住在排水管？解決香港住房難題的五個點子

For eight years in a row, an international survey of nearly 300 cities has named Hong Kong the world’s least affordable housing market.

對近300個城市進行的一項國際調查連續(xù)八年將香港列為全球最難以負擔的房地產市場。

It is not hard to see why. Located on a group of hilly islands and a corner of the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong has always been short of places to build. The government’s reliance on land sales for revenue creates an incentive to keep prices high. Money pouring in from mainland Chinese investors pushes them even higher.

不難看出原因。香港坐落在一片多山的島嶼上，地處中國大陸一隅，建筑用地向來不足。政府收入依賴賣地，這對保持高房價起到了鼓勵作用。內地投資者的資金涌入，進一步抬高了房價。

The extremes can be staggering. A single parking spot sold for $664,000 last year. Apartments only slightly bigger, and in much less desirable parts of town, go for more than $380,000. Living spaces have shrunk so much that a new term has emerged: “nano flat,” for apartments measuring around 200 square feet or less.

極端情況可能令人震驚。去年，一個停車位售價66.4萬美元(約合420萬元人民幣)。只是稍微大一點的公寓，并且是在遠非理想的地段，售價超過38萬美元。居住空間被壓縮得如此嚴重，以至出現了一個新詞：“納米房”，指的是面積大約200平方英尺(約合19平方米)或以下的公寓。

Many Hong Kongers have been priced out of the housing market, including young people forced to live with their parents. Their discontent is said to have contributed to recent street protests like the 2014 Umbrella Movement.

很多香港人因為房價過高而無法進入房地產市場，包括被迫與父母同住的年輕人。他們的不滿據說是導致近年出現街頭抗議的原因之一，比如2014年的雨傘運動。

A government task force is considering a wide range of options for making better use of available land. Architects and developers have also put forward some novel proposals, ranging from the quirky to the audacious. While some of the ideas may be repackaged versions of the cramped spaces the city has long known, others could reshape the future of housing in Hong Kong. Here are some of the ideas:

政府的一個特別工作小組正在考慮更好利用可用土地的廣泛選擇。建筑設計師和開發(fā)商也提出了一些新穎的建議，有古怪的，也有大膽的。雖然有些點子可能是重新包裝這個城市早已熟悉的狹小空間，但另一些創(chuàng)意可能會重塑香港房地產市場的未來。下面是其中一些想法：

Living in a Drainpipe

住在排水管里

The architect James Law was at a construction site in town when he noticed some concrete pipes left over from an infrastructure project. They were large enough to walk in, cool in the summer and surprisingly nicely finished.

建筑設計師羅發(fā)禮(James Law)在城里一處建筑工地上發(fā)現了一個基礎設施項目遺留下來的一些混凝土管道。它們大到人可以在里面行走，夏天涼爽，而且涂層好得出奇。

“I had a eureka moment,” he said.

“那一刻激發(fā)了我的靈感，”他說。

So he spent about a month designing and building the OPod, two sections of concrete drainpipe joined to create a living space of about 100 square feet. It includes a couch and foldout bed, a desk, shelving, a tiny kitchenette, a hanging closet and a shower.

于是，他用了大約一個月的時間設計和建造水管屋(OPod)——兩節(jié)混凝土水管連接起來，形成了一個大約100平方英尺的居住空間。屋里有一張沙發(fā)兼折疊床、一張書桌、架子、一個小廚房，一個懸掛式衣櫥和一個淋浴間。

The pods can be stacked up to five high, or placed in small, unused spaces between buildings and under bridges. A prototype is now on display in a waterfront park, but there are no plans yet for commercial production.

水管屋最多可以五個摞在一起，或放在建筑物之間閑置的狹小空間和橋梁下面。房屋樣品目前正在一座濱水公園展出，但還沒有商業(yè)建造的計劃。

“It is not a complete solution to what is a very complex problem,” Mr. Law said. “But it is a fun, design-oriented way to stimulate debate and even, on a small scale, create model projects.”

“這不是徹底解決一個非常復雜的問題的辦法，”羅發(fā)禮說。“但這是一種有趣的、以設計為導向的方式，可以激發(fā)討論，甚至小規(guī)模打造樣板項目。”

Return of the Tenements

回歸唐樓

One idea is already a reality, in a pair of 50-year-old buildings with distinctive blue, gray and green geometric patterns.

一個想法已經在兩棟建筑中實現了，它們擁有50年的歷史，并且有著獨特的藍色、灰色和綠色幾何圖案。

The buildings stand on a street lined with shops selling power tools and industrial fans. Such tenements, known as tong lau, were common here in Hong Kong before high-rises. Synergy Biz Group, a local architecture and development company, has recycled them into communal living spaces with some modern touches.

這兩棟建筑坐落在一條店鋪林立，出售電動工具和工業(yè)風扇的街道上。這種房屋叫唐樓，在高樓大廈出現之前在香港很常見。香港當地的建筑和開發(fā)公司Synergy Biz Group將它們重新利用，變成了頗具現代氣息的共同居住空間。

Called Bibliotheque, the buildings feature slickly designed dormitory-like living spaces with shared kitchens and bathrooms. The rooms are tiny, with about 50 square feet per single unit, and cost from about $450 to $750 a month. The residents are mostly young, drawn by rents that are low by Hong Kong standards.

這些建筑名為“書匯”(Bibliotheque)，特點是巧妙地設計出類似宿舍的生活空間，有共享的廚房和浴室。房間很小，每套房面積約為50平方英尺，每月租金從450美元至750美元不等。居民大多是被租金吸引而來的年輕人，以香港的標準看，這里的租金算是比較低的。

Jo Chow, a 33-year-old office administrator who lives in one of the spaces, said she pays half of what she did for an apartment in a more distant corner of Hong Kong.

33歲的辦公室行政人員喬·周(Jo Chow)住在這里的一個空間之中。她說，她曾在香港一個更偏遠的角落住過，那里一套公寓的房租是這里的兩倍。

“For me, I just need a flat in a convenient location,” she said. “I don’t need a big place to live right now.”

“我只是需要在一個位置比較好的地方住下，”她說，“我目前不需要住在一個很大的地方。”

Some people have criticized these spaces as new takes on Hong Kong’s infamous “coffin homes,” apartments that have been subdivided into tiny spaces, and questioned the appeal of such cramped, communal arrangements.

有些人批評這些空間是香港臭名昭著的“棺材屋”的新版本，質疑這種狹窄公用住所的吸引力。“棺材屋”就是把公寓分成許多狹小空間的住處。

“They may save on the cost of rent,” said Yip Ngai-ming, a professor of public policy at City University of Hong Kong. “But whether it will work, I don’t know.”

“它們也許能省點房租，”香港城市大學(City University of Hong Kong)的公共政策教授葉毅明(Yip Ngai-ming)說，“但我不知道它是否可行。”

But Keith Wong, the director of Synergy, argued that group living provided security and a sense of community. He said the company wanted to add more buildings and to work with landlords to convert individual apartments.

不過，Synergy的負責人黃兆麟(Keith Wong)認為，群體生活提供了安全感和社區(qū)意識。他表示，該公司希望能增加更多的住宅樓，與房東合作，改造獨立的公寓。

Building Up (Even More) to the Sky

(還要更多地)向天空伸展

Half a century ago, when refugees poured into Hong Kong to escape turmoil in mainland China, the city started a public housing program that provides residences, usually in high-rises, for nearly half of the population today.

半個世紀前，當難民為躲避中國大陸的動蕩涌入香港時，該市便開始了一項公共住房計劃，為當時的居民提供住處，建的大多是高樓。當時的居民人數大約是現在的一半。

The architect and professor David Erdman has suggested fitting in more people in those same buildings by going even higher, adding cornices of from 5 to 25 stories atop the existing structures, which are already often about 40 stories tall already.

建筑師兼教授戴維·厄爾德曼(David Erdman)提議把這些大樓加高，讓更多的人住進去，在現有建筑的基礎上增加5至25層。這些樓本身大多已有40層高。

The idea was inspired by discussions with former colleagues at the University of Hong Kong about fitting additional housing in the spaces between public housing blocks. Building upward instead would offer the same result without harming existing amenities, said Mr. Erdman, now chairman of Graduate Architecture and Urban Design at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

這個想法是他和香港大學的前同事們討論如何在公共住宅區(qū)之間的空地上設置更多住處時產生的。厄爾德曼表示，向上加蓋能產生同樣的效果，且不會損害現有的設施。他目前是布魯克林普拉特學院(Pratt Institute)的建筑和城市設計研究生院(Graduate Architecture and Urban Design)的院長。

His students have produced dramatic designs that would transform the drab and repetitive look of Hong Kong’s public housing complexes. “I would love to see one built,” Mr. Erdman said.

他的學生們設計出了一些引人注目的方案，旨在改變香港公共住宅大樓灰暗單調的面貌。“我很想看到某個方案能建起來，”厄爾德曼說。

Cruise Ships and Islands

郵輪和島嶼

Perhaps the most unconventional idea calls for putting people on cruise liners.

也許最不尋常的想法是讓人們住在郵輪上。

The floating community would not be a permanent solution but is instead the first step in a proposal from Doctoral Exchange, a local research group.

這種浮動的社區(qū)并非永久的解決方案，而是當地研究小組“博匯”(Doctoral Exchange)一項提議中的第一步。

The second step of the plan is even more ambitious: building several large artificial islands in the sea to the south of Hong Kong. The new, 45-square-mile archipelago would fall outside Hong Kong’s boundaries, meaning it would require backing from China’s central government.

該計劃的第二步更有雄心：在香港以南的海域建造幾個大型人工島。這個占地45平方英里的新群島將處于香港的地界之外，這意味著，它將需要獲得中國中央政府的支持。

Island building on such a scale would likely face opposition over potential environmental damage. But China would have at least one advantage in such a project, said Francis Neoton Cheung of Doctoral Exchange. It could use the same reclamation technology that it is currently developing in the South China Sea to build military strongholds on what were once sunken reefs, he said.

如此規(guī)模的造島可能會由于對環(huán)境的潛在破壞而遭到反對。但是該小組的張量童(Francis Neoton Cheung)說，中國在這樣的項目中至少有一個優(yōu)勢。他說，中國目前正在運用填海造陸技術開發(fā)南海，在那些一度下陷的礁石上建造軍事據點，同一種技術也可以運用在香港。

“I know it’s a bit daring, but it might be the solution,” he said. “If circumstances allow.”

“我知道這有些大膽，但沒準它就是解決辦法呢，”他說。“如果條件允許的話。”

Turning Ports into Towers

變港口為高樓

Hong Kong’s container port is the world’s fifth-largest by volume. It also sits on an iconic part of the waterfront that the government task force is now looking at to ease the land shortage.

按貨運量算，香港的貨柜碼頭在世界位列第五。它坐落于一塊標志性的濱海地區(qū)，政府特別工作小組也注意到了這里，希望可以利用它來緩解土地短缺。

Hundreds of thousands of people could live on the port’s 900 acres. One proposal calls for relocating the port to make way for housing. Another calls for keeping the port where it is, while constructing huge platforms above its bustling waterfront cranes on which residential skyscrapers could then be built.

這個900英畝(約合364萬平方米)的港口可以住下數十萬人。一項提議呼吁遷走港口，為住房讓地。也有人主張在原處保留港口，但是在繁忙的港口起重機上方修建巨型平臺，再在平臺上建造可供居住的摩天大樓。

Officials call this idea feasible, and the port operator says it is open to the idea, but the cost and levels of public support are still unknown.

官員們認為這是個可行的主意。港口的經營者表示對這一想法持開放態(tài)度，但成本以及公眾支持度仍然是未知數。

Like other more ambitious ideas for new housing, the port-topping towers might never be built. But the idea of redeveloping ports isn’t so unusual. One of Hong Kong’s first large-scale private housing developments, Taikoo Shing, was built on the site of Swire Company’s dockyards.

和其他更加雄心勃勃的住房新概念一樣，這些港口之上的樓房或許永遠都不會建成。但對港口進行重新開發(fā)的想法并不少見。香港首批大型私人住宅區(qū)之一太古城，正是建在太古公司的造船廠舊址之上。