沐浴的最高境界？

沐浴的最高境界?

Among the many vertiginous renderings for the penthouse apartments at 432 Park Avenue, the nearly 1,400-foot-high Cuisenaire rod that topped off last month, is one of its master (or mistress) of the universe bathrooms, a glittering, reflective container of glass and marble. The image shows a huge egg-shaped tub planted before a 10-foot-square window, 90 or more stories up. All of Lower Manhattan is spread out like the view from someone’s private plane.

公園大道432號(hào)(432 Park Avenue)是一座高達(dá)1400英尺(約合427米)、形同奎茨奈棒(Cuisenaire rod，教算術(shù)用的彩色棒——譯注)的建筑，上個(gè)月已經(jīng)完工。其頂層公寓有許多令人眼暈的透視圖，其中一幅展示的是堪稱“宇宙衛(wèi)浴之王”(或“宇宙衛(wèi)浴之后”)的浴室，它就好比一個(gè)閃閃發(fā)亮、反射著光輝的，玻璃和大理石制的容器。從圖片上看，一個(gè)巨大的蛋形浴缸，被放置在10平方英尺(約合0.9平方米)的窗前，窗外就是90層或以上的高空。曼哈頓下城(Lower Manhattan)的景觀一覽無余，感覺就像置身某人的私人飛機(jī)上。

For those with lots of money and little inhibition, the newest penthouse apartments in New York towers offer bathrooms with walls of glass.

紐約一些高層住宅樓最新推出的頂層公寓，為那些十分有錢、又沒什么禁忌的業(yè)主，打造出玻璃圍墻的景觀浴室。

Talk about power washing.

沐浴的最高境界，莫過于此。

The dizzying aerial baths at 432 Park, while certainly the highest in the city, are not the only exposed throne rooms in New York. All across Manhattan, in glassy towers soon to be built or nearing completion, see-through chambers will flaunt their owners, naked, toweled or robed, like so many museum vitrines — although the audience for all this exposure is probably avian, not human.

公園大道432號(hào)的空中浴室高得令人眩暈，它們雖然肯定是紐約市最高的，但卻并非紐約唯一一處暴露在外的“王宮大殿”。在曼哈頓各地的一座座即將修建或接近完工的玻璃大廈里，透明浴室將會(huì)把它們赤身裸體、圍著毛巾或穿著浴袍的主人，像展品一樣華麗麗地展示出來，就像鱗次櫛比的博物館玻璃櫥一樣——只不過，這些“暴露展”的觀眾或許是飛鳥，而非人類了。

It seems the former touchstones of bathroom luxury (Edwardian England, say, or ancient Rome) have been replaced by the glass cube of the Apple store on Fifth Avenue. In fact, Richard Dubrow, marketing director at Macklowe Properties, which built 432 and that Apple store, described the penthouse “wet rooms” (or shower rooms) in just those terms.

浴室的奢華標(biāo)準(zhǔn)似乎已經(jīng)改變。曾經(jīng)流行的風(fēng)格，比如愛德華式或古羅馬式，現(xiàn)在已被形同第五大道蘋果店(Apple store)的玻璃方塊替代。事實(shí)上，麥克羅威地產(chǎn)(Macklowe Properties)的營(yíng)銷總監(jiān)理查德·杜布羅(Richard Dubrow)，對(duì)于公園大道432號(hào)那套頂層公寓的淋浴室就是這么描述的。而公園大道432號(hào)和第五大道的蘋果店，都是麥克羅威地產(chǎn)修建的。

Everyone wants a window, said Vickey Barron, a broker at Douglas Elliman and director of sales at Walker Tower, a conversion of the old Verizon building on West 18th Street. “But now it has to be ­ a Window.” She made air quotes around the word. “Now what most people wanted in their living rooms, they want in their bathrooms. They’ll say, ‘What? No View?’ ”

人人都想要一扇窗戶，維琪·巴倫(Vickey Barron)是這么說的。巴倫是道格拉斯·艾麗曼房地產(chǎn)公司(Douglas Elliman)的經(jīng)紀(jì)人，負(fù)責(zé)銷售沃克大廈(Walker Tower)，就是西18街威訊(Verizon)老樓的改建項(xiàng)目。“但現(xiàn)在，浴室必須就是一扇窗戶，”她著重強(qiáng)調(diào)了“窗戶”這個(gè)詞，“現(xiàn)在，對(duì)于大多數(shù)人來說，客廳里有什么，浴室里就要有什么。他們會(huì)說，‘什么?看不到景色?’”

It was a rainy, dull afternoon, but the penthouse apartment with the $47.5 million price tag (in contract, as of this week) that Ms. Barron was showing this reporter needed no artificial light. Walker Tower is just a few blocks north of a landmarked district, which meant the architect, Cetra/CRI Architecture PLLC, could expand the windows to nine and a half feet. In the master bathroom, a massive silvered Waterworks tub looked south, with unobstructed views of Lower Manhattan. This is not “Rear Window” territory; you won’t be seeing your neighbors from the 23rd floor, and they certainly won’t be seeing you. (Because of Walker Tower’s ceiling heights, Ms. Barron said, “the 23rd floor is more like the 30th.”) But you can see the Freedom Tower.

這天下午，天氣陰沉，下著雨，但是巴倫帶筆者參觀的這套標(biāo)價(jià)4750萬美元(約合人民幣2.9億元)的頂層公寓，卻不需要人工照明。沃克大廈位于一個(gè)地標(biāo)性地區(qū)以北，僅幾個(gè)街區(qū)之遙，這就意味著，其建筑商Cetra/CRI Architecture PLLC可以將窗戶拓展至9.5英尺(約合2.9米)。在主浴室內(nèi)，一個(gè)泛著銀色光澤的Waterworks巨型浴缸朝南放置著，曼哈頓下城區(qū)的景觀，一覽無余地展現(xiàn)在前方。這里跟“后窗地帶”(出自希區(qū)柯克的電影《后窗》——譯注)不同，你不會(huì)看到23樓的鄰居，他們也肯定看不見你(由于沃克大廈的天花板很高，巴倫說，“23樓就跟正常的30樓差不多。”)。但是你可以看到自由大廈(Freedom Tower)。

From the corner bathrooms at 215 Chrystie Street, Ian Schrager’s upcoming Lower East Side entry designed by Herzog & De Meuron and with interior architecture by the English minimalist John Pawson, you can see the Chrysler Building and the 59th Street Bridge, if you don’t pass out from vertigo. The 19-foot-long bathrooms of the full-floor apartments are placed at the building’s seamless glass corners. It was Mr. Pawson who designed the poured concrete tub that oversees that sheer 90-degree angle.

克里斯蒂街(Chrystie Street)215號(hào)，是伊恩·施拉格(Ian Schrager)即將在曼哈頓推出的開發(fā)項(xiàng)目，由赫爾佐格和德梅隆建筑事務(wù)所(Herzog & De Meuron) 設(shè)計(jì)，室內(nèi)裝潢由英國(guó)極簡(jiǎn)主義建筑師約翰·帕森(John Pawson)完成。在該樓盤公寓內(nèi)的轉(zhuǎn)角浴室里，只要你沒有因?yàn)榭指邥炦^去，就能看到克萊斯勒大廈(Chrysler Building)和59街橋(59th Street Bridge)。在一套套占據(jù)整個(gè)樓層的公寓中，長(zhǎng)達(dá)19英尺(約合5.8米)的浴室，布置在大廈無縫玻璃圍出的一角。其中的灌澆混凝土浴缸為帕森設(shè)計(jì)，坐在那里可以俯瞰90度的壯麗景觀。

Just looking at the renderings, this reporter had to stifle the urge to duck.

光是看看透視圖，筆者就得抑制住逃跑的沖動(dòng)。

“Ian’s approach is always, If there’s a view, there should be glass,” Mr. Pawson said. “It’s not about putting yourself on show, it’s about enjoying what’s outside. Any exhibitionism is an unfortunate by-product. I think what’s really nice is that at this level you’re creating a gathering space. You can congregate in the bathroom, you can even share the bath or bring a chair in.”

“伊恩的思路一貫如此，有景觀就必須有玻璃，”帕森說，“這不是為了自我炫耀，而是為了欣賞室外景觀。任何形式的暴露癖，都是一種令人遺憾的副產(chǎn)品。我覺得最好的一點(diǎn)是，你所創(chuàng)造的是一個(gè)聚會(huì)空間。你們可以聚在浴室里，甚至可以共用浴室，或者搬把椅子進(jìn)來。”

On a recent Thursday, there were seven people standing in the master bathroom of an apartment on the 20th floor of 737 Park, another Macklowe project that’s a new conversion of a 1940s building by Handel Architects. (The apartment, three bedrooms in 4,336 square feet, is listed for $19.695 million.) At 21 by 11 feet, there was certainly room in the bathroom for a few more. Along two opposing walls, two toilets and two showers faced off behind glass walls. The by-now-familiar egg floated in the center of the room.

在最近的一個(gè)周四，公園大道737號(hào)第20層的一套公寓里，主浴室中站了七個(gè)人。這是麥克羅威地產(chǎn)的又一個(gè)開發(fā)項(xiàng)目，由漢德爾建筑事務(wù)所 (Handel Architects)對(duì)20世紀(jì)40年代的一座樓盤改建而來。(前文提到的這套公寓有三間臥室，面積4336平方英尺[約合403平方米]，掛牌價(jià)為 1969.5萬美元[約合人民幣1.2億元]。)浴室的面積為21乘11英尺(約合6乘3米)，肯定還有地方站下更多人。在層層玻璃墻之后，兩個(gè)馬桶和兩套花灑分別沿著兩堵相對(duì)而立的墻壁排列。浴室正中，放置著大家現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)很熟悉的蛋形浴缸。

“Some people don’t mind showing a little, and some don’t mind showing a lot,” said Gary Handel, the principal of Handel Architects. “They are totally comfortable in their bodies.”

“有些人不介意暴露一點(diǎn)，有些人不介意暴露很多，”漢德爾建筑事務(wù)所的負(fù)責(zé)人加里·漢德爾(Gary Handel)說，“他們對(duì)自己的身材很是自信。”

His colleague, Malay Shah, added that the glass enclosures meant you can see the mosaic tile and marble that sheath the walls. The glass seems to evaporate, so the room is defined by its exterior walls, not its shower or toilet stalls. “It was about the clarity of the idea,” he said.

他的同事馬萊·沙(Malay Shah)補(bǔ)充說，浴室外圍之所以采用玻璃，是為了讓你可以看到浴室墻體表面的馬賽克磚和大理石。玻璃仿若無物，因此浴室空間是由其外墻界定的，而非淋浴間或馬桶間的隔板。“這涉及到設(shè)計(jì)理念的清晰性。”他說。

Nine of the building’s C-line apartments expressed an even clearer idea: a wall of glass with two toilets at either end and a shower in the middle, which raised many an eyebrow among brokers and their clients because the toilets face each other. Design clarity — and a well-lit room — suggests questions about how private we want to be in our private spaces.

門牌號(hào)帶C的那排公寓共有九套，它們展現(xiàn)出了更為清晰的理念：一面玻璃墻，兩端各有一個(gè)馬桶，中間設(shè)有一處淋浴間。這讓很多經(jīng)紀(jì)人及他們的客戶咂舌，因?yàn)轳R桶是相對(duì)而設(shè)的。設(shè)計(jì)的透明性——加上一個(gè)采光良好的房間——指向問題，那就是我們想要在自己的私人空間里保持多大程度的私密性。

Jill Roosevelt, a broker at Brown Harris Stevens who has been leading her clients through a few of the new, glassy offerings, said 737 in particular sparked conversations about habits of intimacy. “It’s about how much proximity do you want to your partner who is performing these tasks?” she said. “It doesn’t affect sales, but there is always a reaction, ranging from nonchalant to amusement. It depends on how comfortable you feel with your spouse or partner. My traditional couples will say, ‘We’ll frost the glass.’ ”

布朗·哈里斯·史蒂文斯(Brown Harris Stevens)公司的經(jīng)紀(jì)人吉爾·羅斯福(Jill Roosevelt)帶客戶看了幾套帶玻璃墻的新房源，她說，737號(hào)尤其能夠引發(fā)人們對(duì)親密習(xí)慣的討論。“這事關(guān)你希望同自己的伴侶在使用各項(xiàng)浴室功能時(shí)，保持多大程度的親近，”她說，“這不會(huì)影響銷售，但客戶們對(duì)此總會(huì)有不同的反應(yīng)，有些人無動(dòng)于衷，有些人覺得有趣。這取決于你覺得自己跟配偶或伴侶有多親近。我接待的那些傳統(tǒng)的夫婦就會(huì)說，‘我們會(huì)換上毛玻璃。’”

One couple — “this would be the amused couple,” Ms. Roosevelt said — pondered the dueling commodes of the C-line at 737 Park with interest. “Well, I guess we could watch each other read the newspaper,” the wife said finally.

有一對(duì)夫婦——“這應(yīng)該就是一對(duì)覺得有趣的夫婦，”羅斯福說——饒有興趣地琢磨了一下公園大道737號(hào)C排公寓的那對(duì)馬桶。“好吧，我想我們可以看著對(duì)方讀報(bào)紙的樣子。”妻子最終說道。

Jim Stanton, president of the World Wide Group, the co-developer of 252 East 57th Street, the swoopy glass building that will rise to 65 stories in the next few years, wanted the glass walls that enclose the toilet and shower of the master bathrooms there to wear a privacy banner (a stripe of frosted glass). The depth of the frosting, or fritting, as it’s called, said Julia Hodgson, director of development for the World Wide Group, was carefully considered. “There was a lot of sitting and standing behind that glass to get the fritting level just right,” she said.

東57街252號(hào)是一棟前衛(wèi)的玻璃大廈，將在未來幾年內(nèi)建到65層的高度。其共同開發(fā)商World Wide集團(tuán)的總裁吉姆·斯坦頓(Jim Stanton)希望，主浴室馬桶間和淋浴間的玻璃墻能夠有所遮擋(一條磨砂玻璃帶)，以保留隱私。World Wide集團(tuán)的開發(fā)總監(jiān)茱莉亞·霍吉森(Julia Hodgson)表示，磨砂的程度(或稱玻璃熔度)經(jīng)過了反復(fù)斟酌。“為了確定合適的玻璃熔度級(jí)別，我們?cè)诓ＡШ竺孀?、站起來好多次?rdquo;她說。

Privacy, of course, is not an absolute value, but a value that has changed over time and circumstances, as Winifred Gallagher, an author who has written about the behavioral and psychological science of place, pointed out.

當(dāng)然，正如研究有關(guān)地點(diǎn)的行為學(xué)和心理學(xué)的作家威妮弗蕾德·加拉格爾(Winifred Gallagher)所指出的那樣，隱私并不是一個(gè)絕對(duì)的價(jià)值觀念;而是已經(jīng)隨著時(shí)間的推移和環(huán)境的變化，發(fā)生了改變。

“And like everything else, the rich can buy more of it,” she said. “In the city, privacy is about shielding yourself from all the stimuli. Most of us can’t drop the shield entirely even when we’re in our own homes, because the city is right outside. But if you’re high enough, you can waltz around pretending you’re in the garden of Versailles.”

“有錢人可以買下更多空間，正如他們可以買下更多別的東西一樣，”她說，“在城市中，隱私就是將所有的外界刺激與自己隔絕。大多數(shù)人就算在自己家里，也不能完全放下防備，因?yàn)槌鞘芯驮谀愕拈T外。但是如果住的樓層足夠高，你就可以在家里隨處跳起華爾茲，假裝自己是在凡爾賽的花園里一樣。”

Furthermore, Ms. Gallagher added, for many the bathroom can be the focus of a lot of anxiety. “You have the scale and there’s the magnifying mirror so you don’t put your makeup on and look like a clown,” she said. “And imagine yourself striding around the bathrooms with all that glass. It puts the pressure on you to be thin and fit, which are also perks of the rich. If you’re thin and fit, why wouldn’t you have this jewel box to show yourself off in?”

此外，加拉格爾還指出，對(duì)于很多人來說，浴室可能是集中了很多焦慮的地方。“你有體重秤和有放大功能的化妝鏡，這樣一來，你就不會(huì)把自己化得跟小丑一樣，”她說，“想象你自己在到處都是玻璃的浴室里走來走去，這就會(huì)給你帶來壓力，想要變得苗條、健美，這也是當(dāng)有錢人的額外好處。如果你就是苗條又健美的，為何不把這個(gè)‘珠寶盒’買下來，在里面炫耀自己的身材呢?”

Mr. Schrager batted away any cultural or psychological diagnoses. “Your thesis I don’t go along with,” he said. “At Chrystie Street, we put the bath by the window because I think it’s magical to take a bath and look out. I don’t think there’s a paradigm shift in bathing habits. It’s about style and material. I don’t think there’s a social trend towards exhibitionism.”

而施拉格不贊同任何形式的文化或心理學(xué)解讀。“你這套理論我不同意，”他說，“在克里斯蒂街，我們將浴室設(shè)在窗前，是因?yàn)槲矣X得能夠一邊洗澡一邊看著外面的風(fēng)景，是很奇妙的體驗(yàn)。我并不認(rèn)為人們的洗澡習(xí)慣發(fā)生了什么‘范式轉(zhuǎn)移’。這只是裝潢風(fēng)格和裝飾材料層面的變化。我并不覺得出現(xiàn)了暴露癖越來越多的社會(huì)趨勢(shì)。”

But it is the case that hotels and nightclubs made by Mr. Schrager and others have stretched the boundaries of public versus private, what we’re at ease doing where, and in front of whom. Stephan Jaklitsch, a Manhattan architect, recalls using the bathroom at the Felix, a nightclub in the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. Designed by Philippe Stark, the celebrity latrinist, as The New York Post once described him, its granite urinals are set against floor-to-ceiling windows. “It was like you were peeing on the city,” Mr. Jaklitsch recalled. “It was a very powerful feeling.”

不過，實(shí)際上，施拉格等開發(fā)商修建的酒店和夜總會(huì)，已經(jīng)模糊了公共與私人空間的界限，改變了人們能夠放下拘束的場(chǎng)所和可以接受的隱私度。曼哈頓建筑師斯蒂芬?姚克利奇(Stephan Jaklitsch)回憶了他在香港半島酒店(Peninsula Hotel)的夜總會(huì)Felix里，使用衛(wèi)生間的體驗(yàn)。Felix的設(shè)計(jì)者是菲利浦·斯塔克(Philippe Stark)，曾被《紐約郵報(bào)》(New York Post)稱為“衛(wèi)生間設(shè)計(jì)師中的明星”。其花崗巖制的小便池就設(shè)在落地窗前。“感覺就像在對(duì)著城市撒尿，”姚克利奇回憶道，“那是一種很震撼的感覺。”

And infamously, the nightclub bathrooms on the 18th floor of the Standard Hotel in the West Village were curtain-free for a few years, eliciting much false outrage — and publicity.

此外，在西村的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)酒店(Standard Hotel)內(nèi)，位于18層的夜總會(huì)衛(wèi)生間也因好幾年來沒有安裝窗簾而聲名狼藉，由此招致了很多假意的抨擊——以及媒體曝光。

“This is the background,” said Mr. Jaklitsch, who recently designed a glass bathroom with no door for a couple in Brooklyn. “People want to import these experiences back to their homes. They are willing to experiment. For developers catering to a wealthy clientele, there’s a financial indulgence in that they’ve devoted so much space, they’re able to push the boundaries even more. It’s also a reaction to the stress of our contemporary lives. Bathrooms, even in the city, are getting larger and larger, and more and more luxurious.”

“這就是背景，”姚克利奇說。他最近為布魯克林的一對(duì)夫婦設(shè)計(jì)了一間沒有門的玻璃浴室。“人們想要把這些體驗(yàn)帶回家。他們?cè)敢鈬L試。對(duì)于迎合富豪客戶的開發(fā)商來說，他們面對(duì)的是一種財(cái)務(wù)上的放縱——既然已經(jīng)投入了如此多的空間，那么界限也可以突破得更多一點(diǎn)。這也是人們對(duì)當(dāng)代生活中的壓力做出的一種反應(yīng)。即便在城市中，浴室也正變得越來越大、越來越奢華。”

Barbara Sallick, a co-founder of Waterworks, the glistening bazaar whose jewel-like hardware and five-figure tubs like the ones at Walker Tower have become entrenched as totems of the good life, said recently that the American luxury bathroom has been growing for nearly two decades, both as an idea and in actual square footage. “Twenty years ago, we were just emerging from the puritanical era,” she said. “Because it’s Manhattan, not Birmingham, it’s bigger, better, more.”

Waterworks是一個(gè)風(fēng)頭正勁的品牌，其珠寶般的五金器具和價(jià)位在五位數(shù)的浴缸(比如沃克大廈中的那些)，已經(jīng)被確立為美好生活的象征。 Waterworks品牌的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人芭芭拉·薩利克(Barbara Sallick)最近表示，美國(guó)的奢華浴室，不管是作為一個(gè)理念，還是就其實(shí)際面積而言，都已保持了將近二十年的增長(zhǎng)。“二十年前，我們才剛剛從禁欲時(shí)代中走出來，”她說，“因?yàn)檫@里是曼哈頓，而不是伯明翰，人們現(xiàn)在追尋的是‘更大、更好、更多。’”

To make the point about how much attitudes have changed about that space, Ms. Sallick shared her salary from 1978, when she started her company. It was $58 a week, a quarter the price of a tub spout from the current Waterworks catalog. The silvered Candide French boat tub at Walker Tower, for example, sells for just over $12,000.

為了更直觀地說明人們對(duì)浴室的態(tài)度發(fā)生了多大改變，薩利克透露了她于1978年成立公司時(shí)的薪水。當(dāng)時(shí)周薪58美元(約合人民幣361美元)，相當(dāng)于現(xiàn)在Waterworks產(chǎn)品目錄中水龍頭價(jià)格的四分之一。而沃克大廈中的Candide French船型浴缸的賣價(jià)，超過了12000美元(約合人民幣73450元)。

Still, a tub in a glass box floating high above the urban landscape seemed like a curious choice to her. “With the bath against the window, there is great light during the day but this sense of coldness at night,” Ms. Sallick said. “Nothing to make you feel closed, warm and private. And there is the cityscape that is in itself sort of active, so how do you ratchet that down? All the glass and all the white is beautiful, and it’s hygienic, but it’s cold. It feels more like an operating room. I wonder if it’s for a younger, cooler, audience, someone in a hurry.”

盡管如此，對(duì)她而言，將浴缸放置玻璃浴室里、面對(duì)著鳥瞰都市的景觀，似乎依然是個(gè)不可思議的選擇。“要是將浴缸正對(duì)著窗口，那么白天光線會(huì)很好，但是到了晚上就會(huì)讓人感覺寒冷，”薩利克說，“根本無法讓你覺得安穩(wěn)、溫馨、隱秘。而且，外面的都市景觀本身又很躍動(dòng)，你怎么能靜下心來呢?滿眼都是玻璃和白色，固然很漂亮，也很衛(wèi)生，但是很冰冷。感覺更像是間手術(shù)室。我在想，它是否更適合那些比較年輕、也更新潮的客戶，也就是生活節(jié)奏很快的人。”