This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
  1. KudoZ™ Top
  2. French to English
  3. Architecture

lecture

English translation: directed reading/narrative

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:lecture
English translation:directed reading/narrative
Entered by: B D Finch

20:03 Dec 9, 2009
French to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Architecture
French term or phrase: lecture
Il y a le bâtiment de Lorenzo Piano qui propose une promenade plutôt qu’une lecture grâce aux enfilades. What dose she mean by "lecture"? You can see the building on beyeler.com
Paul Hirsh
France
Local time: 06:41
directed reading/narrative
Explanation:
If you read the press release about the building on the website you reference, you will find:
"Located between the longitudinal walls, the exhibition rooms dedicated to the permanent collection are arranged in a well-proportioned pattern that can be altered if necessary. The rooms are not organised in any strict linear order, but visitors feel a natural inclination to move in a certain direction."

This and the general description of the building makes me think that the "promenade" does not follow a pre-set route and that the building invites wandering about. Reading is usually directional: from left to right, from top to bottom. So the building does not invite visitors to read **the collection within it** in such a way and allows them to form their own ideas about the connections and progressions of the works exhibited, also inviting them to appreciate the views over the farmland.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2009-12-09 23:10:11 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

This is a welcome relief from arrows and barriers forcing you to take a fixed route round exhibitions. I have discovered, however that the best way to visit crowded "blockbuster" exhibitions is to go towards the end of the day, hurry to the end and work your way back. By the time you get half way through, you can actually see the works in peace as the crowd has moved on and nobody else is coming in.
Selected response from:

B D Finch
France
Local time: 06:41
Grading comment
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +3see my suggestion
philgoddard
4reading
Ixaka
4expanding on it
Bourth (X)
4directed reading/narrative
B D Finch
2just walk through it without commentary (opinions of others, interpretations)
MatthewLaSon


Discussion entries: 1





  

Answers


9 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
see my suggestion


Explanation:
Thanks to the series of interconnecting rooms, the building does not immediately open itself up to the visitor, but is more a journey of discovery.

philgoddard
United States
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 72

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  John Detre
4 mins
  -> Thanks John.
neutral  polyglot45: isn't it the reverse - i.e. more a place to stroll through than a place to intellectualise about ?
12 mins
  -> No, I take "lecture" to mean "reading" - you can't read the whole building as you walk through the entrance.
agree  Isabelle17
1 hr
  -> Thanks Isabelle.
agree  Mahal
2 hrs
  -> Thanks.
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

23 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
reading


Explanation:
Bonjour Paul,
It's not an architectural term. In my opinion, the writer means that this part of the building invites the visitor to walk around (go for "une promenade" through the enfilade of rooms) instead of being contemplative and still (reading a book, for example).

Ixaka
United States
Local time: 00:41
Works in field
Native speaker of: French

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  John Detre: surely "reading" refers here to the building (the building isn't easy to read, can't be immediately read) rather than reading a book?//Yes, true, they're playing on two senses of "lecture" by opposing it to "promenade," but how can that be translated?
8 mins
  -> "Lecture" is associated with "Promenade", so in my opinion, the writer means active & passive actions.
neutral  Jim Tucker (X): The term is in fact used in architecture, as here: "concevoir la restauration non pas comme une réparation, mais comme un projet qui mette en œuvre une lecture de l'édifice"
22 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5
just walk through it without commentary (opinions of others, interpretations)


Explanation:
Hello,

In other words, no thorough examination of it as in a guided tour....just walk through it, around it...

It also provides a scope of the brilliant architecture and history of the area's past for current and future generations to enjoy. ...

www.innisfilscope.com/.../Inspiring_others_to_preserve_heri...

I hope this helps.



MatthewLaSon
Local time: 00:41
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 16
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
expanding on it


Explanation:
... which, because of its enfilades, invites you/visitors to walk through rather than seek insight into its meaning.

Or ... whose enfilades invite you/visitors to walk through the building rather than seek insight into its meaning.

What? Have we at last found a down-to-earth - if poetic - architect for whom a building is a box you live and work and walk in, not a subject of metaphysical contemplation? Hard to believe ...


Bourth (X)
Local time: 06:41
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 539
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
directed reading/narrative


Explanation:
If you read the press release about the building on the website you reference, you will find:
"Located between the longitudinal walls, the exhibition rooms dedicated to the permanent collection are arranged in a well-proportioned pattern that can be altered if necessary. The rooms are not organised in any strict linear order, but visitors feel a natural inclination to move in a certain direction."

This and the general description of the building makes me think that the "promenade" does not follow a pre-set route and that the building invites wandering about. Reading is usually directional: from left to right, from top to bottom. So the building does not invite visitors to read **the collection within it** in such a way and allows them to form their own ideas about the connections and progressions of the works exhibited, also inviting them to appreciate the views over the farmland.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2009-12-09 23:10:11 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

This is a welcome relief from arrows and barriers forcing you to take a fixed route round exhibitions. I have discovered, however that the best way to visit crowded "blockbuster" exhibitions is to go towards the end of the day, hurry to the end and work your way back. By the time you get half way through, you can actually see the works in peace as the crowd has moved on and nobody else is coming in.


    Reference: http://www.beyeler.com/fondation/e/html_15information/info04...
B D Finch
France
Local time: 06:41
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 163
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.

You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.

Return to KudoZ list

KudoZ™ translation help

The KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases.

See also:
ProZ.com term search
Search millions of term translations
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search