Homes you can print, transport on the back of a truck, even fly. Although they sound like the homes of science fiction, they might well be the real residences of the not-too-distant future.

Impelled by the pressures of climate change and population growth and shaped by the promise of technologies like 3-D printing, a revolution is brewing in the future of homebuilding around the globe — especially in cities.

房屋可以列印，裝在卡車後方運送，甚至還能空運。這些房屋聽來雖像是科幻小說中的家園，卻大有可能在不太遙遠的未來成為真正的住宅。

受到氣候變遷和人口增長壓力的驅使，加上如3-D列印等科技大有可為的發展，全球未來房屋的建築正在醞釀一場革命，尤其是在城市中。

As Earth's inhabitants, we need to rethink almost everything about the way we live, especially in coastal cities, because our world may be reshaped by rising oceans in ways we can't yet fully anticipate, according to Hans-Peter Plag, a professor and director of the Mitigation and Adaptation Research Institute at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

"We have built with the design principle that sea level is not going to change," he said. "This time has come to an end. On the other hand, living in the coastal zone is extremely important for us. So we need to find a way to live in the coastal zone, but we cannot assume that sea level is stable."

根據維吉尼亞州諾福克市老道明大學「調節和適應研究所」教授兼所長漢斯─彼得．普拉格的說法，身為地球居民，我們幾乎對人類生活方式的每一方面都須重新思考，特別是在沿海城市，因為我們的世界可能因海平面上升而重塑，且結果迄今仍難以完全預測。

他說：「我們之前建造房屋的設計原則，是海平面不會有所改變。 這個年代即將過去。另一方面，生活在沿海地帶對我們而言又非常重要。因此，我們需要找到在沿海地區居住的方法，但不能再假設海平面會穩定不變。」

Complicating the problem of a shrinking landmass is the prediction that the human population will grow to almost 10 billion people by 2050. And while many cities in the world will have to cope with extraordinary growth, others will have to prepare for shifting migration patterns that could leave them virtually deserted.

Today, 1 in 8 people live in urban slums, and by 2025, "it is likely that 1.6 billion will require adequate, affordable housing," according to the UN-Habitat's World Cities Report 2016.

讓陸塊縮減問題變得更棘手的是，預估到2050年時世界人口將成長到近100億人。雖然世上有許多城市將必須設法應付異常的人口增長，卻也另有些城市不得不為轉變中的人口遷移模式預作準備，這些城市最後可能淪為空城。

根據聯合國人居署發表的2016年世界城市狀況報告，現今有八分之一的人居住在城市的貧民窟，到2025年時「可能有16億人需要適切且可負擔得起的住宅」。

Behrokh Khoshnevis, professor of engineering at the University of Southern California and director of its Center for Rapid Automated Fabrication Technologies (CRAFT), is one of many innovators looking to ease the housing crises of the future. "Somehow, we have to address the issue of shelter, which is at the base of the pyramid of needs," Khoshnevis said.

He hopes his 3-D printing construction method, which he calls Contour Crafting, will create a way to build homes for a fraction of the current cost. While he can't do anything about the price of land, Khoshnevis said his technology would build a house in a day and cut down on the construction cost by 30 percent.

貝羅．柯什內維斯是南加大工程學教授兼「快速自動製造技術中心」主任，也是尋求緩解未來住屋危機的許多創新者之一。柯什內維斯說：「無論如何，我們必須解決住屋問題，它在需求金字塔的最底層。」

他把他的3-D列印施工方法稱為「輪廓製作」法，希望透過這種方法可以現今成本的一小部分建造房屋。雖然柯什內維斯對降低土地價格無能為力，他卻表示他的技術可在一天內建成一所房屋，且將會建造成本削減30％。

When the extension of the Expo rail line opened here in May, it was almost as if the city had stepped into another century. Suddenly, it was possible to go from downtown to the Santa Monica beach by train, escaping a drive that could take two hours. The inaugural runs were packed with people, carrying beach chairs and recording the 15-mile, 45-minute long ride with cellphones.

The $1.5 billion, aboveground Expo project is not the only piece of the transit transformation unfolding here. An 11.5-mile extension of the Gold Line, running from Pasadena to Asuza, just northeast of downtown, opened this spring. If not as glamorous as a train to the Pacific Ocean, it was certainly appreciated by people in the San Gabriel Valley, who otherwise have to navigate the traffic of Interstate 210.

此間（洛杉磯）的博覽輕軌線延長段5月通車時，這座城市幾乎有如步入了另一個世紀。忽然間，搭軌道列車從市中心前往聖塔莫尼卡海灘變為可能了，不必再開上可能長達兩小時的車。剛開始的車班擠得滿滿的，人們帶著沙灘椅，以手機錄下長15哩，歷時45分鐘的整個車程。

造價15億美元的地上博覽線計畫，不是此間為了運輸轉型而開展的唯一工程。黃金線一條長11.5哩，從帕薩迪納到阿蘇薩市的延長段，就在市中心的東北方，也在今春開通。這線列車就算不如通往太平洋的列車那般風光，聖蓋博谷的人們肯定還是讚不絕口，否則他們只有忍受210號州際公路的交通一途。

And all of that is likely to be dwarfed by an initiative that is expected to go before the voters in November, pending a final vote by the county board of supervisors, that would impose a countywide 1-cent transit sales tax, raising $860 million a year. The tax would finance 40 major transit projects over the next 40 years, including 100 miles of new rail lines and what has been a touchstone for mass transit advocates (and frustrated commuters) for decades: A train tunnel under the Sepulveda Pass, connecting the Los Angeles basin with the San Fernando Valley.

There may be no part of America more identified, for better and for worse, with the automobile than this city. But this burst of activity, and the considerable interest it has stirred here, suggests that a fundamental reconsideration of Los Angeles may be at hand, a shift to an era when mass transit — subways, light rail, buses — could be as central to getting around, and perhaps even to this region's image, as the car.

然而前述種種在一項提案面前只怕都要相形見絀，此案預期會在11月交付選民公投，公投之前須先通過郡監理委員會的最後表決。提案內容為在全郡徵收1美分的運輸營業稅，每年籌得8億6000萬美元稅款。稅款將在未來40年資助40項主要運輸計畫，包括鋪設100哩新鐵路線，以及數十年來大眾運輸倡導者（以及沮喪的通勤族）的試金石：一條在塞普爾韋達通道底下的列車隧道，連接洛杉磯盆地與聖費南多谷。

無論是好是壞，美國沒有其他地方比洛杉磯這個城市更認同汽車的存在。不過，這突然出現的一連串行動，以及它在這個城市所引發的高度興趣，意謂洛杉磯徹底改頭換面可能就在眼前，洛杉磯將進入另一個時代，就交通工具，或許甚至就這個地區的形象而言，地鐵、輕軌、巴士等大眾運輸系統可能變得跟汽車一樣無比重要。

"For the car capital of America, if not the world, this is a bold new chapter," said Eric M. Garcetti, the mayor, who has been pushing the sales tax measure. "It doesn't ignore cars. But it really builds out a mass transit network that gets you from Point A to Point B."

"New York has opened one new station in the past five years," said Garcetti, a Democrat. "We opened a dozen. We have a lot of catching up to do. But we are finally saying we are going to do it."

一直在推動銷售稅案的洛杉磯市長艾瑞克．賈西迪說：「洛杉磯即使不是世界的汽車之都，也是美國的汽車之都，對它而言，這是大膽的新篇章。這不是不看重汽車，而是真正打造一個大眾運輸網絡，讓人們可從甲地到乙地。」

民主黨籍的賈西迪說：「5年來紐約闢建了一個新車站。我們建了一打。我們還有得趕的。不過我們終於能說，我們就要付諸實踐了。」

說文解字看新聞 文／王麗娟

美國加州洛杉磯市有汽車之都（car capital）之稱，亦即居民幾乎全以汽車代步，所有基礎建設（infrastructure）與各種設施（facility）也以配合汽車的使用為出發點。不過，近來洛城已出現公共交通運輸系統轉型（transit transformation），本文甚至指出，洛城可能轉入（shift）多數民眾使用大眾運輸系統（mass transit）的新時代（era），並成為洛城的新形象（image）。

台灣的大眾捷運系統（Mass Rapid Transit，MRT）人人稱道，簡稱捷運。mass意為大眾、人民、群眾，rapid 為快速，transit為通路、運輸線、公共交通運輸系統。

文中的navigate，除有駕駛行走於州際210號高速公路之意，navigate口語上還有設法穿過、經過這條公路意思，意指驅車走這條公路，應比起搭鐵路來得辛苦。navigate也作導航解釋，除用於陸面駕駛，也可用於航海、航空，如Who first navigated the Pacific Ocean?（誰率先橫渡太平洋？）