另一个令我们印象深刻的是意大利施工方的做事方法和标准。意大利施工方自己有一个木工和金工作坊，他们会在作坊里做试验对复杂的节点，加工一些样品，就像我们工作室里日常做模型一样，非常有帮助。意大利施工方的一个老工程师，最后几天了，为了阳台的一个收边板隔一天从都灵跑一趟米兰，每次来带一块他们的作坊制作的样版，确认收边板符合现场的尺寸，跟我们交换意见，怎么让这块板看起来更精致。我记得我们在图纸背面画草图，陆老师还趴在阳台边去把尺寸标下来，然后老工程师再做一块样品再过来试，因为他觉得这件事很重要。到最后效果比没这样收过好太多了。

　　顺便也说一句，这种根据情况临场发挥对我来说也很特殊，不只是会让我想起老一代建筑师赖特、斯卡帕他们的做法。而是你会突然发现，有些解决办法的出现正是由于有了几个月工地经历的积累，建筑元素在你眼中变成另外一种存在。这个时候你看到的东西可能更立体，更有质感，解决方法也许会更出人意料，带有一种不同的灵感。这种意识在我受的建筑教育中很有限，只有通过做项目，通过和优秀的工程师、建造者合作来体验。我们曾在参与这些过程，中国馆对我们的关联就更多了一层，我们觉得它的质量，或者一种“重量”是不寻常的。这些过程也会投影在我们今后的设计中，我们甚至可能会去自发的寻找这样的“发挥”的机会。

　　【蔡沁文】 Generally speaking what left its most marks is probably the whole process of realizing the timber roof and woven bamboo skin. It is almost a miracle. The complex geometry under such a tight schedule requires high capacity from the constructors. For example, they would need to process hundreds even more than a thousand detail elements that are slightly different from another, coordinate the fabrication, categorizing, transportation, assembly at various locations across Italy and China then organize the site activities all in such a short time. There was enormous amount of work involved in the past a few months. It was the same during the installation of the roof waterproofing and bamboo panels. The entire roof is highly custom-made, without many standard off-the-shelf elements. It means extra amount of work. The roof installers worked continuously without weekends for two months. Sometimes they had to use security cables to stay on the almost vertical parts of the roof for 12-14 hours. A few outstanding engineers and workers actually enjoyed working on challenging projects and were motivated. We appreciated and respected people like this and felt more encouraged to interact with them, offering our best help to achieve the best result. That’s how the miracle could happen.

　　Another important aspect for us is the working methods and standard of our Italian contractor Bodino engineering. They have their own wood shop and metal shop where they can experiment relatively complicated details and fabricate samples, just like we make study models every day in our studio. And it’s very helpful. Even during the last a few days of the construction, this senior engineer from Bodino came to Milan from Turin every day, always carrying a sample panel made in their metal shop to verify that the panel would match the dimensions of what was already constructed. We would also exchange our thoughts with him about how to make the panel more elegant and easier to install. We sketched at the back of the drawing set. Prof. Lu even climbed next to the balcony where the panel would be to mark the sample. After that the engineer made another sample on the following day. It was all because he thought it was important to reach a certain standard. The result was much better.

　　By the way, the on-site improvisation is always special for me, but it’s not only because it reminds me master architects like Frank Lloyd Wright or Carlo Scarpa. You will realize, some solutions could emerge, exactly because of the accumulation of the months spent on the construction site – the architectural elements exist differently in your eyes, more physical and more three dimensional. So your solutions possibly are more unexpected with somewhat different inspirations. This kind of mind-setting was limited in the architectural education I received, so I can only experience it through working on actual projects and working with excellent engineers and builders. And the China Pavilion relates to us even more as we were part of these improvisations on site. So we feel its quality and ‘weight’ is extraordinary. And it will also project to our future design; maybe sometimes we might be even automatically seeking opportunities to improvise.　　

　　↑ 中国馆屋面竹瓦施工过程照片(摄影：陆轶辰)　　

　　↑ 中国馆屋面竹瓦施工过程照片(摄影：陆轶辰)