The eternal path of Architecture

Postscript

We live in the most unfortunate moment of a culture. Each culture, whether strong or weak, is in conflict with each other, either at a level or at a low level. Although global cultural order is destined to be formed, what we live in is a period of unordered cultural turmoil.

The turmoil of culture has brought us a bitter torment to every generation, and the fleeting Hundred Years of Chinese culture have brought us a long journey of suffering for several Chinese generations.

Do you still remember how our culture evolved from the normal sequence of Western culture, Japanese culture, and Soviet-Russian culture to get together step by step and enter the difficult history of an emergency?

Do you still remember the tragic revolution of the neighborhood culture?

Although our culture has changed from passive pressure to awakening, our crisis has not been lifted, and our personal pain persists:

A painful life creates a strong sense of anxiety. I have been thinking about everything around me for more than a decade. I tried my best to write a book. I kept traveling, I thought about the meaning of my life, and I understood China's suffering. Gradually, I found that a person's thinking can only be converted into social thinking to truly promote the forward of culture. To achieve social thinking, we need to express our thoughts based on the occasion, and introduce other cultural thoughts. The translation of Alexander's "The Eternal path of building" is the initial work that was done after several years ago.

Over the past few years, this book is about to meet readers. I think it is difficult to write some text as I thought a few years ago, because the Rereading of this book gives me more disappointment. If I write some critical words, it will bring pressure to readers. I don't want to do this because the Chinese still need more enthusiasm to accept Western ideas. Moreover, I know that my criticism will be more philosophical. In the field of architecture, it is useless to talk about abstract frameworks. What architecture requires is concrete analysis. Maybe there is a chance that I can turn philosophical thinking over the past few years into a specific architectural theory. Maybe, at that time, I can really talk about the architectural ideas of global culture. Hopefully that day will arrive soon.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to the distinguished mentor Mr. Feng Jizhong, not only for his meticulous revision of this book, but also for his hard work in the young generation; at the same time, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Mr. Wang for his help and encouragement to the translators.

Zhao
Ice

January 1987