VOA常速英语2015--基于互联网方案的Wiki房屋

 

Building Plans for Wiki-Style House Available Online 基于互联网方案的Wiki房屋

About one third of the world's city dwellers¹ live in substandard housing, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. But researchers say free plans now available online for building houses made of manufactured parts that perfectly² fit together may help solve this problem.

The world population is expected to grow to more than 8 billion by 2030, and the housing situation in urban centers is already a huge problem. Building new homes the traditional way still takes weeks or months.

全世界人口有望在2030年超过80亿，城市中心的住房问题已经是个大问题，用传统方法建造新房屋将花费数周甚至数月时间。

In a London neighborhood, a group of volunteers is constructing a house made of prefabricated plywood panels and parts, the so-called Wiki House. All parts were precisely³ cut in a Computer Numerical Control, or CNC machine, following a free plan downloaded from the Internet.

在伦敦的一个社区，一群志愿者在用预制胶合板面板和零件建造房屋，这就是所谓的Wiki房屋。所有的零部件都根据互联网上下载的免费方案在计算机数字控制机床中精确切割而成。

Co-founder of the UK-based WikiHouse Foundation, architectural designer Alastair Parvin, said this could be the solution for affordable⁴ housing.

总部在伦敦的Wiki房屋基金会的联合创办者建筑设计师阿拉斯泰尔·帕文称这可以作为廉价房屋的解决方案。

WikiHouse is essentially⁵ a series of technologies we're developing aimed at massively simplifying the process of making really sustainable high performance houses to a point where almost anyone can do it," he said. "And to do that we're using the power of the web and digital manufacturing technologies like 3D printing.”

"Wiki房屋基本上是一系列科技，我们开发这些科技的目的是大规模的简化制作真正具有可持续性、高性能房屋的程序，使得每个人都能建造这样的房屋。为了实现这一点，我们使用了网络和3D打印等数字生产技术。"

Precise cutting allows a perfect fit for all parts, which speeds up the process of assembly. No special tools are required.

精确切割使得所有零部件契合完美，这就加快了组装的过程，并且不需要任何特殊工具。

The Wiki House was built in 10 days for exhibition purposes. Then, it was taken apart and reassembled elsewhere for permanent use.

这座Wiki房屋花了10天来建造，用于展览之用。然后被拆掉在其他地方重新组装，用作永久住宅。

Parvin said the whole concept is based on the blueprints⁶ available online.

帕文称整个理念基于网络上可获得的蓝图。

“Open-source software is now really established, it drives a lot of the software we use," he said. "What's happening now is that that's now coming into the world of physical things, so we're effectively building a kind of Wikipedia for physical stuff.”

“开源软件现在已经建立起来了，它能驱动我们用的很多软件。如今这种软件已进入实体事物，所以我们能高效地建造实物制造的维基百科。”

Parvin said the project is in its early stages, with limited availability. But he said he expects it to grow as more people start showing interest in houses whose assembly requires no special skills.

帕文称该项目仍在初期阶段，其供应量有限。但他说随着更多人对这种无需特殊工具就可组装的房屋感兴趣，他希望能建造更多这种房屋。

1 dwellers   

n.居民，居住者( dweller的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes. 城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They have transformed themselves into permanent city dwellers. 他们已成为永久的城市居民。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

3 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

4 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

5 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

6 blueprints   

n.蓝图，设计图( blueprint的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Have the blueprints been worked out? 蓝图搞好了吗？ 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• BluePrints description of a distributed component of the system design and best practice guidelines. BluePrints描述了一个分布式组件体系的最佳练习和设计指导方针。 来自互联网