Last summer, two nineteenth-century cottages were rescued from remote farm fields in Montana, to be moved to an Art Deco building in San Francisco. The houses were made of wood. These cottages once housed early settlers as they worked the dry Montana soil; now they hold Twitter engineers.
去年夏天，两座十九世纪的小屋从蒙大拿州偏远的农田中拯救出来，被转移到旧金山的一座Art Deco风格的建筑中。小屋是木制的，曾经是早期定居者在蒙大拿州干燥的土地上工作的地方；现在它们拥有了推特工程师。
The cottages could be an example of the industry’ s odd love affair with “low technology,” a concept associated with the natural world, and with old-school craftsmanship that exists long before the Internet era. Low technology is not virtual —so, to take advantage of it, Internet companies have had to get creative. The rescued wood cottages, fitted by hand in the late eighteen-hundreds, are an obvious example, but Twitter’s designs lie on the extreme end. Other companies are using a broader interpretation of low technology that focuses on nature.
这些小屋可能是该行业对“传统技术”（一个与自然世界有关的概念）以及早在互联网时代之前就存在的旧工艺的奇怪热爱的一个例子。传统技术不是虚拟的——因此，为了利用这一优势，互联网公司必须发挥创意。十八世纪末手工建造的获救木屋就是一个明显的例子，但推特的设计却很极端。其他公司更广泛使用专注于自然的传统技术。
Amazon is building three glass spheres filled with trees, so that employees can “work and socialize in a more natural, park-like setting.” At Google’s office, an entire floor is carpeted in glass. Facebook’s second Menlo Park campus will have a rooftop park with a walking trail.
亚马逊正在建造三个装满树木的玻璃球，这样员工就可以“在更自然、公园般的环境中工作和社交”。在谷歌的办公室，整个地板都铺着玻璃。脸书的第二门罗公园校区将有一个带步行道的屋顶公园。
Olle Lundberg, the founder of Lundberg Design, has worked with many tech companies over the years. “We have lost the connection to the maker in our lives, and our tech engineers are the ones who feel impoverished, because they’re surrounded by the digital world,” he says. “They’re looking for a way to regain their individual identity, and we’ve found that introducing real crafts is one way to do that.”
伦德伯格设计公司的创始人Olle Lundberg多年来与许多科技公司合作。“我们在生活中失去了与制造者的联系，而我们的技术工程师是那些感觉贫乏的人, 因为他们被数字世界所包围，”他说，“他们正在寻找一种重新获得个人身份的方法，我们发现引入真正的工艺品是一种方法。”
This craft based theory is rooted in history, William Morris, the English artist and writer, turned back to pre-industrial arts in the eighteen-sixties, just after the Industrial Revolution. The Arts and Crafts movement defined itself against machines. “Without creative human occupation, people became disconnected from life,” Morris said.
这种以工艺为基础的理论植根于历史，英国艺术家和作家威廉·莫里斯在十八世纪六十年代工业革命后回到了前工业艺术。工艺美术运动将自己定义为反对机器。莫里斯说：“如果没有创造性的人类职业，人们就会与生活脱节”。
Research has shown that natural environments can restore our mental capacities. In Japan, patients are encouraged to “forest-bathe,” taking walks through woods to lower their blood pressure.
研究表明，自然环境可以恢复我们的心理能力。在日本，鼓励患者“森林沐浴”，在树林中散步以降低血压。
These health benefits apply to the workplace as well. Rachel Kaplvin, a professor of environmental psychology, has spent years researching the restorative effects of natural environment. Her research found that workers with access to nature at the office—even simple views of trees and flowers—felt their jobs were less stressful and more satisfying. If low-tech offices can potentially nourish the brains and improve the mental health of employees then, fine, bring on the cottages.
这些健康益处同样适用于工作场所。环境心理学教授Rachel Kaplvin花了多年时间研究自然环境的恢复作用。她的研究发现，在办公室里接触大自然的员工，即使是简单的树木和花朵，也会觉得他们的工作压力更小，更令人满意。如果传统技术的办公室有可能滋养大脑，改善员工的心理健康，那么，好吧，那就建造小屋吧。
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