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.
我有一個被人們忽視, 但很有搞頭的投資機會 要介紹給你們。 過去10年,在英國 墓地的投資報酬率比 英國的房地產還要好, 兩者的比例大致為 3:1 有些私人的墓園被開發出來 提供給投資者購買, 價格從大約3900英鎊起跳。 他們預估可達到百分之四十的成長率。 最大的優點是... 這是一個有持續性需求的市場.....(笑聲)
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.
現在,這真的是一門生意 而且真有公司提供 這樣的投資標的, 但是,我對它有個很不一樣的興趣。 我是一個建築師和城市設計師, 而在過去的一年半, 我都在研究死亡和臨終的方法, 以及研究墓地是如何塑造 我們的城市和裡面的建築物。
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.
今年夏天,我在威尼斯舉辦了我的第一個 有關死亡和建築的展覽會。 展覽的名字是「 威尼斯之死 」 因為死亡是一個 我們許多人很不喜歡談的主題, 展覽會設計得很俏皮, 來使人們真正願意參與。 我們的展出其中一項是倫敦的互動地圖, 顯示倫敦有多少房地產 是提供給死亡這件事情。 當你在地圖上揮揮手, 這些房地產 - 大樓或是墓地的名字 就會顯示出來。 你們看到的白色形狀的 是市區內的醫院和臨終關懷院 以及太平間和墓地。 事實上,大多數都是墓地。 我們想證明,即使死亡和埋葬 可能是我們平常不會去想的事情, 但它們環繞著我們, 而且是我們城市中很重要的部分。
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.
英國每年大約有50萬人死亡, 其中,大約四分之一的人希望被土葬。 但是在英國,和許多西歐的國家一樣, 都快要沒有埋葬的土地。 特別是在各大主要城市。 大倫敦當權者早就 意識到這一點了, 主要的原因是人口成長, 以及現存墓地容量幾乎全滿。 英國有一個不成文慣例, 墳墓被認為是可永久佔有的, 但是也有發展的壓力 - 人們也想利用同樣的地 來蓋房子,辦公室,或店面。
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.
所以,他們想出幾個辦法。 一個是,或許我們可以重新使用 已經埋了50年以上的墳墓。 或者,或許我們在同一塊地 的四個不同深度埋四個人, 這樣就可以更有效率地使用那塊地, 這樣做之後,希望倫敦在短期內 還擁有足夠的墓地來埋葬人。
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.
但是,傳統上,墓地從來沒有 被地方當權者重視過。 事實上,令人意想不到的是, 在英國任何人都沒有法律義務 必須要提供安葬空間。 傳統上,都是私人和宗教組織在提供, 比如教堂、清真寺以及猶太會堂, 但偶爾也會有盈利組織 想要插花搞一下。 他們專注在小尺寸、 高單價的墓地, 這看起來似乎真的很有搞頭。
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.
所以,事實上, 如果你想開始經營自己的墳場, 你是可以辦到的。 有這麼一對南威爾士的夫妻, 他們有一個農舍,旁邊還有一大片地, 他們想要開發這塊地。 他們有很多的想法, 他們第一個想法是 做一個露營車公園, 但是地方議會說不行。 然後他們想弄一個養魚場, 地方議會還是說不行。 然後他們想到了蓋墳場的主意, 他們計算過,如果這樣做 可以提升他們的土地價值。 大概從 9.5萬英磅提升到 超過100萬英磅。
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.
但....回過頭來想想, 這個透過墳場來獲利的主意 好像有點荒唐可笑,對吧? 事情是這樣的,這些墓地的高單價 其實非常誤導人。 它們看起來似乎很貴, 但這個價格也反映出一個事實 --你需要去維護這些墓地, 比如說,在接下來的50年裡 需要有人去除草。 那就意味著很難從墓園中賺到錢。 這也是為什麼通常 這些墓園是被地方議會 或者非盈利組織經營。 但不管怎麼說, 這些人獲得了地方議會的批准, 他們正在試著建造他們的墓園。
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.
跟你們解釋一下這件事是如何操作的: 在英國,如果我想蓋個什麼東西, 比如說一個墓園, 那麼我首先得申請規劃許可, 因此如果我想幫客戶 蓋一棟新的辦公大樓 或是擴建自己的房屋, 或者,如果我有一個商店, 想把它改成辦公室, 我得畫很多圖, 然後提交到地方議會去批准, 然後他們會調查它與 周圍的環境是否搭配, 所以他們會仔細看 這個規劃長什麼樣子。 但他們也會考慮 這將來會給當地環境 帶來什麼樣的影響? 他們也會考慮,比如說 這個規劃會導致污染嗎? 或者會不會有很大的交通流量 湧向我蓋好的標的物? 但也會考慮正面的影響, 它附近是否會增加像是商店這類 本地居民會想使用的服務設施? 之後他們會權衡利弊, 然後做出決定。
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.
所以,如果我想蓋一座大型墓園, 就得這樣操作。 但是如果我有一塊地, 而我只想在裡面埋葬少數的人, 例如5或6個,又會怎樣? 那麼,事實上,我不需要任何人批准! 在英國實際上幾乎沒有 殯葬的相關規定, 僅有的一點就是,不能污染水源, 比如說不能污染河流或者地下水。 所以,如果你想建造你的小墓園, 是沒問題的。
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.
但我的意思是,說真的, 誰會這樣做?對吧? 如果你是一個貴族家庭 並且擁有大片土地, 那麼你有機會蓋一個陵墓, 並將你的家族成員埋葬於此。 但真正奇怪的是 在你要開始埋葬一個人之前, 你不需要擁有一塊某種大小的地。 也就是說,技術上, 在你郊區家中的後花園也可以。
(Laughter)
( 笑聲 )
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.
所以,如果你想要自己在家搞墓園, 要怎麼做呢? 是的,有一些地方議會網站上 是有些指引可以幫助你的。
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.
第一件事情他們會告訴你, 在開始之前,你必須要有埋葬證書 - 謀殺某些人然後把他們 埋在天井是行不通的。
(Laughter)
( 笑聲 )
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.
他們也會告訴,你要把 墳墓的位置紀錄下來。 但這些只是正式的要求。 他們還會警告你, 你的鄰居可能不會喜歡, 但就法律而言, 他們幾乎一點也沒輒。 但萬一你們任何人之中 仍有想賺錢的念頭呢? 例如,這些墓地要花多少成本, 然後大概可以賺多少, 他們也會警告你, 你的計劃可能會造成房價 下跌20%。 雖然事實上,在那之後 大概也沒人會想買你的房子
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.
所以,我發現這件事迷人的地方 就是它可以歸納出 社會大眾面對死亡的態度。 在英國,而我想在歐洲 應該也是差不多的數字, 只有30%的人曾經與其他人 談論過關於死亡這件事的願望, 甚至是超過75歲的人, 只有45%的人曾經討論過死亡。 而人們給的答案就是...你知道的, 他們認為死亡離自己還很遠, 或者他們認為,談論死亡 會讓對方不舒服。 而你也知道,在某種程度上, 還有其他人在替我們關心這些事, 政府有整套相關的規範及制度, 例如,死亡埋葬法, 還有葬儀社的人 貢獻他們所有的生命在這些事上。 但一談到我們的城市, 並想想死亡如何融入於我們的城市, 那些規範、設計及想法 比我們想像的還要少, 所以,我們現在沒有在想這些事,
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.
而且在我們想像中, 在想這些事情的人 - 基本上,他們也不會在乎的。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)