch designers a backhanded favor by causing the generous government subsidies awarded to the Dutch cultural sector to be cut by 20 percent.

羅伯特·克魯斯(Robert Kloos)是荷蘭駐紐約總領事館負責視覺藝術、建築和設計的官員。他說，經濟衰退反而給一些荷蘭設計師帶來了好處，因爲它使荷蘭文化界從政府那裏得到的優厚補助減少了20%。

As a result, designers diversified their practices and sought markets abroad. Compared with 2008, Mr. Kloos said, "I'm pleasantly surprised that these days not only are there 40 to 50 percent more projects by Dutch artists and designers in the U.S., but the quality has also accelerated."

於是，設計師們走上了多元化經營的道路，開始開拓海外市場。克魯斯說，與2008年相比，“我驚喜地發現，現在荷蘭藝術家和設計師在美國的項目增加了40%到50%……而且質量也改善了。”

Yet it was precisely those subsidies that allowed Dutch designers to braise in the juices of their creativity without worrying about paying the rent. Piet Boon's sleek, creamy neutrality makes him an easy sell. But how will the quirky creations associated with the phrase "Dutch design” fare today in the land of Ethan Allen?

但是，正因爲享有政府補助，荷蘭設計師們才得以充分發揮他們的創造才能，而不需要擔心交房租的問題。皮特·布恩主打奶油色的時髦、中性風格，這使他的作品非常好賣。但是具有“荷蘭設計”元素的古怪作品，怎樣才能在伊頓·艾倫（Ethan Allen，美國經典傢俱品牌，在北美地區及英國有近300家連鎖門店——譯註）的土地上打開銷路呢？

Ghislaine Van Loosbroek Vi?as, a New York interior designer born in the Netherlands and raised in South Africa, likes to sprinkle Moooi designs into her projects. One of her litmus tests with clients is a table the company developed in 2006 with the Swedish design collective Front, a life-size black pig balancing a tray on its head. "I love, love, love that table," she said. "I can't tell you how many people I showed it to before I found one who liked it."

吉士蘭·凡·洛斯布魯克·比尼亞斯(Ghislaine Van Loosbroek Vi?as)是一名生於荷蘭、在南非長大的紐約室內設計師。她喜歡將Moooi的設計作品糅合到自己的項目之中。她測試客戶的方法之一，就是拿出該公司在2006年與瑞士設計團隊共同製作的一張桌子。那是一頭實物大小的黑豬，頭頂一個托盤的樣式。“我非常、非常喜歡那張桌子，”她說，“我都不知道自己給多少人看過那張桌子，終於找到了喜歡它的人。”

Ms. Vi?as first balked at making generalizations about Dutch design, but soon identified some hallmarks. There is the abundant and adroit use of color, she said, and a playfulness that Americans might consider childish but is merely contemporary. "I think that what the American audience may not be ready for," she added, “and what they don't get automatically, is the irony and wit that so much Dutch design has."

比尼亞斯一開始不願意大而化之地概括荷蘭設計作品的風格，但她很快指出了一些特點。她說，荷蘭設計師喜歡在作品中巧妙地運用大量色彩，這種俏皮的心態可能會讓美國人覺得幼稚，但那只是一種當代風格。她還說，“我覺得美國受衆還沒習慣許多荷蘭設計作品當中蘊含着的諷刺與智慧，他們也不能馬上就心領神會。”

Will Moooi's witty offerings be culled for an American market? Mr. Vissers said that what you see in Amsterdam you will get in New York, in an environment whose mise-en-scène resembles that of the flagship showroom.

Moooi會不會爲了迎合美國市場，而剔除掉那些別有新意的產品？菲瑟斯說，你在阿姆斯特丹看到的產品是什麼樣，在紐約就會是什麼樣的。它們的展示環境也會跟旗艦店裏的陳列室相似。

But over all, the company has been toning things down. "For sure, in the past our collection was not fit to complete a house with," said Mr. Wanders, the company's creative director. "It was more you'd add a few Moooi pieces to give a place some extra character." That is changing, he said, with the addition of quieter pieces that are not intended to start conversations, but simply furnish a room. "More and more, you see the collection of Moooi as a collection you can build interiors with."

不過總體而言，該公司的風格一直在向柔和的方向轉變。“的確，以前我們的產品系列並不適宜整體家居佈置，”公司的創意總監萬德斯說，“人們更傾向於挑選幾件Moooi傢俱來給房間增添一些情調。”這種狀況發生了改變，他說，公司新增了一些更低調的傢俱，其設計初衷並不是爲引發議論，而只是裝飾房間。因此，“你會發現，Moooi的產品系列已經變得越來越宜家了，你可以採用它們佈置居室。”

Speaking of the early years of Droog and the work that set so many tongues wagging, the avant-garde design purveyor Murray Moss made a distinction: "It wasn't clever, it was smart," he said.

在談到楚格設計的早期階段，和那些引發熱議的作品時，前衛設計師穆雷·莫斯(Murray Moss)做出瞭如下區分：“那不是聰明，而是明智。”他說。

Mr. Moss believes that the "wow factor" of curios like Mr. Wanders's porcelain bud vase created from a burned-away sponge or Peter van der Jagt's doorbell that rang a pair of wineglasses overwhelmed their ingenuity and depth. "There was humor, and there was hubris, and it resulted in a redefinition of what beauty was," he said.

莫斯認爲，無論是萬德斯用一塊燒過的海綿製作的瓷花瓶，還是彼得·凡·德·賈格特(Peter van der Jagt)用一對酒杯製作的門鈴，這類作品當中的獵奇色彩都蓋過了它們的創造性和深度。“它們蘊含着幽默，也蘊含着傲慢，其結果就是重新定義了美的範疇。”他說。

The passage of time has allowed such pieces to be viewed without the stigma of novelty, he said. They can be appreciated alongside the designs of other influential movements. And with Studio Job's assemblage for Chamber, which brings new artists into the mix, one can also see how the Dutch design DNA is being passed down.

他還說，時光的流逝使這些作品可以在新奇的光環褪去後，爲人所審視。它們可以同那些誕生於其它具有重大影響的運動中的設計作品一樣，爲人們所欣賞。從Studio Job爲Chamber收集的展品中，我們還可看出荷蘭設計的基因是如何流傳下來的。

"I love that work," Mr. Moss said. "I was the first to look at it. Now it's going on to a new generation."

“我喜歡那件作品，”莫斯說，“我是第一個看到它的。現在，它將流傳到新的一代。”