中国的双子塔 杭州高楼看起来似曾相识
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.
拥有900万人口的中国东部城市杭州以西湖和历史建筑闻名，尽管当局允许后者变成麦当劳和星巴克店面。
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.
尽管最近的发展——部分归因于杭州成为了科技公司集结的商业中心——在高楼建筑方面实在不及上海和中国其他正在扩张的大城市。
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.
然而杭州最近的一个新的高楼项目引发了骚动，当然这另有原因，预计明年动工。这两栋浙江门塔由澳洲-德国的Lava公司设计，看起来像极了纽约的双子塔。乍看之下，像极了纽约世贸大厦，所以很难一下子就让人平息这是中国对山寨建筑的迷恋的怀疑。杭州已经拥有了自己的埃菲尔铁塔，也天津版本的曼哈顿也即将启动。
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.
但是在柏林办公室接受卫报采访时该公司的联合创办人Tobias Wallisser对这种比较一笑置之。“好吧，我确实在纽约生活过，当时在那里学习，当然世贸大楼是个标志性的建筑，”他说在Lava此次的杭州大楼设计中根本没有涉及世贸大楼。
“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.”
“将任何两栋建筑放在一起看起来都会像世贸大楼，”他说。“但是最近我们将我们的建筑和一些著名的双子结构进行了比较，比如吉隆坡的双子星塔。客户想要一个简单轮廓的具有商业可行性的建筑而已。”
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.
浙江门塔将高达280米，将成为杭州最高楼，集零售，住房和办公于一身。据Wallisser，原来的设计要比双子塔复杂，但是为了降低成本被简单化了。
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”: 门
比起纽约著名的双子塔结构，杭州这个新大楼的设计理念要反映出中国的汉字：门。
