So, I have an overlooked but potentially lucrative investment opportunity for you. Over the past 10 years in the UK, the return on burial plots has outperformed the UK property market by a ratio of around three to one. There are private cemeteries being set up with plots for sale to investors, and they start at around 3,900 pounds. And they're projected to achieve about 40 percent growth. The biggest advantage is that this is a market with continuous demand.
Imam jednu zanemarenu ali potencijalno unosnu poslovnu ponudu za vas. Zadnjih deset godina u Velikoj Britaniji zarada na grobnim mjestima je zasjenila tržište nekretnina u omjeru oko tri naprema jedan. Postoje privatna groblja sa mjestima za prodaju ulagačima, početna cijena oko 3900 funti. A projektirani su da postignu rast od 40 posto. Najveća prednost je ta da ovo tržište ima kontinuiranu potražnju.
Now, this is a real proposition, and there are companies out there that really are offering this investment, but my interest in it is quite different. I'm an architect and urban designer, and for the past year and a half, I've been looking at approaches to death and dying and at how they've shaped our cities and the buildings within them.
Sad, to je pravi prijedlog, a postoje tvrtke koje stvarno nude ova ulaganja, ali moj interes je malo drugačiji. Ja sam arhitekt i urbani dizajner, i zadnjih godinu i pol, gledam kako pristupiti smrti i umirućima i kako oni oblikuju naše gradove i zgrade unutar njih.
So in the summer, I did my first exhibition on death and architecture in Venice, and it was called "Death in Venice." And because death is a subject that many of us find quite uncomfortable to talk about, the exhibition was designed to be quite playful, so that people would literally engage with it. So one of our exhibits was an interactive map of London which showed just how much of the real estate in the city is given over to death. As you wave your hand across the map, the name of the piece of real estate -- the building or the cemetery -- is revealed. And those white shapes that you can see, they're all of the hospitals and hospices and mortuaries and cemeteries in the city. In fact, the majority are cemeteries. We wanted to show that, even though death and burial are things that we might not think about, they're all around us, and they're important parts of our cities.
Na ljeto, imala sam prvu izložbu o smrti i arhitekturi u Veneciji, zvala se „Smrt u Veneciji.“ I zbog toga što je smrt tema koju mnogi od nas doživljavaju kao neugodnu za razgovor, izložba je dizajnirana vrlo razigrano, kako bi se ljudi u nju doslovno uključili. Izložili smo interaktivnu kartu Londona koja pokazuje kolika je samo površina grada dana smrti. Kako pomičete ruku preko karte, imena tih površina – zgrada i groblja -- se prikazuju. I ovi bijeli oblici koje možete vidjeti su bolnice, hospiciji, mrtvačnice i groblja u gradu. Zapravo, većina su groblja. Htjeli smo pokazati da, iako su smrt i pokop događaji o kojima ne razmišljamo, oni su oko nas i bitni su dijelovi našeg grada.
So about half a million people die in the UK each year, and of those, around a quarter will want to be buried. But the UK, like many Western European countries, is running out of burial space, especially in the major cities. And the Greater London Authority has been aware of this for a while, and the main causes are population growth, the fact that existing cemeteries are almost full. There's a custom in the UK that graves are considered to be occupied forever, and there's also development pressure -- people want to use that same land to build houses or offices or shops.
Oko pola milijuna ljudi umire u Velikoj Britaniji svake godine, a četvrtina njih želi biti pokopana. Ali VB, poput mnogih zapadnoeuropskih zemalja, ponestaje mjesta za pokop, poglavito u velikim gradovima. I Uprava šireg Londona je svjesna toga, glavni razlog tome je porast stanovnika, činjenica da su postojeća groblja skoro pa puna. Postoji običaj u VB da osoba bude zauvijek pokopana u grobu, a postoji i razvojni pritisak -- ljudi žele koristiti isto zemljište za izgradnju kuća, ureda ili trgovina.
So they came up with a few solutions. They were like, well, maybe we can reuse those graves after 50 years. Or maybe we can bury people, like, four deep, so that four people can be buried in the same plot, and we can make more efficient use of the land that way, and in that way, hopefully London will still have space to bury people in the near future.
Došli su do nekoliko rješenja Mislili su, možda možemo opet koristiti grobove nakon 50 godina. Ili možemo pokapati ljude po četvero u dubinu tako da je četvero ljudi pokopano u istom grobnom mjestu i tako možemo povećati učinkovitost zemljišta, i time, nadajmo se, London će imati mjesta za pokapanje ljudi u bliskoj budućnosti.
But, traditionally, cemeteries haven't been taken care of by the local authority. In fact, the surprising thing is that there's no legal obligation on anyone in the UK to provide burial space. Traditionally, it's been done by private and religious organizations, like churches and mosques and synagogues. But there's also occasionally been a for-profit group who has wanted to get in on the act. And, you know, they look at the small size of a burial plot and that high cost, and it looks like there's serious money to be made.
Tradicijski, o grobljima se ne brinu lokalne vlasti. Zapravo, iznenađujuće je to da ne postoji legalna obveza nikoga u VB da osigura grobno mjesto. Tradicijski, to rade privatne i religijske organizacije, poput crkvi, džamija i sinagoga. Ponekad se pojave i organizacije koje žele zaraditi baveći se time. Znate, kada pogledate veličinu grobnog mjesta i visoku cijenu, čini se da bi se mogli zaraditi ozbiljni novci.
So, actually, if you want to go out and start your own cemetery, you kind of can. There was this couple in South Wales, and they had a farmhouse and a load of fields next to it, and they wanted to develop the land. They had a load of ideas. They first thought about making a caravan park, but the council said no. And then they wanted to make a fish farm and again the council said no. Then they hit on the idea of making a cemetery and they calculated that by doing this, they could increase the value of their land from about 95,000 pounds to over one million pounds.
I, zapravo, ako želite otvoriti svoje groblje, zapravo možete. Postoji par u Južnom Walesu koji je imao kuću na farmi i mnogo njiva pored nje, i htjeli su nešto učiniti s njom. Imali su mnogo ideja. prvo su htjeli napraviti park za kamp kućice, ali je vijeće reklo ne. Zatim su htjeli napraviti ribnjak i opet vijeće je reklo ne. I onda su dobili ideju da naprave groblje i računali su da ako to učine, povisit će vrijednost njihove zemlje od 95 000 funti do preko 1 milijun funti.
But just to come back to this idea of making profit from cemeteries, like, it's kind of ludicrous, right? The thing is that the high cost of those burial plots is actually very misleading. They look like they're expensive, but that cost reflects the fact that you need to maintain the burial plot -- like, someone has to cut the grass for the next 50 years. That means it's very difficult to make money from cemeteries. And it's the reason that normally they're run by the council or by a not-for-profit group. But anyway, the council granted these people permission, and they're now trying to build their cemetery.
Hajde da se vratim na tu ideju o profitiranju putem groblja, smiješna je, zar ne? Stvar je u tome da je visoka cijena grobnih mjesta zapravo zabluda. Izgledaju skupo ali cijena odražava činjenicu da morate održavati grobno mjesto -- poput, netko treba kositi travu sljedećih 50 godina. To znači da je vrlo teško zaraditi novce imajući groblje. I to je razlog zašto ih obično vodi neko vijeće ili neprofitne grupe. No, vijeće je dalo odobrenje tim ljudima, i sad pokušavaju sagraditi svoje groblje.
So just to explain to you kind of how this works: If I want to build something in the UK, like a cemetery for example, then I have to apply for planning permission first. So if I want to build a new office building for a client or if I want to extend my home or, you know, if I have a shop and I want to convert it into an office, I have to do a load of drawings, and I submit them to the council for permission. And they'll look at things like how it fits in the surroundings. So they'll look at what it looks like. But they'll also think about things like what impact is it going to have on the local environment? And they'll be thinking about things like, is this thing going to cause pollution or is there going to be a lot of traffic that wants to go to this thing that I've built? But also good things. Is it going to add local services like shops to the neighborhood that local people would like to use? And they'll weigh up the advantages and the disadvantages and they'll make a decision.
Da vam objasnim otprilike kako ovo funkcionira: Ako želim sagraditi nešto u VB, na primjer groblje, moram se prvo prijaviti za dopuštenje o planiranju. Ako želim sagraditi nove urede za klijente ili želim proširiti svoju kuću ili, znate, imam trgovinu i želim ju pretvoriti u ured, moram napraviti hrpu crteža, i to predati vijeću za dozvole. I oni će provjeriti stvari poput kako se uklapa u okolinu. Pogledat će kako će sve izgledati. Ali će također razmisliti i o stvarima poput kakav će utjecaj imati na okolinu. I razmislit će o stvarima poput, hoće li ovo stvarati zagađenje ili hoće li biti prometno zbog toga što gradim. Ali gledat će i dobre stvari. Hoće li dodati novu uslugu, poput trgovine, u susjedstvo koje će ljudi htjeti koristiti? Vagati će prednosti i nedostatke i donijeti odluku.
So that's how it works if I want to build a large cemetery. But what if I've got a piece of land and I just want to bury a few people, like five or six? Well, then -- actually, I don't need permission from anyone! There's actually almost no regulation in the UK around burial, and the little bit that there is, is about not polluting water courses, like not polluting rivers or groundwater. So actually, if you want to go and make your own mini-cemetery, then you can.
Tako bi to išlo da želim otvoriti veliko groblje. A što ako imam komad zemljišta i želim sahraniti nekoliko ljudi, pet-šest? Tada, zapravo, ne trebam ničije odobrenje! Skoro pa ne postoje propisi u VB što se tiče pokopa, a ono što ima, tiče se onečišćenja voda, poput rijeka i podzemnih voda Zapravo, ako želite stvoriti svoje malo groblje, možete.
But I mean, like -- really, who does this? Right? Well, if you're an aristocratic family and you have a large estate, then there's a chance that you'll have a mausoleum on it, and you'll bury your family there. But the really weird thing is that you don't need to have a piece of land of a certain size before you're allowed to start burying people on it. And so that means that, technically, this applies to, like, the back garden of your house in the suburbs.
Ali --stvarno, tko to čini? Zar ne? Ako ste aristokratska obitalj i imate veliki posjed, postoji šansa da imate mauzolej na njemu, i da se tu pokapaju članovi obitelji. Ali stvarno čudna stvar je to da ne morate imati komad zemlje određene veličine prije no što vam je dopušteno pokapati ljude na njoj. A to znači da tehnički, to se odnosi i na stražnje dvorište vaše kuće u predgrađu.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
So what if you wanted to try this yourself at home? Well, there's a few councils that have guidance on their website which can help you.
Što ako biste htjeli to pokušati kod kuće? postoji nekoliko vijeća koja imaju smjernice na internetu koje vam mogu pomoći.
So, the first thing that they tell you is that you need to have a certificate of burial before you can go ahead -- you're not allowed to just murder people and put them under the patio.
Prva stvar koju vam kažu je da morate imati certifikat pokopa prije no što to učinite -- nije dozvoljeno samo ubiti ljude i pokopati ih u dvorištu.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
They also tell you that you need to keep a record of where the grave is. But that's pretty much it for formal requirements. Now, they do warn you that your neighbors might not like this, but, legally speaking, there's almost nothing that they can do about it. And just in case any of you still had that profit idea in your mind about how much those burial plots cost and how much money you might be able to make, they also warn that it might cause the value of your house to drop by 20 percent. Although, actually, it's more likely that no one will want to buy your house at all after that.
Također vam kažu da morate označiti mjesto gdje je grob. I to je to što vam je službeno potrebno. Upozorit će vas da se to vašim susjedima možda neće svidjeti, ali, pravno govoreći, ne mogu ništa učiniti po tom pitanju. I ako slučajno još netko ima ideju zarade na umu i koliko takva grobna mjesta koštaju i koliko novca možete zaraditi, upozore vas da to može smanjiti vrijednost vaše kuće za 20 posto. Iako, zapravo, vjerojatnije je da nitko neće htjeti kupiti vašu kuću nakon toga.
So what I find fascinating about this is the fact that it kind of sums up many of our attitudes towards death. In the UK, and I think that the figures across Europe are probably similar, only about 30 percent of people have ever talked to anyone about their wishes around death, and even for people over 75, only 45 percent of people have ever talked about this. And the reasons that people give ... you know, they think that their death is far off or they think that they're going to make people uncomfortable by talking about it. And you know, to a certain extent, there are other people out there who are taking care of things for us. The government has all this regulation and bureaucracy around things like burying a death, for example, and there's people like funeral directors who devote their entire working lives to this issue. But when it comes to our cities and thinking about how death fits in our cities, there's much less regulation and design and thought than we might imagine.
Ono što me fascinira kod ovoga je činjenica da to zapravo prikazuje naše različite stavove prema smrti. U VB, a mislim da su brojke u Europi slične, samo 30 posto ljudi je pričalo s nekim o svojim željama oko smrti, i čak ljudi koji su stariji od 75, samo 45 posto ljudi je pričalo o ovome. A razlog tome je da ljudi... znate, misle da je njihova smrt daleko ili misle da će ljudima biti neugodno pričajući o tome. I znate, do neke mjere, postoje drugi ljudi koji se brinu o tome umjesto nas. Vlada ima propise i birokraciju za stvari poput pokapanja, na primjer i postoje ljudi poput pogrebnika koji posvete svoju karijeru ovom problemu. Ali kada se radi o našim gradovima i razmišljanju o tome kako se smrt uklapa u njih, postoji puno manje propisa i dizajnova i razmišljanja no što mislimo.
So we're not thinking about this, but all of the people we imagine are thinking about it -- they're not taking care of it either.
Ne razmišljamo o ovome, ali razni ljudi za koje mislimo da da razmišljaju o tome -- ni oni ne poduzimaju ništa.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)