森林裏的烏托邦 Where Tiny Houses and Big Dreams Grow

Five years ago, Zach Klein, a successful tech entrepreneur then in his late 20s, was living in New York City but dreaming of the wilderness. A former Eagle scout, partner at CollegeHumor, and founder of Vimeo, the elegant online video platform, he was in between ventures, teaching entrepreneurship at the School of Visual Arts and spinning cycles, as he put it, while looking for land to buy — a lot of land — upon which he hoped to spend time building things and reconnecting to the scouting skills of his childhood.

紐約州巴里維爾——5年前，當時快30歲的扎克·克萊恩(Zach Klein)是一名成功的科技行業創業者。他住在紐約市，卻夢繫荒野。他是曾經的鷹級童子軍（美國童子軍中的最高級別——譯註）、CollegeHumor的合夥人、高雅在線視頻平臺Vimeo的創始人。當時，他處於創業間歇期，在紐約視覺藝術學院(School of Visual Arts)教授創業課程，同時騎着車四處遊走，尋找要買的土地。他買了很多地，想在上面建東西，重新拾起他在兒時學會的童子軍技能。

Most urgently, he hoped he could persuade his friends to come along for the ride.

最迫切的是，他希望能說服朋友們加入進來。

Mr. Klein got lucky in Sullivan County, N.Y., where he found 50 acres of forest with an understory of ferns and mossy boulders, lightly accessorized with a rough-hewed, one-room shack free from plumbing and electricity and a separate sleeping porch perched on a steep hill overlooking a rushing stream called Beaver Brook.

當克萊恩騎到紐約州沙利文縣時，幸運降臨了，他在那裏發現了50英畝森林。那裏有蕨類植物組成的植被和長滿青苔的巨石，陡峭的山上點綴着一個用粗木建成的沒有水電的單間木屋和一個單獨的涼臺，可以俯瞰一條名叫比弗布魯克(Beaver Brook)的湍急河流。

The property belonged to Scott Newkirk, a New York designer, and much of its appeal lay in Mr. Newkirk’s aesthetic: His shack and porch were lovely enough to have been featured in New York magazine. After 10 years there, Mr. Newkirk was ready to move on, and for about $280,000, Mr. Klein had found his utopia.

這塊房產屬於紐約設計師斯科特·紐柯克(Scott Newkirk)，它的魅力也主要源於紐柯克的審美：他的木屋和涼臺太可愛了，《紐約》雜誌(New York)專門對它進行過報道。紐柯克已擁有這塊地產10年，打算搬走，於是克萊恩花了大約28萬美元得到了自己的烏托邦。

Beaver Brook, as he named it, inhabits a nexus of themes: a millennial’s version of the Adirondack camps of the robber barons, the back-to-the-land movements and intentional communities of the 1950s and ’60s, and a combination folk school/artists’ residency.

這塊房產被紐柯克命名爲比弗布魯克，它匯聚了多個主題：它是這位千禧一代眼中的強盜貴族的阿迪朗達克（Adirondack，木屋所在的大山的名字——譯註）營地；它也有點像20世紀五六十年代的返土歸田運動和理念村(intentional communities)；它還是民間學校和藝術家創作地的結合體。

While hedge funders tend to express themselves in ever-bigger shingled simulacrums of early 20th century waterfront estates, those in the tech world who’ve enjoyed similar success may be more interested in experience, community and relationships, as Lane Becker, a founder of digital start-ups and the author of “Get Lucky,” a tech business primer on serendipity, pointed out.

雖然木屋的投資者是想建造一個大型的20世紀初濱水木瓦建築，但正如數字創業公司創始人林恩·貝克(Lane Becker)指出的那樣，在科技界體會過類似成功的人可能對體驗、社區和人際關係更感興趣。貝克是《好運》(Get Lucky)一書的作者，這本書是瞭解科技界各種機緣巧合的入門書籍。

“To the extent they want to spend their money, it’s on stuff like that,” he said. Mr. Becker and his wife, Courtney Skott, a furniture maker, were in Denver last weekend for a wedding, staying with a couple — a start-up entrepreneur and a television producer — who had rehabbed a Masonic Lodge. “They Airbnb some of the rooms out,” Mr. Becker said, “less because they need the money but because they’d like to get know different people. That’s sort of the model of what Zach’s doing. Some might see a sort of hipster-twee affectation, but I think there’s a more genuine impulse at work.”

“他們就想把錢花在像那樣的東西上面，”貝克說。上週末，他和妻子（以製作傢俱爲業）考特妮·斯科特(Courtney Skott)去丹佛參加婚禮，住在一對夫婦家裏。這夫妻倆一個是創業家，一個是電視製片人，他們翻修了一個共濟會會所(Masonic Lodge)。“他們把其中一些房間掛到了Airbnb上，”貝克說，“並不是因爲他們需要這點錢，而是因爲他們喜歡結識各種人。這和扎克在做的事有點兒像。有些人可能把這看作是一種追求新奇的做作行爲，但我覺得這源於一種更真實的激情。”

Mr. Klein’s inspirations are familiar: the writings of Stewart Brand, the ’60s era eco guru and editor of the Whole Earth Catalogue; and John Seymour, the author of “The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live it, ” along with the architectural ideals of Christopher Alexander. Other touchstones included a maple sugar shanty he once visited as a child, a community of Hobbitlike tiny houses called Trout Gulch built by some tech friends in Santa Cruz, Calif., and a yurt village built by a family in the Adirondacks.

克萊恩的靈感可能來自以下這些著名人物的理念：60年代的環保大師、《全球概覽》(Whole Earth Catalogue)的主編斯圖爾特·布蘭德(Stewart Brand)；《自給自足的生活技能》(The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live it)的作者約翰·西摩(John Seymour)；以及建築師克里斯托弗·亞歷山大(Christopher Alexander)。他兒時去過的一個楓糖小屋、加利福尼亞州聖克魯斯科技界的一些朋友建造的霍比特式小屋社區鱒魚峽谷(Trout Gulch)，還有阿迪朗達克山區一戶人家修建的蒙古包村，也都是克萊恩靈感的來源。

But his pitch was pretty simple, said Courtney Klein, a digital strategist and entrepreneur, who married Mr. Klein at Beaver Brook in 2012. “It was, ‘Let’s get a piece of land and we could bring all our friends together and have a good time.’ ”

但數字策略師、創業家考特妮·克萊恩說，她丈夫的想法其實很簡單。“那就是，‘讓我們找一塊地，把所有朋友都叫到一起快樂地生活’。”他們倆是2012年在比弗布魯克結婚的。

And so it began. In August 2010, the couple hosted a weekend of “bonfires, contemplation and wood chopping,” among other activities. They cooked stew in the shack, now called Scott’s Cabin, for Mr. Newkirk, and which Mr. Newkirk had outfitted with a propane stove, and washed up by hauling five-gallon containers from the brook.

然後他們就開始行動。2010年8月，他們倆組織了一個包括“篝火、冥想和伐木”等內容的週末活動。之前，紐柯克已經在木屋裏安裝了燒丙烷的爐子，而且用5加侖容量的桶從小溪裏提水上來，把木屋洗了一遍。如今這個木屋以紐柯克的名字命名，被稱爲“斯科特木屋”。搞活動的時候，克萊恩夫婦在木屋裏燉肉。

Some guests bunked in the shack and sleeping porch; others pitched tents among the ferns. The experience was the model for what would be a kind of weekend commune, an experiment in episodic off-the-grid-living with a core of eight friends that has grown to about 20, including five children (Nell Klein arrived just over a year ago. )

一些客人在木屋和涼臺上打地鋪，其他人則在蕨類植物上支起帳篷。這種體驗就像某種週末公社，像是偶爾來一次無電力生活體驗。參加活動的人從最初的8個增加到約20個，包括5個小孩（包括一年多前出生的內爾·克萊恩）。

There was Brian Jacobs, a sound designer and composer and Mr. Klein’s former roommate in New York City. He had been a junior Maine guide and his proficiency with an ax served the group well. There was Jace Cooke, a founder of the tech start-up Giphy, and other young creatives — animators, app designers, musicians and filmmakers.

其中一位叫布賴恩·雅各布斯(Brian Jacobs)，他是一名音響設計師兼作曲家，也是克萊恩在紐約時的室友。以前他在緬因州做過初級導遊，他很會使用斧頭，這個技能對這個組織很有用。來這兒的還有科技初創公司Giphy的創始人傑斯·庫克(Jace Cooke)等年輕創意工作者，比如動畫師、應用程序設計師、音樂人和電影人。

Mr. Jacobs brought Grace Kapin, who worked in fashion, one weekend; having survived that, they are now married and building a cabin there. Before long, everyone became handy with chain saws and other power tools; they brought in more experienced builders to oversee large projects and teach the group carpentry skills.

有一個週末，雅各布斯帶着格蕾絲·考平(Grace Kapin)前來，她在時尚界工作。有了在那裏共度週末的經歷，現在他們已經結婚，在附近也建了一座小木屋。不久之後，所有人都能熟練使用鏈鋸等電動工具，他們還請了一些更有經驗的建築工人來監督大型項目，教大家木工技術。

There were rookie mistakes. An early project, a barrel-shaped tub, floated away one spring when the snow melted and the brook rose. Composting drew bears. (Ms. Kapin named their ursine visitors: Alan Ginzbear, Stephen Colbear, Marion Beary.)

他們也會犯些新手纔會犯的錯誤。早期他們做過一個桶狀浴盆，結果春天冰雪融化、小溪漲水時，它就被沖走了。堆肥還把熊給引來了（考平還給那些熊起了名字：艾倫·金絲熊[Alan Ginzbear]、斯蒂芬·科爾熊[Stephen Colbear]和馬里昂·熊熊[Marion Beary]）。

The group made art on their camping weekends, including a winsome short film about building a stool from an oak tree, and took enticing photographs that looked like they had been art-directed by the editors of Kinfolk magazine. Since 2009, Mr. Klein had been collecting images of sheds, shacks, cabins and huts into a Tumblr blog he called, cunningly, Cabin Porn, and he also posted Beaver Brook’s embellishments, captured in those photographs, there.

這羣人還把他們的週末野營生活搞得很藝術化。他們拍了一部頗爲討喜的短片，講的是如何用一段橡木做一把凳子；還拍了一些誘人的照片，像是在《Kinfolk》雜誌編輯的藝術指導下完成的。自2009年起，克萊恩就一直在收集各種工棚、棚屋和木屋的圖片，並把它們收入一個Tumblr博客裏，博客的名字起得很搞怪，叫Cabin Porn。他還在上面發佈大家拍的比弗布魯克裝飾品的照片。

When the blog, an enchanting rabbit hole of tiny handmade houses, quickly went viral, his private utopia became public record, and book publishers came courting, seeing in Cabin Porn the architectural equivalent of Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York. The result, “Cabin Porn: Inspiration for Your Quiet Place Somewhere,” is out this week from Little, Brown.

這個博客成了集合各種小手工房的兔子洞，非常吸引人，很快傳播開來，克萊恩自己的烏托邦變得廣爲人知，出版商也找上門來，他們認爲Cabin Porn是攝影師布蘭登·斯坦頓(Brandon Stanton)《人在紐約》(Humans of New York)的建築界版本。結果，《Cabin Porn：心中靜默之處的靈感》(Cabin Porn: Inspiration for Your Quiet Place Somewhere)一書將於本週（9月20日至9月26日）由利特爾-布朗出版社(Little, Brown)出版。

Three years ago, Mr. Klein began inviting artisans like Tom Bonamici, a product designer with an expertise in woodworking and timber framing, to hold annual weeklong workshops at Beaver Brook for paying students to learn building skills. Mr. Klein, whose latest endeavor is DIY, an online “maker” site for children, is keenly interested in turning Beaver Brook into both a folk school and an artists’ residency.

三年前，克萊恩開始邀請一些工匠每年花一週時間來比弗布魯克舉辦講習班，學生們可以付費學習建造技巧。比如，產品設計師湯姆·博納米奇(Tom Bonamici)，他擅長木工活和木屋骨架製作。克萊恩最近在做的是一個名叫DIY的兒童“創客”(maker)網站，他很想把比弗布魯克變成一個民間學校和藝術家創作地。

After his first workshop, and at Mr. Klein’s urging, Mr. Bonamici, a gentle Oregonian with a passion for traditional Japanese timber framing, became a Beaver Brook resident.

博納米奇是個溫和的俄勒岡人，對傳統日式木屋骨架有着強烈的熱情。在克萊恩的鼓勵下，他在這裏第一次舉辦講習班後，也成了比弗布魯克的居民。

Like all utopias, this one changed as it grew. It was three years ago that the Bunkhouse was built, on a piece of land across the brook with road frontage, electricity and a well. Camping in Scott’s Cabin or in tents strewn about the hill had lost its luster, Mr. Klein said, “People got slower and slower about volunteering to do the dishes on cold nights.” And without power, Beaver Brook’s season was contained to the warmer months.

和所有烏托邦一樣，這裏也在不斷變化。三年前，他們在小溪對面的一塊地上建起了工棚，前面有路，附近有井，還通了電。克萊恩說，在斯科特木屋住宿或者在附近的山上搭帳篷野營，已經不再具有吸引力，“在寒冷的夜裏，人們越來越不願意主動洗碗”。而且因爲沒有電，人們只會在氣候溫暖的幾個月來比弗布魯克。

Yet there is some nostalgia for the time “before,” when there was no cellphone coverage, Wi-Fi or hot water. This year’s Beaver Brook workshop project was timber framing, the foundation for an outdoor kitchen the residents hope will bring some of the action back to the Arcadian side of the brook. Six students paid $500 for Mr. Bonamici’s tutelage; the fee covered a week’s worth of chef-cooked meals and groceries (Mr. Klein and Ms. Klein paid for materials and Mr. Bonamici’s stipend).

不過對於“從前”，人們還是有着某種懷舊情緒，那時候，這裏沒有手機信號，沒有Wi-Fi，沒有熱水。今年比弗布魯克講習班的主題是木屋骨架製作，它是戶外廚房的基礎。居民們希望它能把某些活動帶回小溪對面的阿迪朗達克那一側。6位學員支付500美元，獲得博納米奇的指導，這筆錢只夠支付一週的廚師餐和零食（克萊恩夫婦則支付了原材料費和博納米奇的報酬）。

On the last night of the workshop, students and residents ate by candlelight among the sturdy framework they’d built. “It was like old times,” Mr. Klein said.

在講習班的最後一個晚上，學員和居民坐在他們做好的結實的骨架裏，在燭光下吃了一頓飯。“真像從前啊，”克萊恩說。

The Bunkhouse, Mr. Klein said, was also bait for a plan he was hatching to draw Ms. Klein, Mr. Jacobs and Ms. Kapin into full-time residency at Beaver Brook. The four discussed buying a local market, perhaps putting a bar in its basement until Ms. Klein put the kibosh on the plan.

克萊恩說，工棚也是他爲了吸引妻子、雅各布斯和考平成爲比弗布魯克全職居民所設的誘餌。他們4個還討論過買下當地的一個市場，可能還要在市場的地下室裏開一家酒吧，但是最後克萊恩太太叫停了這些計劃。

While Beaver Brook, she said, “did snowball pretty quickly from something that had more meaning than a weekend house,” it was not her life plan to settle permanently in rural Sullivan County.

她說，雖然比弗布魯克“不僅是一個週末度假屋，而且它發展得很快”，但是永遠住在沙利文鄉下並不是她的人生計劃。

“Courtney was the voice of reason,” Ms. Kapin said.

“考特妮是我們中間比較理性的一個，”考平說。

The Kleins have since moved to San Francisco, where DIY is based. Ms. Klein and Ms. Kapin, who still lives in Brooklyn, are partners in Storq, a line of maternity clothes that Ms. Klein founded.

後來，克萊恩夫婦搬到了DIY所在的舊金山。考平仍住在布魯克林，她成了考特妮創立的孕婦裝品牌Storq的合夥人。

Mr. Klein and Ms. Klein are Beaver Brook’s owners, and they pay taxes and insurance on the properties. Beaver Brook residents are divided by their dues into two categories: Bunkers pay $150 a month for a guaranteed bed in the Bunkhouse. Campers pay $75 a month for a spot across the brook.

克萊恩夫婦是比弗布魯克的主人，他們爲它交稅、上保險。根據各人交的會費高低，比弗布魯克的居民被分到不同的住處：工棚裏一個牀位的月租費是150美元，在小溪對面搭帳篷的費用是每月75美元。

Bedrooms at the Bunkhouse, an airy open-plan house designed around the frame of a 19th-century barn, are first come first served. It’s the most practical system, Mr. Klein said.

工棚的臥室是寬敞的開間，是繞着一個19世紀穀倉設計而成的，這些臥室採取先到先得的原則。克萊恩說，這種安排最實用。

Last year, 100 people, give or take, spent at least one night in the house. Over Labor Day, he and Ms. Klein and Nell were sleeping in a first-floor bedroom that has been outfitted with a crib, one of three separate bedrooms.

去年，大約100人至少在這裏過了一夜。這裏有三間獨立的臥室。今年勞動節，克萊恩夫婦和孩子睡在一層的一個配備嬰兒牀的獨立臥室裏。

Most of the sleeping options are communal: In an open loft space upstairs, there are two double beds; the Bunkroom, which is also upstairs, has eight futons on its wide-planked yellow pine floor. It’s Mr. Klein’s favorite place to sleep. “I love being up here with eight snoring buddies,” he said.

這裏大部分睡覺的地方都是共用的：在樓上開放的loft裏有兩張雙人牀；Bunkroom也在樓上，它寬大厚實的黃松木地板上放着8張日式牀墊。克萊恩最喜歡在那兒睡覺，他說：“我就喜歡到樓上去和8個打呼嚕的兄弟們在一起。”

As for projects, there is one simple rule, Mr. Klein said: “As long as the thing you want to do doesn’t cause irreversible change, just go for it.” Idan Cohen, an amateur chef, organized the building of a cob oven one work weekend this summer. As it happens, Ms. Kapin’s and Mr. Jacobs’s stunning wedge of a cabin, dubbed Clydeshead for their dog, Clyde, was Mr. Klein’s idea.

克萊恩說，他做項目有一條簡單的規矩，“只要你想做的事不會導致不可逆轉的變化，那就儘管去做”。今年夏天的一個勞動週末，業餘大廚伊登·科恩(Idan Cohen)組織大家做柴火爐。實際上，考平和雅各布斯的那個令人驚豔的楔形木屋（他倆以自家狗狗Clyde的名字把木屋命名爲Clydeshead）就是克萊恩的主意。

“It’s his special skill to talk people into doing something ambitious,” Ms. Kapin said. (Given Mr. Klein’s hope to anchor his friends more permanently to Beaver Brook, one suspects in this instance a deeper motive.)

“他有一種特殊的能力，能鼓動人們做些有抱負的事，”考平說（鑑於克萊恩希望朋友們能更長久地呆在比弗布魯克，所以他的這種能力可能也源於一種更深層次的動力）。

With a budget of $10,000, Mr. Jacobs’s and Ms. Kapin’s original vision of a cube tucked into the hill receded pretty quickly. “Once we talked to people who knew what they were doing,” Mr. Jacobs said, “we realized we’d have to build a retaining wall, there’d be backhoes involved...”

憑藉一萬美元的預算，雅各布斯和考平很快就打消了建造一個嵌入山體的正方形小屋的念頭。“我們和了解此事的人聊了聊，”雅各布斯說，“得知我們得砌一堵擋土牆，那要用到挖掘機……”

Mr. Jacobs’s brother, Mike, is an architect, and he designed a refined 350-foot rectangle cantilevered out over the hill that uses the surrounding trees as supports. That particular innovation depends on treehouse technology, an anchor bolt known as a Garnier Limb. (Michael Garnier, an Oregon based treehouse builder — and treehouse dweller — is sometimes known as the father of the modern treehouse movement.)

雅各布斯的弟弟邁克(Mike)是一名建築師，他設計了一個350平方英尺大的精緻長方形屋子，利用周圍的樹作支撐，懸掛在山上。這種特殊的創新靠的是一種名叫“卡尼爾枝翼”(Garnier Limb)錨栓的樹屋技術（邁克爾·卡尼爾[Michael Garnier]是俄勒岡的一位樹屋建築師，他自己也住在樹屋裏，有時他被譽爲現代樹屋運動之父）。

There are Beaver Brook rituals, like the annual talent show, held New Year’s Eve in the Bunkhouse. Newbies earn a nickname after their third night on the property, and following a requisite post-sauna plunge in the brook after dark. (Mr. Klein’s is Zubaz, for the virulently patterned pants that he and other Buffalo Bills fans like to wear. Ms. Kapin’s is Guns, for the Linda Hamilton-like biceps she developed building her cabin.)

比弗布魯克也有各種儀式，比如每年新年前夕在工棚裏舉辦的才藝秀。新來的人在這裏度過三晚之後，就會擁有自己的暱稱，然後必須在晚上洗完桑拿之後跳進小溪裏完成整個儀式（克萊恩的暱稱是Zubaz，名字來自他和其他布法羅比爾隊(Buffalo Bills)的粉絲喜歡穿的那種有着狂野圖案的褲子。考平的暱稱是Guns，因爲在蓋小屋期間，她練出了像琳達·漢密爾頓[Linda Hamilton]那樣的肱二頭肌）。

On work weekends, newcomers might be assigned grunt work chores like path maintenance. “It is much, much harder than you’d imagine,” Ms. Kapin said with a slight shudder.

在勞動週末，新來的人可能會被安排去做累人的工作，比如道路維護。“它比你想象的要難得多，”考平說這話的時候身體都有點兒抖。

There’s an email chain, for planning projects and working out domestic issues. Laundry has been particularly thorny. With so many beds and no assigned rooms, the residents were struggling until it was suggested they bring their own sheets and towels. One resident offered to cross-stitch everyone’s names on their linens.

他們建了一個郵件組，討論項目策劃和家務問題。洗衣服的問題尤爲棘手。牀鋪這麼多又沒有固定的房間，居民們此前一直很苦惱，最後他們決定自己帶牀單和毛巾。一位居民主動提出用十字繡給每個人的牀單和毛巾繡上名字。

Beekeeping has been broached as a project for next summer (Mr. Klein has a hankering for mead). In August, Mr. Klein sent around a Beaver Brook logo he and Mr. Cooke designed as a book stamp for their growing Bunkhouse library.

他們已經在討論明年夏天開始養蜂（克萊恩特別想喝蜂蜜酒）。今年8月，克萊恩開始分發比弗布魯克的logo，那是他和庫克爲越來越大的工棚圖書室設計的藏書章。

Unlike the vicious, trollish tenor of, say, the internal communiqués of Manhattan co-ops, Beaver Brook residents write with civility and a regular refrain of “awesome!”

不像曼哈頓合作公寓的內部公告那樣惡毒，比弗布魯克居民的內部公告彬彬有禮，而且經常能看到人們寫道“好極了”。

“I think this is an important step,” Mr. Klein wrote, weighing in on the recent laundry discussion, “towards delegating the responsibilities for making BB work, creating a more camp-like culture, and raising the bar of participation to be more intentional. Cheers or jeers?”

在最近一次關於洗衣服的討論中，克萊恩寫道：“我覺得這一步很重要。比弗布魯克要想運轉下去，我們必須分擔責任，營造一種更像野營的文化，並且提高參與標準，選擇那些更有誠意的人。大家同不同意？”

Back home in San Francisco, the email chain is Mr. Klein’s primary online community, as he pines for his East Coast retreat.

回到舊金山的家裏後，郵件組就成了克萊恩最常去的網絡社區，因爲他很懷念自己在東海岸的那個隱居地。

Sunday nights are rough, he added. “It’s when everyone is driving back to the city from Beaver Brook,” he said, “and I get a flurry of photos of the meals they’ve made, or of building the cob oven, and I feel on some level I’m missing out on the life I made.”

他補充說，週日晚上是最難過的。“因爲那時所有人都會開車離開比弗布魯克回城裏去，”他說，“然後我會收到一大堆照片，他們做的飯的照片或者他們搭的柴火爐的照片。我覺得，從某種層次上講，我缺席了自己創造的生活。”