© Opposite Office
随着伦敦的住房危机深化，一些具有挑衅性的解决方案是否适用？
As London's Housing Crisis Deepens, a Provocative Proposal Suggests the Solution Rests with the Queen
由专筑网苏一，李韧编译
“房间里有闪闪发光的蜡烛、华丽的地毯、大理石柱、雕塑和昂贵的艺术品。”白金汉宫Opposite Office联合创始人Benedikt Hartl说。自从19世纪30世纪以来，这座面积为828821平方英尺（约77000平方米）的住宅一直是英国皇室人员的家，其中有775个房间，79间浴室。而且，如果Opposite Office近期所提出的Affordable Palace设计方案能够实施，那么，那里也可能是你的家。
"The rooms are awash with sparkling candelabra, sumptuous carpets, marble columns, sculptures, and expensive artworks,” says Benedikt Hartl, co-founder of Opposite Office of Buckingham Palace. The 775-room, 79-bathroom, 828,821 square foot residence has been home to Britain’s royalty since the 1830s. And, if Opposite Office’s recent Affordable Palace proposal were to go through, could also be home to you.
© Opposite Office
Affordable Palace方案中，建筑师提出在白金汉宫建立一个多层次共生社区，为超过50,000名伦敦居民提供居住在市中心的空间。该提案提到了避免陡峭的土地成本的额外好处，这些成本通常会导致高昂的建设费用，同时也是皇室的良好公关行动，还关注了社会中住房危机和对经济适用房的需求。
Affordable Palace的说法有些调侃意味，但设计不是重点。当Hartl敦促女王陛下“利用你的皇权和金钱”在白金汉宫上安置负担得起的社会住房时，这是一个误导。真正的问题是，伦敦大部分人口受限制于高昂的房产价格，这与工资的增长幅度不成比例，因此进一步加深了社会贫富差距。
这并不仅限于伦敦，只是这个问题在伦敦表现得有些极端。至于该如何解决这个问题，人们有着不同的看法。总的来说，伦敦的住房问题有两个方面：住房供应和住房负担能力。
Affordable Palace lays out a proposal for a multi-level co-living community atop Buckingham Palace, adding space for more than 50,000 Londoners to live in the center of the city. The proposal mentions the added benefits of avoiding steep land costs that commonly drive the high price of construction as well as being a good PR move for the Palace, all while bringing attention to the housing crisis and need for affordable dwellings.
Affordable Palace is deliberately provocative - a proposal made for the headlines - but the design is hardly the point. When Hartl urges Her Majesty to “use your royal power and money” to place affordable social housing on top of Buckingham Palace, it is a misdirect. The real issue is that a large part of London’s population is locked out of the housing market by prohibitive prices - prices rising disproportionate to wages and further deepening the already-wide affordability gap.
This is hardly limited to London, though it is one of the more extreme examples. Opinions differ sharply on who’s to blame for the problem, and how we should go about solving it. The trouble with housing in London has two facets: housing supply and housing affordability.
© Christine Matthews
截至2017年，伦敦人口估计为880万人，自2012年以来每年增长约1.1％。这一增长意味着每年约有96,000名新居民的到来，而年均住房已接近20,000。2015年至2016年，伦敦的无家可归者增加了7％，需要临时住房的家庭数量增加了6％。伦敦市长Sadiq Khan表示，每年需要建造66,000套新房，才能勉强满足当前不断增长的需求。
然而，意见并非一致，目前采取单靠增加住房供应来解决问题。一些人指责投机和外国投资者，而诸如Patrik Schumacher等人坚持认为这些正是伦敦所需要的东西。事实上，供应方面不是伦敦房地产市场的唯一问题。
很大一部分人口无力进入房地产市场，甚至租房者有更大的负担能力问题，伦敦的房租就欧洲来说都相对高昂。在伦敦市中心租用没有家具的三居室公寓的平均成本是英国整体平均成本的三倍多。 虽然近几年房地产价格飙升（过去十年每年近8％），但工资却无法跟上（2011 - 2017年间只有1.1％）。
虽然像这样的结构性经济问题可能需要数十年才能解决，但许多建筑师、规划师和设计师提出了自己的想法，以减轻住房市场的压力，这就如同在塑造建筑环境。
The population of London was estimated at 8.8 million people as of 2017 and has been growing by around 1.1% annually since 2012. That growth means approximately 96,000 new residents per year, while average yearly housing construction has been closer to 20,000. Homelessness in London increased by 7% and the number of families in need of temporary housing increased by 6% between 2015 and 2016. London mayor Sadiq Khan has declared that 66,000 new homes need to be constructed annually to catch up with the backlog as well as meet the current increasing demand.
Opinions are not unanimous, however, that increasing the housing supply alone will solve the problem. Some blame speculation and foreign investors, while others (such as Patrik Schumacher) insist those are exactly the things London needs. The fact remains that supply is not the only problem with London’s housing market.
A large portion of the population cannot afford to break into the real estate market and even renters face affordability concerns, with London ranking as the most expensive city in Europe for rental housing. The average cost of renting an unfurnished, three-bedroom apartment in central London is more than three times the average for the UK as a whole. While property values have soared in recent years (nearly 8% annually in the past decade) and wages have been entirely unable to keep up (only 1.1% between 2011-2017).
While structural, economic problems like these could take decades to address, many architects, planners, and designers have proposed their own ideas to alleviate some of the housing market stresses as much as they, shapers of the built environment, can.
McGrath Road. Image © Peter Barber Architects
建筑师Peter Barber就是这样的倡导者，致力于住房、城市生活。他在东伦敦的一个开发项目McGrath Road重新构想了“背靠背”住房，那是一个互相共享背墙的传统类型。曾经，这种形式的建筑缺乏室外空间，而Barber却将住宅排布在共享中央庭院之中，并为面向街道的单元创建了深凹陷的私人门廊。 Barber宣布的26个单元开发项目的好处在于其高密度和社区性。
Barber的做法是Mayor Kahn房屋建设计划不可或缺的一部分，并已在伦敦创建了几个经济适用房开发项目，特别是Ordnance Road 和 Worland Gardens。这些开发项目利用当地建筑材料，重新诠释传统建筑风格，满足现代人的审美和生活习惯。这些设计促进了社区氛围，使居民能够分享适当规模的社区空间，但它们（相对于过去的庄园而言）相对较小。
然而，Barber对这个问题的兴趣超出了物理解决方案。 他的项目“100 Mile City”探索了由单轨铁路连接的线性城市，构成环绕伦敦的绿化带，创造出高密度的郊区，缓解城市内的压力。Ebenezer Howards的“花园城市”不仅仅是关于这个项目的气息，而且对于城市化也同样重要。
Architect Peter Barber is one such advocate, committed to housing, urban life, and making them work together. One of his developments in East London, McGrath Road, reimagines back-to-back housing, a traditional typology where units share back party walls. The downfall of this housing format in the past had been its lack of outdoor space, but Barber’s design arranges the homes in a square with a shared central courtyard and creates deeply recessed private porches for the street-facing units. The project’s high density and community were some of Barber’s stated benefits to the 26-unit development.
Barber’s practice is integral in Mayor Kahn’s house-building initiative and has already created multiple affordable housing developments in London, notably Ordnance Road and Worland Gardens. The developments make use of local building materials and reinterpret traditional building styles for modern tastes and construction methods. The designs promote a community atmosphere, allowing residents to share in appropriately-scaled community spaces. And they are (compared to the estates of yesteryear), relatively small.
Barber’s interest in the issue extends beyond physical solution, however. His project, 100 Mile City, explores a vision for a linear city connected by monorail wraps around London’s green belt to create high-density outskirts and relieve the pressure within the city. There’s more than a whiff of Ebenezer Howards’ Garden City about the project - and comes at an equally crucial moment for urbanism.
100 Mile City. Image © Peter Barber Architects
与住房危机有关的另一个问题是需要紧急临时住房，这是伦敦一位议员提出的城市需求，“甚至医生都买不起房子。”QED Sustainable Urban Developments的集装箱项目旨在使用“套件”方法创建耐用、适应性强的临时房屋。运输容器非常适合模块化设计，其结构完整性有利于此类项目的短暂特征。使用棕色地块等其他能够短时间利用的场所，此类项目的的要点在于根据需要堆叠、拆堆、重新安置和重复使用。将房屋价值与移动项目中的土地价值分开，有利于降低成本，以及使用该地区未充分利用的空间。
伦敦住房危机只能通过时间、协作和创新来解决。政治分歧可能会阻碍进步，但这些挑战似乎只会刺激设计师。无论与皇室生活在一起，还是仅仅寻找更多像皇室一样的生活方式，与当地社区和政府的合作都有可能带来突破。但是这需要时间。
Another issue related to the housing crisis is a need for emergency temporary housing, a need which one Councillor in the London borough of Ealing states is ever-increasing in a part of the city where “not even doctors can afford to live.” A shipping container project in Ealing by QED Sustainable Urban Developments aims to create durable, adaptable temporary housing using a “kit of parts” approach. Shipping containers are ideally suited for modular designs and their structural integrity is beneficial for the transitory nature of this type of project. Utilizing brownfield sites and also taking advantage of other sites that are spoken-for but available for a short period of time, the idea is that the homes can be stacked, unstacked, relocated and reused as needed. Separating the value of the home from the value of the land in a mobile project has the benefit of decreasing costs as well as utilizing underused space that’s already available in the area.
The London housing crisis can only be solved with time, collaboration, and innovation. Political divides may impede progress, but these challenges seem only to spur on designers. Whether this means living with royalty, or simply finding ways to live a bit more like royalty, collaborations with local communities and governments have the potential to lead to a breakthrough. It can’t come soon enough.
© Opposite Office
© Opposite Office
© Opposite Office
Marston Court, Ealing. Image © QED Sustainable Urban Developments
Marston Court, Ealing. Image © QED Sustainable Urban Developments
Marston Court, Ealing. Image © QED Sustainable Urban Developments
© Wikimedia User:Colin and Kim Hansen
Ordnance Road. Image © Peter Barber Architects
Worland Gardens. Image © Peter Barber Architects
McGrath Road. Image © Peter Barber Architects
© Opposite Office
© Opposite Office
© Opposite Office
© Opposite Office
© Opposite Office
100 Mile City. Image © Peter Barber Architects
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