在花园里建造个游泳池和网球场的主意是不是让你觉得很酷？对不起，那已经是属于20世纪的概念了。今天，如果想和你的富豪邻居保持一致，那就把你的娱乐设施搬到伦敦豪宅的地下吧。
伦敦人很早就开始利用他们的地下空间了。温斯顿•丘吉尔(Winston Churchill)拥有地下作战室；约瑟夫•巴泽尔杰特(Joseph Bazalgette)铺设了污水管道；这个首都里幸福的通勤族自1863年起就享受到了地下铁路交通服务。然而在过去的20年里，建筑及照明技术的进步加速了一种地下建筑新趋势的崛起(或者更准确的说，是沉沦)：那就是"超大型地下室"。
英国豪宅的地下室传统上被用来作为保湿的酒窖及地牢。但现在的地下室很有可能被分割成几层明亮、宽敞的房间，这些房间最可能被用作舞厅、画廊和游泳池。
这些超大型地下室乃是超高端房地产市场玩家的宠儿。烦人的伦敦规划法令不容许推倒17世纪的豪宅再以更加实用的摩天大楼取而代之。这一规定使得握有大把闲钱的亿万富豪们无法实现他们的扩张计划。
现在，也许是出于对钢铁大亨拉克西米•米塔尔(Lakshmi Mittal)位于肯辛顿珠光宝气的地下游泳池的艳羡，其他一些居住于伦敦的富豪们，像俄国石油业亿万富翁里奥德•布拉瓦克(Leonid Blavatnik)、地产经纪乔恩•亨特(Jon Hunt)、文莱苏丹(Sultan of Brunei)，以及像Take That乐队的马克•欧文(Mark Owen)等明星，都在建造或计划建造地下巢穴，其大小和豪华程度与地上建筑不相上下，甚或超过。地下室建筑公司拒绝透露客户姓名，但它们承认曾为顶级银行家、商界巨头、足球运动员和电影明星打造过超大型地下室。
地产经纪公司福克斯顿(Foxtons)的创始人乔恩•亨特去年提出申请，拟在他的住所下兴建五层的地下建筑（他的房子就在戴安娜王妃肯辛顿故居的对面）。其建筑计划中包括一个现代的地下博物馆（用来展示其收藏的老爷车和摩托车）和一个网球场。他的申请被拒绝了——原因下文再作说明，但还是有很多其它地下室建造起来。
在切尔西，Cadogan Place23号(总价2400万英镑，第一太平戴维斯提供)拥有一个地下游泳池、健身房、蒸汽房、员工卧室和电影院。在肯辛顿，Upper Phillimore Gardens23号(总价3500万英镑，第一太平戴维斯提供)也有上述设施，再加一个酒窖，大型的娱乐室和职工宿舍。在贝拉格维亚，Grosvenor Mews 21号有一个升车机，滑动顶棚、两层地上两层地下的花园及九米高的内饰性"水幕"，水流顺着青铜板缓缓流下。该建筑由一位法国商人和他的德国妻子于2009年12月购置，总价750万英镑，创下了马厩改建房的最高纪录。
地产经纪公司莱坊国际(Knight Frank)的合伙人汤姆•坦尼(Tom Tangney)说："我最喜爱这样的地下室：有个两端深的游泳池，这样屋主就可以在水里翻滚转身；在拱形的地下空间里，有个圆顶的酒窖。"还有其它受欢迎的新增元素包括滑顶游泳池、派对房及SPA设施。
肯辛顿和切尔西皇家自治市开发控制负责人德里克•泰勒(Derek Taylor)说："十年前几乎没有人申请建造大型地下室。到了四年前，大约每两个申请中就有一个是地下室改造。"在过去三年里，该自治市批准了461个"下挖"申请，拒绝了42个，另有66个待审。
不可思议的是，修建地下室的风潮是从伦敦西部富勒姆近郊的中上社会阶层开始风靡起来的。"所有一切都起源于80年代后期富勒姆的彼得伯勒小区(Peterborough Estate)，"杰里米•费希尔(Jeremy Fisher)说。他拥有的杰里米•费希尔建筑公司自这一潮流掀起后就在一直不停"挖掘"。"传统上，英国中产阶级不会在装修房子上花费太多。老式的中央暖气系统和旧式的卫生间就让他们满足了。但这一切在80年代发生了改变。富勒姆的居民——大多数是城市里的银行家、律师等等——开始考虑房屋的现代化及扩大面积。富勒姆彼得伯勒小区的房子都已经建造了大型的地下室，由此居民们开始向下扩张"
热衷于赶超实力相当者的邻居开始复制他们的做法，而且规模更大。因为地下室非常隐蔽，他们发现规划部门允许他们打造一个地下房间的联通空间，把所有属于他们的地产——包括地面房屋和花园所覆盖的地下面积——都利用起来。
两大主要因素使得这种做法成为一种趋势并加速。一是房屋价格的升势远超建筑成本，因此向下挖掘使得中产阶级喜出望外——它提高了房屋价值。第二个因素就是科技。
地下室的生活至今仍给人潮湿、阴暗和糟糕的印象，只适合穷困潦倒的学生。但建筑师在地下室四周使用防水塑料薄膜来替代半透气墙灰，解决了潮湿问题。现在水流会先排到集水池，然后由水泵将之送入下水管道，而不再渗透到墙内。通过简单的采光井方法——即通过有窗户的小天井把阳光引入地下室——和像光学纤维之类的高科技手段，照明得到充分改善。
大约十年前，开发商通过小房子的尝试，意识到此举可以在大范围内推广，并瞄准了切尔西、梅菲儿和贝拉格维亚地区。那些地方的挖掘成本基本和富勒姆差不多，为500到730英镑每平方英尺。富勒姆的房子售价为700到1000英镑每平方英尺，因此利润相当可观。而在梅菲儿等伦敦市中心区域，房价高达每平方英尺1700到2500英镑，甚至更高。
不论是英国国内还是国外，下挖都是伦敦黄金地区的一道独特的风景线，鲜有例外。第一太平戴维斯国际负责人查尔斯•韦斯顿•贝克(Charles Weston Baker)说："这是我们老式别墅的独特风格造就的。像巴黎这样的城市有大型的公寓楼，而较新的城市没有历史保护建筑，只要推倒老建筑就行。"
理论上讲，因为地下室是隐蔽的，应当归于可允许开发权力范围之内，而不受规划监管的控制。仲量联行总监、乔恩•亨特五层地下室申请的策划师盖伊•布兰斯比(Guy Bransby)说："如果你什么也看不到，就没有任何影响。"对于亨特的申请，其所在的伦敦自治区判定，建造这样巨型的地下空间会改变这桩历史保护建筑的品质，因此申请被否决。
杰里米•费希尔承认："邻居们很痛恨这一点。"一项由居民团体拉德布莱克协会(The Ladbroke Association)进行的调查发现，许多肯辛顿及切尔西的居民受到了持续强烈的噪音和挖掘机震动的精神困扰。他们认为，挖掘者应该补偿旁边的邻居，甚至出资搬迁他们的房子。
还有比灰尘更严重的危害。2008年伦敦的一处房屋在挖掘中倒塌，一位施工人员受伤。地产经纪公司切斯特顿•汉伯茨(Chesterton Humberts)董事罗伯特•斯特奇斯(Robert Sturges)说："我听说过很恐怖的事情，特别是雇佣非专业的施工人员时。有些情况下，因为缺少稳固的地基，邻居的房子开始下沉。挖掘者将为此付出高昂代价。"
还有一个负面影响。第一太平戴维斯的安妮•桑瑞(Anne Soutry)认为："建造成本在过去的五年大幅度增长，这都是地下室建造公司的暴利来源。"
最后一个担心是建造更多的伦敦地下室会给地下水位带来负面影响，并可能导致洪水。然而，工程公司阿勒普(Arup)的研究表明，下挖并不会影响地下水位，而且没有可预见的原因说明为何会产生影响。
将来会怎么样？地下室生活是一时的流行还是一场深刻的文化变革？毫无疑问的是，地下室规划法令终究会被统一出台。法律不会阻止挖掘，但在建造商杰里米•费希尔(Jeremy Fisher)看来，它很可能会加入灰尘及噪音控制规定。这对于富勒姆的普通家庭也许是种束缚，但绝不会阻碍富豪的步伐。
也许唯一能限制超大型地下室的是开发商和富豪们的想象力。下一步会是怎样？排干水后成为直升机停机坪的游泳池？私人的地下过山车？也许在以后的20年里，我们会看到20层高的"泥浆铲土机"呼啸在整个伦敦下面。
相关信息：
London Digs, www.londondigs.net, 电话：+44 (0)20 7289 5599
The Big Basement Company, www.bigbasement.co.uk, 电话：+44 (0)20 7096 7000
London Basement, www.tlbc.co.uk, 电话：+44 (0)20 8847 9449
CC Construction, www.cccon.co.uk, 电话：+44 (0)20 7376 7770
Jeremy Fisher Building, 电话：+44 (0)20 7731 0716 (no website)
The Ladbroke Association, www.ladbrokeassociation.org, 电话：+44 (0)20 7229 1741
译者/功文
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001034403
Think the swimming pool and tennis court in your garden make you pretty smart? Well, sorry, but that's just so 20th century. These days, if you want to keep up with the oligarch next door, you put your play things under your London house.
Londoners have used their underground space for a long time. Winston Churchill had war rooms, Joseph Bazalgette dug sewers, and the capital's cheerful commuters have enjoyed underground rail transport since 1863. In the last 20 years, however, advances in building and lighting technology have accelerated the rise (or, more accurately, descent) of a new underground trend: the mega-basement.
Big British houses have traditionally used basements as dank wine storage and dungeon space. Now, however, it's possible to create several floors of light, spacious rooms underground. These might include, at the top end, ballrooms, galleries and swimming pools.
These mega-basements are serendipity for the drivers of the super-prime property market. London's tiresome planning laws prevent you from knocking down your 17th-century palace and replacing it with a more functional skyscraper. This has long frustrated the expansion plans of men and women with a spare hundred million pounds or two.
Now, perhaps envious of steel man Lakshmi Mittal's jewelled subterranean Kensington swimming pool, other London-dwelling tycoons such as Russian oil billionaire Leonid Blavatnik, estate agent Jon Hunt, and the Sultan of Brunei, as well as celebrities such as Take That's Mark Owen, are planning and building underground lairs that mirror and sometimes even exceed the size and opulence of the mansions above them. Basement companies refuse to name names, but admit creating mega-basements for top-end bankers, business magnates, footballers and film stars.
Jon Hunt, founder of estate agents Foxtons, applied last year for five floors beneath his house (just across the way from Kensington Palace, Princess Diana's old pad). Plans included a modest underground museum for his collection of vintage cars and motorbikes, and a tennis court. His plans were rejected – more on that later – but there are plenty more being built.
In Chelsea, 23 Cadogan Place (£24m, Savills), has an underground swimming pool, gym, steam room, staff bedroom and cinema. Over in Kensington, 23 Upper Phillimore Gardens (£35m, also Savills) has all those things, plus a wine cellar, large playroom and staff quarters, while 21 Grosvenor Mews in Belgravia has a car lift, garden with sliding roof, and, plunging the entire height of two above-ground and two subterranean floors, a nine-metre interior decorative "waterfall" of water trickling down bronze slabs (bought in December 2009 by a French businessman and his Russian wife for £7.5m, a record for a mews house).
Tom Tangney, partner at estate agents Knight Frank, says: "My favourite basement has a swimming pool with two deep ends so the owner can do tumble-turns. In the arched space beneath, there's a vaulted wine cellar." Other popular additions include swimming pools with sliding roofs, party rooms and spa facilities.
Derek Taylor, head of development control for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, says: "Ten years ago, there were virtually no applications to dig large basements. Four years ago, it seemed that every second application was a basement conversion." In the past three years, the borough granted 461 "digging-down" applications, rejected 42 and 66 are pending.
The basement boom began, strangely enough, in the genteel upper-middle class west London suburb of Fulham. "It all started in the late 1980s, on Fulham's Peterborough Estate," says Jeremy Fisher, whose firm Jeremy Fisher Building has been "digging down" since the craze began. "Traditionally, the British middle class didn't spend much on kitting out houses. They'd be content with old central heating and mouldy bathrooms. That all changed in the 1980s. Fulham's residents – mostly City bankers, lawyers and so on – looked to modernise and expand. Houses on Fulham's Peterborough Estate already had large basements, so residents expanded downwards."
Neighbours, keen to keep up with and overtake the Joneses, copied them – but on a larger scale. Because basements are pretty much invisible, they found that planners let them build a network of subterranean rooms taking up the entire "footprint" of their properties – ie underneath the house and garden.
Two main factors enabled and accelerated the trend. First, house price rises outstripped building costs, so digging down resulted in that great middle-class joy: a rise in house value. The second factor was the technology.
Basement living had hitherto been damp, dark and miserable, suited only to depressed students. But builders have vanquished damp by replacing semi-porous render with a waterproof plastic membrane around the basement. Instead of seeping through walls, water now drains to a sump, where a pump sends it to the sewers. Lighting was massively improved by the simple idea of light wells – small windowed courtyards taking sunlight to the basement, and higher-tech solutions such as fibre optics.
A decade or so ago, developers, spotting the trend in smaller houses, realised it could work on a massive scale, and looked towards Chelsea, Mayfair and Belgravia. Digging down costs are roughly the same here as in Fulham – £500 to £730 per sq ft. Houses in Fulham sell for £700 to £1,000 per sq ft, so the profit is good. Houses in central London zones such as Mayfair cost £1,700 to £2,500-plus per sq ft.
With few exceptions, nationally and internationally, digging down is peculiar to the smarter areas of London. Charles Weston Baker, head of Savills International says: "It's due to our unique style of old cottages. Cities like Paris have large apartment blocks. In newer cities they don't have listings, so they just replace old buildings."
Theoretically, since they are invisible, basements fall under permitted development rights and are not subject to planning control. Guy Bransby, director of Jones Lang LaSalle, who devised Jon Hunt's five-storey basement application, says: "If you can't see something, it doesn't make any difference." In Hunt's case, his London borough judged that creating such a vast underground area changed the character of a listed building, and so denied it.
"Neighbours hate it," admits Jeremy Fisher. A survey by residents' group The Ladbroke Association found many neighbours in Kensington and Chelsea who had been traumatised by the relentless noise and vibration of a dig-down. They suggest that neighbours should be compensated, or even rehoused at the digger's expense.
There are more serious dangers than dust. In 2008 a London house collapsed during a dig-down, injuring a builder. Robert Sturges, director at estate agents Chesterton Humberts says: "I've heard horror stories, particularly when non-specialist builders are hired. On a couple of occasions, the neighbouring houses began to sink because of the lack of secure foundations. That was very expensive for the digger."
There's another dark side to basements, according to Anne Soutry of Savills: "The price has increased enormously over five years. It is profiteering on behalf of the basement companies."
The final worry is that the creation of more London basements will have a negative effect on the water table and cause flooding. However, a study by engineering firm Arup found that digging down had had no effect on the water table, and there was no foreseeable reason why it should.
What is the future? Is basement living a fad, or an entrenched cultural shift? Certainly basement planning laws will eventually be centralised and formalised. This won't prevent digging down, but it's likely, according to builder Jeremy Fisher, to add dust and noise reduction requirements. This may hamper the families of Fulham, but it won't stop the oligarchs.
Perhaps the only limit to mega-basements is developers' and oligarchs' imaginations. What's next? A swimming pool that drains to reveal a helipad? A private underground rollercoaster? Perhaps in 20 years' time we'll see 20-storey "magma-scrapers" popping down all over London.
..................................................
London Digs, www.londondigs.net, tel: +44 (0)20 7289 5599
The Big Basement Company, www.bigbasement.co.uk, tel: +44 (0)20 7096 7000
London Basement, www.tlbc.co.uk, tel: +44 (0)20 8847 9449
CC Construction, www.cccon.co.uk, tel: +44 (0)20 7376 7770
Jeremy Fisher Building, tel: +44 (0)20 7731 0716 (no website)
The Ladbroke Association, www.ladbrokeassociation.org, tel: +44 (0)20 7229 1741
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