Radiant Works of Art That Warm a Room
暖爐藝術化滿室生溫
By Julie Lasky

Several winters ago, Guus van Leeuwen, who was then an industrial design student, was riding with his girlfriend in a horse-drawn sleigh in Sweden. Wrapped in reindeer pelts, the couple watched steam rise from the bodies of the sweating animals in front of them. That’s when “it all came together,” Mr. van Leeuwen said.
幾個冬天前，當時還是工業設計學生的凡萊文，和女友一起在瑞典乘坐馬拉的雪橇。兩人披裹著馴鹿皮毛，流汗的動物在他們眼前散發著蒸氣。凡萊文說，那一刻「靈感全部湧現」。

Returning to the Netherlands, he bent metal rods into life-size animal sculptures, then draped them in skins and presented them as his graduate project at the Design Academy Eindhoven. In the group were a red deer, a ram and an arctic fox, and every one of them was a radiator.
回到荷蘭，他將金屬棒彎成真實動物大小的雕塑，將它披上皮革，作為他在埃恩荷溫設計學院的畢業設計作品。一整組作品包括一隻紅鹿、一隻公羊、一隻北極白狐，每隻都是一個暖爐。

Mr. van Leeuwen is the extreme designer who finds poetry in home heating devices. His Domestic Animals radiators, which he sells in an electric version for about $7,700 to $11,600 (not including shipping), recall the days when a hearth was the focal point of a home and livestock were welcome in the family huddle.
凡萊文是位極端設計師，為家庭暖氣設備找到了詩意。他的家畜暖爐，電氣版的售價從7,700美元到11,600美元不等（不含運費），令人回憶起火爐是家中焦點，歡迎牲畜和家人挨蹭在一起的時日。

But Mr. van Leeuwen is not alone among Europeans in reimagining the radiator as sculpture. His Continental peers have designed dozens of conversation starters. Hotech, an Italian radiator company, has a collection with names like Chagall and Fabergé. Its David model is a beefy male torso.
在歐洲人當中，凡萊文不是將暖爐經過再想像變成雕塑的唯一一人。他的歐洲大陸同行也設計出數十種能夠讓人打開話匣的這類產品。義大利電暖器公司「和德」有以名人命名的一系列產品，如夏加爾、法貝吉。公司的大衛造型暖爐是一個壯碩的男性軀幹。

In the United States, people are less fanciful with their heating apparatuses. The typical American radiator is an inconspicuous strip that runs along the baseboard or a corrugated rectangle that hugs the wall.
在美國，暖氣設備不那麼天馬行空。典型的美國暖氣設備是沿著護壁板架設，隱形不見的一條管道，或是緊貼牆壁的長方形波紋片。

Why are American radiators so uncool?
美國的暖氣設備為何這麼不酷？

One reason is that, as countries go, the United States is not radiator-friendly. Richard Trethewey, an American heating and plumbing expert, said that whereas 99 percent of European homes are heated with hot water, from 6 to 11 percent of American homes are.
原因之一是，以國家來說，美國對暖氣爐並不友善。美國的暖氣與鉛管專家崔斯威說，99%的歐洲家庭是以熱水提供暖氣，然而美國卻只有6%到11%的家庭如此。

Instead, most Americans heat their homes with warm air circulated through ducts and blown out of wall registers. Because the same forced-air system can also circulate cool air, it is the top choice here. (Europeans are less hung up on cold comforts like ice in their drinks and air-conditioning.)
相反地，美國人多數使用的是暖氣循環管路，從壁式的格柵型暖氣口吹出。這個壓力熱風供暖系統，同時也可供冷氣循環，因此成為美國人的首選。（歐洲人較不追求冷卻的舒適，例如飲料加冰，或是空調。）

Another obstacle to a wider choice of radiators is Americans’ hunger for surface area. Even if the radiator is an elegant woven grid of steel (like Stefano Giovannoni’s Trame model for the Italian company Tubes) most Americans are unwilling to commit to using up wall space.
讓美國人沒有太多暖爐選擇的另一道障礙，是美國人對表面積的飢渴。即使這個暖爐只是一個優雅的編織造型鋼格（例如史蒂法諾‧喬凡諾尼替義大利杜布斯設計的特蘭梅暖氣爐），多數美國人還是不願用掉全部牆壁空間。

Karim Rashid, the New York-based industrial designer, believes that radiators occupy a zone of overlooked utilitarian objects – first cousins of wall outlets and light switches.
紐約的工業設計師拉希德認為，暖氣爐會占據空間，類似於牆壁電源插座與燈光開關的一些功能物件將無處置放。

Because Americans have such low expectations, Mr. Rashid was able to make a sensation with “Totally Rad,” a 2009 exhibition of avant-garde radiators he curated at the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan. Here were radiators that doubled as mirrors or looked like silvery grasses swaying in the wind.
美國人對於暖氣爐期待不高，讓拉希德2009年於曼哈坦「藝術與設計博物館」舉辦名為「酷斃了」的前衛暖爐展覽時，能夠造成轟動。那次展出的暖爐有的可兼作鏡子，有的宛如銀草在風中搖曳。

But arty style comes at a price for necessities like hand fabrication, and even in Europe, the audience is narrow. David Carter, an interior designer in London, loves the Heatwave radiator, a beautiful baroque flourish that Joris Laarman of the Netherlands introduced it in 2003. But it costs between $5,000 and $14,000.
不過，藝術風格高的必需品，和手工製品一般，都價格高昂，即使在歐洲，愛用者仍是少數。倫敦室內設計師卡特愛死這個「熱浪」暖爐了，這是荷蘭的拉曼2003年推出的一個美麗巴洛克式花飾。但它要價卻在5,000到14,000美元之間。

“I’d like to have some of those floating across the room, like clouds,” Mr. Carter said.
卡特說：「我喜歡讓那些花飾像雲朵般飄浮在房間裡。」

In his own home?
擺進自己家中？

“Absolutely not,” he said. “I can’t afford it.”
他說：「那絕對不行。我可買不起。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/garden/a-radiance-all-their-own.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.tmagazine.com/design/20131116/t16radiators/

2013-12-03聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 王麗娟譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版上