gooood团队采访世界各地 35岁以下的年轻创意人，他们有的是创业者，有的是业主，有的是普通职员。我们探访众生百相，记录这个时代年轻人的面貌和真实状态，欢迎您的推荐和建议。
第23期为您奉上的是南加州大学讲师，项目杂志主编及创始人，Medium Office创始人 Alfie Koetter

gooood team interviews creative individuals under 35 years old from all over the world, some are pioneering founders, some are clients, some are ordinary practitioners. gooood is trying to record the authentic living and working states of this era. Your recommendations and suggestions are appreciated!
gooood Under 35 NO.23 introduces Alfie Koetter, who is the founder of Medium Office, founding editor of Project and teacher at the University of Southern California.

出品人：向玲 / Producer: Xiang Ling
特邀编辑：王耀华（更多关于他，请至：Yaohua Wang on gooood）/ Guest Editor: Yaohua Wang (more: Yaohua Wang on gooood)
文本整理：Melody Ho / Text: Melody Ho
排版编辑：陈诺嘉 / Editor: Chen Nuojia

▼Alfie Koetter

____
背景
Background

“我从很早就接触模型，培养我对尺度和表现法的理解……在我心里，建筑不过就是一个由比较昂贵的材料做成的模型。”

“Early exposure to models conditioned my understanding of scale and representation…in my mind building was just a big model made out of more expensive materials.”

1. 你在什么样的环境长大？为什么你选择成为一名建筑师？
What kind of environment did you grow up in and why did you choose to become an architect?

我由两名建筑师抚养长大，对儿时的我来说似乎是一个极其平常的事。我以为所有人的家里都有建筑模型和诺里地图。现在回过头来看，我才发现这其实有多奇怪。例如从很早就接触模型，培养我对尺度和表现法的理解。模型和建筑并没有两样，它们只是比较小且由不同材料制作而成，越大就越复杂，直到成为一个人们称为建筑的东西，但是在我心里，建筑不过就是一个由比较昂贵的材料做成的模型罢了。

I was raised by two architects, which, as a child, seemed like a totally normal thing; I thought everybody had models of buildings and prints of the Nolli map in their houses. In retrospect, I realize how strange it actually was. Early exposure to models, for instance, conditioned my understanding of scale and representation: models were no different than buildings; they were just smaller and made out of different materials; the bigger they got the more complex they became until you ended up with something that people called a building, but in my mind was just a big model made out of more expensive materials.

▼Medium Office作品 – Kiosk 001，2018
Work of Medium Office – Kiosk 001, 2018

“当我与建筑有了距离，我反而更靠近它。我能够将它视为不只是一项职业，而是一门领域。”

“In distancing myself from architecture I paradoxically brought myself closer to it. I was able to see it as something other than just a profession. I could see it as a discipline.”

我年轻时并不觉得尺度与表现法这样的问题有趣，且把这些和建筑同等地视为理所当然。我过于接近以致于无法适切地看待任何东西。因此，我本科不是学建筑。对当时的我而言，建筑和其他职业并无不同，而且因为这是我父母的职业，这曾是我最不想做的事。

矛盾的是，当我与建筑有了距离，我反而更靠近它。我能够将它视为不只是一项职业，而是一门领域。我开始认知到那些我年轻时视为理所当然的尺度和表现法问题，事实上可以成为知识追求的基础，而不仅仅是一件事实。

我不确定能说我很明确地选择成为一名建筑师。建筑只是一个生产媒介，透过它我可以工作，且在此时此刻，这是我工作的主要媒介，这仍然是有可能改变。

I didn’t find this problem of scale and representation interesting when I was younger. I took it – and much of architecture, for that matter – for granted. I was too close to be able to properly see anything. For that reason, I didn’t study architecture in college. It was, in my mind, a profession like any other; and because it was what my parents did, it was the last thing I wanted to do.

In distancing myself from architecture I paradoxically brought myself closer to it. I was able to see it as something other than just a profession. I could see it as a discipline. I was able to recognize that those problems of scale and representation that I took for granted when I was younger could in fact be grounds for intellectual pursuit, rather than simply matters of fact.

That said, I am not sure if I can declaratively say that I have chosen to be an architect. Architecture is simply a productive medium through which I can work, and at the moment, it is the primary medium through which I work. That could change though.

▼2个项目4个尺度，Woodbury建筑学校展览，2019
2 Projects 4 Scales, Medium Office, Exhibition at Woodbury School of Architecture, 2019

2. 你在建筑之外的兴趣是什么？
Besides architecture, what are your other interests?

我记得小时候有人告诉我迈克尔·格雷夫斯对建筑十分执着，以致于他晚上无法入眠，他会等他的伴侣睡着，然后起床继续工作，因为他对建筑全心投入。想到这件事，我忍不住将这问题的弦外之音诠释成“建筑占据你生命多少分量？”。

I remember when I was younger being told about how Michael Graves was so obsessed with architecture that he couldn’t sleep at night; that he would wait until his partner fell asleep and then get out of bed and keep working because his commitment to architecture was So all-consuming. With that in mind, I can’t help but interpret the subtext to this question to be“to what extent is architecture your life？”

“建筑不是我的生命，它绝对是其中的一部分，但不是全部。”

“Architecture isn’t my life. It’s definitely a part of it, but it’s not an all-consuming.”

我们都听说过关于格雷夫斯这样的建筑师、实则是神话的故事，这存在着一种崇拜式的义务感去诉说建筑是生命的全部，任何其他答案会减损你对这个领域的投入，进而是你身为建筑师的操守。至少，你感觉被强迫去说你的其他兴趣是跟建筑有关的，是有某种程度的知识血统，像是艺术或是摄影。

我也很想给出那样的答案，要是建筑只是我唯一想的事该有多好，这样就表示我任何时刻都专注于一件事，那我会更有生产力许多。不过，建筑不是我的生命，它绝对是其中的一部分，但不是全部，我不会因此不睡觉。

我大概想篮球的时间比想建筑的时间多，老实说，我没有想要表示任何有知识性的建筑暗示，我纯粹爱看篮球。我爱看一名好的篮球员扭转一整场比赛，甚至是整个赛季；我爱 NBA 里有许多国际篮球员；我爱它是一项竞速运动而不是纯粹暴力。篮球是生命。

Given the sorts of stories – myths really – that we hear about architects like Graves, there is a cult-like sense of obligation to say that architecture is your life in total; any other answer would be to undercut your commitment to the discipline and consequently your integrity as an architect. At the very least, you feel compelled to say that your other interests are architecture-adjacent, something with sufficient intellectual pedigree like art or film (not to be confused with movies).

I would love to be able to give that sort of answer. It would be great if architecture was all I could think about; it would mean that I was singularly focused on one thing all the time. I would be so much more productive. But architecture isn’t my life. It’s definitely a part of it, but it’s not an all-consuming, I-don’ t-sleep-at-night part of it.

I probably think about basketball more than | think about architecture, to be honest, and not in some sort of intellectual way that has any architectural implications. I just love to watch basketball. I love how one good player can change an entire game, or even an entire season. I love how many international players there are in the NBA. I love that it is about as fast a sport as you can play without it becoming outright violent. Ball is life。

▼Kiosk 001展开图纸，extended drawing of Kiosk 001

“我不认为从前那种师长与学徒的模式仍存在于今日。”

“I don’t think the teacher-disciple model even exists today in the way that it once did.”

3. 你毕业后的第一份工作是什么？它对你现在的事业有什么影响？
What’s your first job after graduation? How did that first job lead you to your current career?

我毕业后的第一份工作是在纽约的 Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF）建筑事务所，我不确定在 KPF工作对我现在的事业有什么影响，除了我已经不在那里工作并且在做别的事的这个事实。

我们身为建筑师固守了这残存的论述：第一份工作是最重要的一份工作，它会是你成为何种类型建筑师的基础。这论述是建立在预设雇主与雇员是像师长和学徒的关系，学徒向师长学习，学成后成为传道者并且宣扬益语。或许这在某些时候曾是建筑雇佣的模式，像是我们形容 Jose Oubrerie 和 Julian de la Fuente 与勒·柯布西耶的关系，他们不只是雇员，他们还是学徒。抑或是像人们概指那些前 OMA 员工建立的公司（REX、WORKac、BIG、MVRD… 等等）为“小雷姆”一样。

这论述对于找一份建筑工作这件事施加了过多的压力。由于专业实践的不稳定性，以及这样的薪资水平，它本就已是一件凄凉的事。此外，我不认为所谓从前那种师长与学徒的模式甚至存在于今日。

这是对于为何我第一份工作与现在的事业无关的长篇描述。

My first job out of school was working for Kohn Pedersen Fox in New York. I’m not sure that working for KPF had any impact on my career, beyond the fact that I stopped working there and went on to do other things.

I think that there is a vestigial narrative that we hold on to as architects that the first job you have will be the most important job you will ever have, that it will somehow lay the groundwork for the type or architect that you become.

This narrative is built on an assumption that the relationship between an employer and an employee is like that of a teacher and a disciple, in which the disciple learns from a teacher and then graduates to become an apostle and spread the good word. And maybe this was the model of architectural employment at one point. Think of the language we use to refer to Jose Oubrerie and Julian de la Fuente in reference to their relationship to Corbusier. They weren’t just employees; they were proteges. O how people casually refer to firms established by ex-OMA employees (REX, WORKac, BIG, MVRDV, etc.) as“Baby Rems. ”

This narrative puts far too much pressure on finding a job in architecture. It’s already a dismal affair given the volatility of professional practice and pay being what it is. Furthermore, I don’t think the teacher-disciple model even exists today in the way that it once did.

This is a long way of saying that my first job did not lead to my current career.

______
项目杂志
Project Journal

点击这里查看项目杂志主页
click HERE to see the official website of Project Journal

“我们团队的目标是让项目杂志能够确切地反映出当下建筑学术圈内正在发生的值得关注的讨论。”

“Project’s editorial team makes a real effort to highlight disciplinary conversations that are happening at any given moment.”

1. 你从在读研究生的时候就创办了项目杂志，可以告诉我们多一些吗？
You started the Project Journal when you were in grad school, can you tell us more about that?

项目杂志一开始是由 Daniel Markiewicz、Jonah Rowen、Emmett Zeifman 及我自己在耶鲁大学建筑学院三年级时创立的。我们在当时对“项目”这一词有兴趣，它曾指的是更广泛的、或许能定义一名建筑师的整体原则。好像你必须有个“项目”才像是个受重视的建筑师。当时不清楚要如何找到这个“项目”，所以我们邀请了一些执业建筑师和学者到耶鲁展开一系列与我们的公开对话，帮助我们找到它。

我们毕业后，我们持着什么成就了一个“项目”这个问题，访问了一些在纽约的建筑师。在这整个过程中，我们从没想过这些对话最后会出版，直到我们转录这些访问然后发现我们是不是该做些什么，结果就是创办项目杂志。

The groundwork for Project Journal was laid out by Daniel Markiewicz, Jonah Rowen, Emmett Zeifman and myself while we were third year graduate students at the Yale School of Architecture. We were, at the time, interested in the term“project” as it was used to refer to a larger set of principles that might define an architect’s body of work. It seemed like you had to have a“project” in order to be taken seriously as an architect. What was less clear was how you got one. So we invited a number of practicing architects and academics to Yale to have a series of public conversations with us to help us try to figure that out.

After we graduated, we kept at this question of what constituted a project by conducting a number of interviews with architects in New York. Throughout this whole process, we never considered that these conversations would be turned over into a publication. It wasn’t until we transcribe all of these interviews that we figured that we should do something with them. And that thing we did was Project Journal.

▼Project杂志第一期
Project Issue 1

“我们极尽编辑者的全力去理解产业风貌，因此，我们不对任何一期杂志预设主题。”

“We really try our best as editors to get a sense of the disciplinary landscape. In that effort, we make a point not to prescribe themes for any of our issues.”

2. 项目杂志现在运作得如何？你们怎么策画每一期的主题和内容？
How does Project operate now? How do you curate the theme and content for each issue?

项目杂志曾经也持续是给年轻及新锐建筑师的一个平台。每一期，我们极尽编辑者的全力去理解产业风貌，因此，我们不对任何一期杂志预设主题，我们认为设立主题是有些唯我论的。相反的，我们撒下一张比较整体的网，去理解在每一个时刻，这个产业中有什么时正在发生。这让任何主题都能够有机地出现，我们在其间看到惊喜的、出乎意料的交集，启发了多组共通的理解方式。

Project was and continues to be a platform for young and emerging architects. With each issue, we really try our best as editors to get a sense of the disciplinary landscape. In that effort, we make a point not to prescribe themes for any of our issues. I think our take is that themes are a bit solipsistic. Instead, we cast a more general net to get a sense of what is happening within the discipline at any given point in time. This allows for any sort of theme to emerge organically as we see surprising and unexpected intersections between pieces which begin to suggest sets of shared sensibilities.

▼Project杂志 – 第二期，第三期，第四期（从左到右）
Project – Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4 (from left to right)

“每一期杂志中的讨论都是在多样化的前提下，通过寻找被探讨的问题之间的共同点与链接点来构建一个框架。”

“The conversations that happen in any given issue can be quite diverse. We often recognize overarching questions that unify each issue.”

3. 请和我们的读者介绍一下项目杂志和它的目标。
Can you tell our reader more about Project Journal and its goals.

我们团队的目标是让项目杂志能够确切地反映出当下建筑学术圈内正在发生的值得关注的讨论。

在我们最近一期杂志里，这些讨论涉及到了以下的一些话题：建筑设计劳动力在概念和算法上的自动化；这种劳动力所涉及的美学和政治；建筑图像的构建与背后相关的政治；从建筑发生的家庭内和公共生活的展示和表现；由代码，合同，图像和建筑构建的当代互动，其中涉及到人与机器，机器与环境，实践中的合作伙伴，社会建筑师之间的互动。

每一期杂志中的讨论都是在以多样化为前提下，通过寻找这些被探讨的问题之间的共同点与链接点来构建一个框架。在最近的几期杂志里，这些问题也许可以被简化为一个共同点，那就是我们如何制造/产生物体？从这个共同点出发，出现了一系列相关问题：这些物体是做什么的？怎么样？它们影响谁？

Project’s editorial team makes a real effort to highlight disciplinary conversations that are happening at any given moment.

In our most recent issue these conversations relate to the conceptual and computational automation of architectural labor; the aesthetics and politics of that labor; the construction of architectural images, and the politics that attend them; the display and performance of both domestic and public life, as framed by architecture; contemporary interactions – mediated by code, contracts, images, buildings – between humans and machines, machines and environments, partners in practice, architects in society.

The conversations that happen in any given issue can be quite diverse. That said, I think we often recognize overarching questions that unify each issue. In our latest issues that question might simply be how do we make things? From that questions follows a series of related questions: What do those things do? How? And who do they affect?

▼Project杂志 – 第五期，第六期，第七期（从左到右）
Project – Issue 5, Issue 6, Issue 7 (from left to right)

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教学
Teaching

点击这里查看Alfie Koetter在南加州大学建筑学院官网的介绍页面
click HERE to see the introduction page of Alfie Koetter on the official website of USC Architecture

“在学术单位的泡泡之外，一些新技能的应用性值得怀疑，教学成为发展并应用这些技能很好的媒介。”

“Outside of the bubble of An academic institution, the practical application seemed questionable of these new skills, where teaching turns out to be a great medium for the development and application of these skills.”

1. 请告诉我们你的教学背景。
Please tell us more about your teaching background.

我第一次的教学机会是在哥伦比亚大学建筑规划及保存学院，后来在我搬到洛杉矶之前，我在耶鲁大学教本科设计，同时在哥伦比亚大学教研究生设计。我现在于南加州大学及加州大学洛杉矶分校教本科设计。

I had my first opportunity to teach 2012 at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. I later taught undergraduate design studios at the Yale School of Architecture and graduate studio at Columbia before moving to Los Angeles where I now teach undergraduate design studios at USC and UCLA.

▼Alfie Koetter 2018年指导的“I am Contextual” 工作坊作品，学生：Juan Villatoro，南加州大学建筑学院
“I am Contextual” studio work, Juan Villatoro, USC School of Architecture, 2018

2. 为什么你对教学有兴趣？你作为教育者最享受的时刻是什么？
Why are you interested in teaching? What are the most enjoyable moments in your career as a educator?

当我从建筑学院毕业之后，我很快发现我已有合适的技能，这个发现并不令人惊讶，而仅是一种对现实的反思。我花了极大量的时间，不仅仅是熟练一套让我好找工作的技术，而是重新校正并且精进我观看及描述事物的方式。在学术单位的泡泡之外，这些新技能，除了那些技术性的之外，对其他人来说似乎完全是不寻常且只有少数人才懂的，它们的实际应用性似乎值得怀疑。结果，教学成为发展并应用这些技能很好的媒介。

When I graduated from architecture school, I realized very quickly that I had developed a very niche set of skills. This revelation wasn’t shocking as much as it was a reality check. I had spent a tremendous amount of time not just learning a set of technical proficiencies that would render me employable, but also recalibrating and refining the way I looked at things and spoke about them. Outside of the bubble of An academic institution, these new skills – apart from the technical ones – seemed to most others to be entirely eccentric and esoteric; their practical application seemed questionable. Teaching, as it turns out, is a great medium for the development and application of these skills.

▼Alfie Koetter 2018年指导的“I am Contextual” 工作坊作品，学生：Stephanie Saunders，南加州大学建筑学院
“I am Contextual” studio work, Stephanie Saunders, USC School of Architecture, 2018

“在美国建筑教育中，学生不仅学习技术性的、动词的建筑，也学习了如何描述建筑作为一个名词时的专业意涵。”

“In American architecture education, students learn not only the technical requirements of building as a verb, but also the disciplinary implications of how one might talk about a building as a noun.”

3. 在美国的建筑教育传统中，有什么是你觉得有成效的？
What are the traditions in American architecture education that you think are productive?

我没有对美国以外的建筑教育足够注意到能够自信地说有什么是美国独有的传统。我同样也不确定能说是什么让美国的建筑教育十分美国，因为其中许多是借鉴欧洲的模式，像是法国美术学院和包豪斯。

有一件我在许多美国的建筑学校特别注意到的事，就是技术和知识训练的融合。学生不仅学习技术性的、动词的建筑，也学习了如何描述建筑作为一个名词时的专业意涵。这其实是学而不精的开端，所以我也不确定这算是有成效还是没有成效的教育模式，不过这的确值得一提。

I’m not so fully aware of the traditions of non-American architectural education to be able to say with confidence what would constitute a tradition of architectural education that is specifically American. I’m equally unsure that I would even be able to say what makes an American architectural education all that American either; so much has been borrowed from European models, namely the Ecole des Beaux Arts and the Bauhaus.

One thing that stands out to me, though, is the conflation of technical and intellectual training that occurs in many if not most American architecture schools. In varying degrees, students learn not only the technical requirements of building as a verb, but also the disciplinary implications of how one might talk about a building as a noun. This really sets the stage for being a master of none, so I’m not sure of itsa productive or unproductive pedagogical model, but it does seem like something noteworthy.

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执业
Practice

点击这里查看更多关于Medium Office
click HERE to see more about Medium Office

“在工作方式中发展自信，放下不健康也不实际的压力，更从容地面对项目如何构成的问题。”

“Develop confidence in the way we work, while becoming more relaxed to the question of what constitutes a project. Let go the unhealthy and unrealistic pressure.”

1. 你是如何创立公司的？身为一名在美国执业的年轻建筑师，你面对了什么挑战？
How did you start your office and what kind of challenges do you face as a young architect practicing in America?

Emmett Zeifman 和我几乎是一毕业就开始一起工作，先是项目杂志，然后是各种设计竞赛。在某个时候，我们做的已足够让我们制作一本作品集并且称我们自己为 Medium Office。

Emmett Zeifman and I started working together almost immediately after we graduated, first on Project Journal, and then on various design competitions. At a certain point, we had done enough work together that we could make a portfolio and call ourselves Medium Office.

▼Medium Office作品 – Folly 003，2015
Work of Medium Office – Folly 003，2015

如果我们有任何挑战的话，那会是心理上的，会是对我们做事的方式发展自信有关，同时也要更从容面对项目如何构成的问题。

在我脑中常常浮现像是文丘里住宅（母亲之家）或是查尔斯·格瓦斯梅住宅这些现在为人称道的建筑师第一个作品。这造成很大的压力，因为不仅是要建造，还必须要能够与那些早期作品相称。我们开始要放下这许多不健康也不实际的压力。

If there have been any challenges for us, they have been mental, having to do with developing confidence in the way we work, while at the same time becoming more relaxed as to the question of what constitutes a project.

In the back of my head I’m frequently haunted by projects like the Vanna Venturi House or the Gwathmey Residence, these now-celebrated projects that were the architect’s first built work (Robert Venturi and Charles Gwa thmey respectively). There is great pressure not only to build, but to have what you build be as substantial as those sorts of early works. It’s a lot of unhealthy and unrealistic pressure that I think we are beginning to let go of.

▼Medium Office作品 – Pavilion 001，2017
Work of Medium Office – Pavilion 001, 2017

“我们尽所能地将自己从作者的身分抽离，这样才能在评价我们的作品时尽量客观。自动化或机械式的过程让我们能够欣赏我们可能没想过的事物。”

“We try our best to divorce ourselves from authorship so that we can remain as objective as possible in our evalua tion of the things we produce. Automated or mechanic processes allow us to appreciate things that we would have otherwise thought very little of.”

2. 你的设计过程是什么样子？在这之中你和你的伙伴是如何做决定的？
What is your design process like? How do you make decisions during that process with your partner?

我们永远试着重新校正我们的认知，如果我们一眼就喜欢我们创造的事物，那大概意味着这没有那么好。我们尽所能地将自己从作者的身分抽离，这样才能在评价我们的作品时尽量客观。许多我们的作品仰赖自动化或机械式的过程，我们建立能创造形式成果的系统，希望的是这些形式成果能有出乎意料或是我们不熟悉的特质，进而强迫我们认知并清晰表达我们自己的感知。最好的情况是，这过程让我们能够欣赏我们可能没想过的事物。

We are always trying to recalibrate our sensibilities. If we immediately like something that we’ve produced, it probably means that it’s not that good. We try our best to divorce ourselves from authorship so that we can remain as objective as possible in our evalua tion of the things we produce. To this end, a lot of our work relies on automated or mechanic processes: we set up systems that have formal consequences. The hope is that these formal consequences have unexpected or unfamiliar qualities that force us to recognize and articulate our own sensilities. At its best, this process allows us to appreciate things that we would have otherwise thought very little of.

▼Medium Office作品 – installation 001，2015
Work of Medium Office – installation 001, 2015

▼Medium Office作品 – housing 001，2016
Work of Medium Office – housing 001, 2016

3. 学术工作如何影响你的作品？流行文化是否也有影响？
How does academia work its way into your work and does pop culture also have a impact?

教学给了我们很多实验的空间，并且逐步朝向实践。它给了我们能够发展自己想法和美感的自由，让我们现在可以较清楚地应用在项目上。

Teaching has given us a lot of leeway to experiment and work incrementally towards a practice. It has given us the freedom to develop our own ideas and aesthetics, which we can now bring to projects with some clarity.

▼Medium Office作品 – 坚固的条纹衣架，2018
Work of Medium Office – Solid and Striped Office and Clothing Racks, 2018

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