摩天大楼电影设计师说：“在建筑界看来，我们注定是不切实际的。”

"We were doomed for failure in the eyes of the architectural community" says Skyscraper movie designer

制作设计师Jim Bissell承认，在新动作电影《摩天营救》（new action movie）中，超级摩天楼（megatall tower）从未被认为会受到建筑师的青睐，但他还是希望这座建筑能成为“英雄”。设计“珍珠塔”的任务落到了Bissell和他的团队身上，他们被要求建造一座既可信又能满足情节要求的摩天大楼。

但这位获得奥斯卡提名的制片设计师表示，这样一部由演员道恩·强森（Dwayne Johnson）主演的将美丽建筑与电影相结合的作品呈现在大荧幕上，是一项不可能完成的任务。

“无论我们做了什么，在建筑界看来，我们注定是不切实际的，”Bissell对Dezeen说。“我对它将激起我许多建筑同行的愤怒这一事实有非常准确的直觉。”

The megatall tower in new action movie Skyscraper was never expected to be a hit with architects, admits production designer Jim Bissell, but he wanted the building to be a "hero" nonetheless.

The task of designing The Pearl – an imaginary 240-storey tower in Hong Kong that catches on fire – fell to Bissell and his team, who were required to create a skyscraper that was both believable and that satisfied all the requirements of the plot.

But the Oscar-nominated production designer said that marrying a beautiful building and the storyline of the movie, which stars actor Dwayne Johnson, was an impossible task.

"No matter what we did, we were doomed for failure in the eyes of the architectural community," Bissell told Dezeen. "I had no delusions about the fact that it was going to incite the ire of many of my architectural peers."

动作电影《摩天营救》围绕着香港一座高达240层的珍珠塔展开／The action movie Skyscraper centres around The Pearl – a 240-storey tower in Hong Kong

剧本要求建造一座超高的摩天大楼，强森扮演的角色可以以一种戏剧性的方式进入这座摩天大楼，以扑灭大火，拯救被困在里面的家人，同时这一行为创造了令人兴奋的电影场景。

Bissell说：“好的建筑需要满足的所有的标准，应该是美丽的、精彩的、值得庆祝的，而不是在我设计这栋建筑之前就已经有了条条框框。”作为一名设计师，他也想让这座建筑看起来更像是一栋建筑，而这是一项真正的挑战。”

这位制作设计师之前曾参与过《碟中谍4：幽灵协议》（Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol）的场景设计，汤姆·克鲁斯（Tom Cruise）登上了目前世界上最高的建筑——迪拜的哈利法塔（Burj Khalifa）。他还因2005年乔治•克鲁尼（George Clooney）的历史剧《晚安，好运》获得奥斯卡提名。

The script called for a colossal skyscraper that Johnson's character could access in a dramatic fashion, in order to put out the fire and save his family trapped inside, as well as provide a vertigo-inducing setting for the action.

"All of the criteria that good architecture needs to meet to be beautiful, wonderful and celebrated, are not the criteria I had before me to design this building," said Bissell. "As a designer who also wants to make the building look appropriate as a piece of architecture, that was a real challenge."

The production designer previously worked on Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, which sees Tom Cruise scale the world's current tallest building – Dubai's Burj Khalifa. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for his work on George Clooney's 2005 historical drama Good Night, and Good Luck.

这座珍珠塔被设计成可以完全自给自足，包括文化中心和底部的水田／The Pearl is designed to be entirely self-sufficient, and includes amenities like a cultural centre and rice paddies at its base

对于上周发布的《摩天营救》来说，这颗珍珠塔被设计成高达1066米的高度——如果它是真实的，它将成为世界上最高的建筑——它被描述为“现代工程的奇迹”。

建筑师兼建筑专家阿德里安·史密斯（Adrian Smith）曾在早期的写作阶段就该项目进行过咨询。他之前曾告诉Dezeen，导演Rawson Marshall Thurber想要一栋基于真实可能性的建筑。

但事实证明，这一挑战有几个原因，Bissell透露。例如，在电影的叙述中，有一个穹顶的部分，也叫做珍珠，它的尖端有各种各样的高科技功能。

Bissell说：“第一个真正的挑战是，要建造一座非常非常高的建筑，还要加上一颗珍珠，并且不要让它看起来像生殖器。”“第二个原因是，由于它对天际线的影响太大，非常突出……我确实想试着给它赋予一些真实的感觉。”

For Skyscraper, which was released last week, The Pearl was designed to reach 1,066 metres in height – making it the world's tallest building if it were real – and is described as "a marvel of modern engineering".

Architect and tall-building specialist Adrian Smith, who consulted on the project during its early writing stages, previously told Dezeen that director Rawson Marshall Thurber wanted a building that was based on real possibilities.

But this proved challenging for several reasons, Bissell revealed. For example, written into the movie's narrative is a domed portion of the building, also called the Pearl, which houses various high-tech functions at its tip.

"The first real challenge was to make a very, very tall building with a pearl at the end, and not make it look phallic," said Bissell. "The second is that, because it is so overbearing on the skyline, it's so prominent... I did want to try to give it some kind of real character."

这栋建筑的形状是基于一条龙，嘴里叼着一颗珍珠，这是中国古代神话中的一种形象／The building's shape is based on a dragon with a pearl in its mouth, in reference to an ancient Chinese myth

在设计过程中，团队偶然发现了一个古老的中国神话——龙珠，这为这个摩天楼概念提供了灵感。在整个亚洲，龙象征着力量和勇气，呼应了电影中珍珠的所有者和开发商的角色。

由此产生的塔的弯曲的玻璃外形像一条龙，在底部蜿蜒，然后到达天空，在顶端的嘴里衔着球形的“珍珠”。“眼睛”是由双螺旋风力涡轮机创造的，这有助于为大楼提供动力，而“腹部”是一个30层的中庭，电影的大部分情节都发生在这里。

Bissell说：“我认为很多建筑师在他们的作品中所做的，他们从我们戏剧设计师那里学来的东西是，他们赋予了他们的建筑一种叙事的语境。”

总的来说，设计师的意图是让珍珠塔成为一个英雄，“代表某种强烈的、重申的东西，以对抗贪婪和腐败的力量”。

《摩天营救》由Flynn Picture Company、传奇影业、完美世界影业和Seven Bucks Productions制作。

环球影业已经在全球发行了这部电影。下面请继续阅读我们对Jim Bissell采访的编辑版：

Dan Howarth：你是如何为电影《摩天营救》设计珍珠塔的?

Jim Bissell：通过观察这个概念，你可能会认为这是一种设计的挑战，这是一种毫无胜算的情况。作为一名设计师，我的任务是设计一些完全适合香港天际线的东西。

但是好的建筑需要满足的所有标准是美丽、精彩和值得纪念的，这些都不是我之前设计这座建筑的标准。

我只需要让它看起来像是按照这些标准设计的。它必须按照这些标准来设计，但真正的标准是让道恩·强森（Dwayne Johnson）能够进入一座着火的建筑，比天际线上任何其他建筑都要高。

我相信你能理解，就像任何其他建筑师研究这座建筑的设计一样，无论我们做了什么，在建筑界看来，都是不切实际的。

Dan Howarth：这栋楼在故事中的角色是什么?

Jim Bissell：在故事情节中，道恩·强森（Dwayne Johnson）从100层楼高的地方进入建筑，大火已经把楼下的其他建筑部分给隔断了，而他的家人就住在立面。他必须去救他的家人。

他以一种非常戏剧化的方式进入大楼——就像在海报上那样——然后找到了他的家人。他们不断地向上移动，远离危险，最后他把自己置于更危险的境地。

这就是我作为一个戏剧设计师的设计标准。作为一个设计师，他也想让建筑看起来更真实，作为建筑的一部分，这是一个真正的挑战。

导演Rawson也曾在上面写过这个圆顶状的结构，他称之为珍珠，以及为什么被称为珍珠的剧本，这栋大楼运用各种各样的技术创造了奇迹，最重要的是在一个壮观的地方——接近2700英尺的空中。

要使建筑看起来合适，作为建筑的一部分，这是一个真正的挑战

第一个真正的挑战是制作一个非常非常高的建筑，顶部有一颗珍珠，并且看起来不像生殖器。第二，是因为它对天际线影响如此巨大，它是如此突出，相信我并没有妄想，它会激起我许多建筑同行的愤怒——我想给它某种真实的性格。

既不像《火烧摩天楼》，也不像《虎胆龙威》，尤其是《火烧摩天楼》——这座建筑是一个人物，因为它的毁灭不是由于建筑师的疏忽或承包商的腐败，或者类似的东西。这座建筑真的很酷，它有很强的个性，它试图战斗并保护自己，而道恩·强森（Dwayne Johnson）正试图战斗并拯救他的家人。

所以在戏剧层面上的愿望是让建筑成为你所支持的角色。

Dan Howarth：你是怎么做到的?

Jim Bissell：我认为这是很多建筑师在他们的作品中所做的，他们从我们——戏剧设计师——那里学来的东西，那就是他们给他们的建筑赋予了叙事的语境。我们试图赋予我们的建筑珍珠的故事和背景，是基于该地区的文化偶像，以及该地区的神话。

在我们所做的初步研究中，我们发现了龙珠的神话，它与珠江周边的地区有关，离香港非常近。

在那个神话中，你开始明白珍珠是智慧的明珠。龙是河流本身，蜿蜒穿过这个地区。龙有一个更大更卓越的含义：龙在亚洲文化中被认为是一种力量、勇气、坚韧和坚韧。

这就是我们开始设计的基础，这是一个可以自我维持的建筑。我们想在人造的稻田里设计，这些稻田也很有装饰性，为居民种植食物。为这座建筑提供动力所需要的所有能量都是通过潮汐发电机、太阳能电池板和双螺旋风力发电机自行产生的，而双螺旋风力发电机成了巨龙的眼睛。

在一个戏剧性的层面上的愿望是让你的角色成为你所支持的角色。

这些部分都是龙的一部分。戏剧性的是，我们用单音形式试图表达这种力量和优雅，当龙从这些稻田中伸出来，在天空中持有智慧的珍珠。此外，龙的尾巴被铲起，是一个文化中心，音乐厅等。

当这个奇异的形体向上延伸时，在中心——我们的动作发生的地方——是一个30层的中庭。那是龙的肚子。

中庭对我们很有用，因为道恩·强森（Dwayne Johnson）不是一直在大楼外面晃荡，处于危险之中，而是在大楼里面。你可以看到在30层高的中庭周围的地面和梯田。

During the design process, the team stumbled upon an ancient Chinese myth, The Dragon's Pearl, which provided a source of inspiration for the concept. Across Asia, the dragon symbolises strength and courage, echoing the character of The Pearl's owner and developer in the movie.

The resulting tower's curving glass form resembles a dragon, snaked at the bottom then reaching skyward, holding the spherical "pearl" in its mouth at the top. The "eye" is created by double-helix wind turbines that help to power the building, while its "belly" is a 30-storey atrium where much of the film's action takes place.

"Something that I think that many architects do in their work, and they've stolen it from us – dramatic designers – is that they give their building a narrative and a context," Bissell said.

Overall, the designer's intention was for The Pearl to be a hero, and "represent something strong and reaffirming, against the forces of greed and corruption".

Skyscraper was produced by Flynn Picture Company, Legendary Pictures, Perfect World Pictures and Seven Bucks Productions. It has been released worldwide by Universal Pictures.

Read on for an edited version of our interview with Jim Bissell:

Dan Howarth: How did you go about designing The Pearl for the movie Skyscraper?

Jim Bissell:By looking at the concept, you can probably see that as a design challenge it was pretty much a no-win situation. As a designer, I'm tasked with the job of designing something that it is totally appropriate for the skyline of Hong Kong.

But all of the criteria that good architecture needs to meet to be beautiful, wonderful and celebrated, are not the criteria I had before me to design this building.

I had to simply make it look like this building was designed by those criteria. It had to appear to be designed by those criteria, but the real criteria was to give Dwayne Johnson access to a building that was on fire, higher than any other building on the skyline.

I'm sure you can appreciate, as any other architect who looks into the design of this building, that no matter what we did, we were doomed for failure in the eyes of the architectural community.

Especially because there were a couple of other things too that were very much the tail end of the dog in terms of the design process.

Dan Howarth: What is the building's role in the story?

Jim Bissell:The storyline involves Dwayne Johnson coming in above the 100th floor which is where this fire has cut off the rest of the building down below, and that's where his family is. And he has to go save his family.

He enters the building in a very dramatic fashion – it's on the posters – then finds his family and constantly has to move up, away from danger and ends up putting himself in even more peril.

That is the design criteria for me, as a dramatic designer. As a designer who also wants to make the building look appropriate, as a piece of architecture, that was a real challenge.

Rawson, the director, had also written in that at the top is this dome-like structure which he called The Pearl, and why the building was called The Pearl in the original script, which houses all sorts of technological marvels, on top of being in a spectacular place – close to 2,700 feet in the air.

To make the building look appropriate, as a piece of architecture, that was a real challenge

The first real challenge was to make a very, very tall building with a pearl at the end, and not make it look phallic. The second is that, because it is so overbearing on the skyline, it's so prominent – and believe me I had no delusions about the fact that it was going to incite the ire of many of my architectural peers – I did want to try to give it some kind of real character.

Unlike The Towering Inferno, or unlike even Die Hard to a degree, but especially Towering Inferno – the building is a character in the sense that its destruction is not due to the architect's negligence or the corruption of a contractor, or something like that. This building is actually really cool, it's a strong character and it's trying to fight and preserve itself, while Dwayne Johnson is trying to fight and save his family.

So the desire on a dramatic level is to make the building a character that you're rooting for.

Dan Howarth: So how did you go about doing that?

Jim Bissell:It was something that I think that many architects do in their work, and they've stolen it from us – dramatic designers – is that they give their building a narrative and a context. The narrative and context that we tried to give our building, The Pearl, were based on cultural icons of the area, as well as myths of the area.

In the preliminary research that we did, we discovered the myth of The Dragon's Pearl, which has to do with the region around the Pearl River, very close to Hong Kong.

In that myth, you begin to see that the pearl is the pearl of wisdom. The dragon is the river itself, snaking through the area. And the dragon has a greater and more transcendent meaning: the dragon that is celebrated in Asian culture as one of strength and courage and fortitude, and resilience.

So this is what we started basing the design on, which was for a self-sustaining building. We wanted to design in artificial rice paddies that were also very decorative, that grew food for the residents. All the energy that was needed to power the building was self-generated through tidal generators, solar panels and the double-helix wind generators that became the eye of the dragon.

The desire on a dramatic level is to make the building a character that you're rooting for

And that the parts were all part of the dragon. Dramatically, we used the singularist forms to try to articulate this strength and elegance as the dragon reaches up out of these rice paddies and holds the pearl of wisdom in the sky. Also, the tail of the dragon scoops and is a cultural centre, where the concert halls are etc.

As this singular form reaches up, right in the centre – which is where our action takes place – is a 30-storey atrium. That's sort of the belly of the beast.

The atrium was very useful for us, because rather than having Dwayne Johnson dangling constantly on the outside the building, in jeopardy, now he was on the inside of the building. And you can see the fire leach around these floors and terraces of the 30-storey atrium.

这个虚构的摩天大楼是由Bissell和他的团队设计的，以满足电影的叙述／The imaginary skyscraper was designed by Bissell and his team to satisfy the narrative of the movie

Dan Howarth：珍珠塔被认为是世界上最安全的建筑，但显然不是这样。发生了什么吗?

Jim Bissell：在整个建筑中都存在着用于灭火和安全的冗余系统，还有一个非常腐败的组织，他们试图利用建筑来挟持建筑的所有者和开发商——他们是我们的英雄之一——人质。

顺便说一句，设计一座具有真正力量的建筑的另一个原因是，它反映了开发这个建筑的中国人的性格。我们想确保这些关联是好的。

所有这些事情可能导致火灾，但是，我不想放弃太多的故事——他们找到一种方法，非常巧妙地利用道恩·强森（Dwayne Johnson）的角色进入大楼计算机系统并关闭这些系统让他们不工作。

如果你能捕捉到眩晕的感觉，那真的很令人兴奋

正是由于道恩·强森（Dwayne Johnson）和大厦主人的智慧，他们才最终扑灭了大火，我们最终看到他们将重建家园。所以这座建筑幸存下来，将成为英雄。

Dan Howarth：你提到了《火烧摩天楼》，还有许多其他的动作和惊悚电影以摩天大楼为中心。是什么让高楼大厦成为这类电影如此受欢迎的题材?

Jim Bissell：它的高度。相信我当你站在那里，如果你能捕捉到眩晕的感觉，这真的很刺激。这是发自肺腑的，你仍然坐在自己的座位上，而不是坐在过山车上或从天上掉下来，你是在看着别人这么做。但是你的神经细胞在加班。这是很有趣的。

我的女儿是电影艺术系的助理，她参加了演员和剧组人员的放映，她一直坐在座位的边缘。她看过模特，看过片场，她知道发生了什么。但她的手心仍是汗涔涔的，看着道恩蹦蹦跳跳，她一直都很兴奋。

Dan Howarth：所以这是关于捕捉不安的感觉，在屏幕上?

Jim Bissell：我想是的，这是为了制造一种乐趣；一个替代刺激。

Dan Howarth: The Pearl is branded as the safest building in the world, but obviously that's not the case. What happens to it?

Jim Bissell: There are redundant systems for fire suppression and for safety all through the building, and a very corrupt group who are trying to use the building to hold the owner and the developer of the building – who's one of our heroes – hostage.

Incidentally, another reason for designing the building to have a character of real strength is that it reflects this Chinese character who develops the building. We wanted to make sure the associations are good.

There are all these things that could cause the fire to be contained, but – I don't want to give away too much of the story – they find a way, very deviously, using Dwayne Johnson's character to get into the computer systems of the building and shut those systems down so they don't work.

If you can capture that feeling of vertigo, it's really quite thrilling

It's through the cleverness of both Dwayne Johnson and the building's owner that they're eventually able to put the fire out, and we see in the end that they will rebuild. So the building survives and will be a hero.

Dan Howarth: You mentioned The Towering Inferno, and there have been many other action and thriller movies centred around skyscrapers. What is it about tall buildings that make them such popular subjects for these types of movies?

Jim Bissell: It's height. You get up there and believe me, if you can capture that feeling of vertigo, it's really quite thrilling. It's visceral and you're still sitting in your seat, rather than riding around on a rollercoaster or dropping out of the sky, you're watching somebody else do it. But your neurones are working overtime. It's pretty interesting.

My daughter, who was an assistant in the art department on the movie, went to the cast and crew screening and she was on the edge of her seat the whole time. She'd seen the models, she's seen the sets, she knew what was going on. But she still had sweaty palms and she was having the thrill of a lifetime watching Dwayne leap around

Dan Howarth: So it's about capturing the feeling of unease you might get from being so high up, on screen?

Jim Bissell: I think so yes, it's about creating a bit of a joyride; a vicarious thrill.

摩天楼导演罗森·马歇尔·瑟伯（左）和制作设计师Jim Bissell／Skyscraper's director Rawson Marshall Thurber (left) and production designer Jim Bissell

Dan Howarth：有趣的是，在这些电影中建筑物是如何扮演角色的。这座建筑本身就扮演着一个角色，并且是一个非常关键的角色。它的设计和造型可以是好的也可以是坏的。

Jim Bissell：这是真的。我和一位记者讨论了她写的一篇文章，关于为什么坏人总是居住在当代或现代建筑中。有趣的是，特定类型的建筑如何代表特定的性格。

Dan Howarth：这座建筑是基于任何现存的建筑或建筑风格吗?

Jim Bissell：我们受到了圣地亚哥·卡拉特拉瓦（Santiago Calatrava）, 扎哈·哈迪德（Zaha Hadid）的影响——你可以看看那栋建筑，发现它有很多当代建筑的影响。

但与此同时，它坚定地建立在试图以一种优雅的方式捕捉这条龙的性格。这就是我们把它塑造成一个角色的方法，避免了明显的把它塑造成特别的男性化。我想，那些美妙的弯曲的形式使它更女性化。

Dan Howarth:It's interesting how buildings can play characters in these movies. The building itself plays a character and a very pivotal one at that. The way it's designed and shaped, it can either be a good guy or a bad guy.

Jim Bissell:It's true. I had this discussion with a journalist about an article she had done about why the villain always resides in contemporary or modern architecture. It's interesting how certain types of architecture represent certain characters.

Dan Howarth: Was the building based on any particular existing structures or architectural style?

Jim Bissell: We were influenced by [Santiago] Calatrava, Zaha Hadid – you could look at that building and see that it has a lot of contemporary architectural influence.

But at the same time, it was solidly based on trying to capture, in an elegant way, the character of this dragon. That was our solution to making it a character, and avoiding the obvious footfall of making it extraordinarily phallic. Those wonderful sinuous form make it more feminine I think.