nappe de parking

English translation: car park desert/wasteland

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

French term or phrase:	nappe de parking
English translation:	car park desert/wasteland
Entered by:	Miranda Joubioux (X)

13:51 Feb 15, 2010

French to English translations [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Architecture / land use

French term or phrase: nappe de parking

Context:
in a text on the use of urban wasteland.

Des nappes de parkings, des champs urbains, des cités à l’abandon, des no man’s land, où personne n’ose aller.

I'm not sure whether there is a specific term for "nappes de parkings".
Has anyone else encountered this?

Miranda Joubioux (X) KudoZ activity Questions: 591 (none open) (65 closed without grading) Answers: 712
Local time: 07:09

carpark wasteland

Explanation:
Of course if you've already used "wasteland" for friches or something this won't be easy.

There's more to Durban than crowded bathing areas and cigarette-butt speckled sand, pocket-milking shopping complexes and CAR-PARK DESERTS, although in ...
www.myculturemag.co.za/pages/.../south-africas-playground.p...

Try some trees in the CAR PARK “DESERTS”. Leave alone, that way we will all survive! Sculpture should be cost effective. Contractors – grass cutting need ...
www.warwickdc.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/...5368.../VisionEnvironm...

The river front between Spencer Street and Queen Street in the heart of the city is a barren CAR-PARK WASTELAND; yet with imagination and persistence it ...
150.theage.com.au/view_bestofarticle.asp?straction=update&inttype...

Where I park is outside the city, in a CAR PARK WASTELAND. If you forget to bring change you have to walk 15 minutes to the nearest shop. I forgot change. ...
www.workingmums.co.uk/working...on.../ice-and-low-pay.thtml

on the site of the old Spitalfields wholesale market (founded in 1683) and the CAR PARK WASTELAND fronting to Bishopsgate and the City. ...
www.guardian.co.uk/society/2001/dec/17/urbandesign.arts

Not just the roads; imagine how much better our cities will look when we no longer have to design each building surrounded by acres of CAR PARK WASTELAND. ...
www.grayblog.co.uk/2005/06/road-pricing/

Street in the heart of the city is a barren CAR-PARK WASTELAND; yet with imagination and persistence it could become a landscaped garden for Melbourne's ...
www.vecci.com.au/.../community_participation_in_land_and_wa...

This is not just any earthly expanse but a CAR PARK WASTELAND, where renowned French-Canadian theatre director Robert Lepage has set The Dragons' Trilogy. ...
fanset3.blogspot.com/2006/02/cross-cultural-magic-in-quebec-car.html

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Note added at 1 hr (2010-02-15 15:25:23 GMT)
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Meaning not that the carparks are ON wasteland, but that they constitute a wasteland, a pays gaste in the best Fisher King/Chr. de Troyes/Eliotesque tradition.

Selected response from:

Bourth (X)
Local time: 07:09

Grading comment

Because the previous sentence referred to wastelands, I felt to use it here would have been too much. In addition, it was not clear in any way whether these car parks are abandoned or not. I therefore opted for car park desert which went well with the text. Thanksyou for your help.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

3 +5

acres of tarmac

Evans (X)

3 +3

carpark wasteland

Bourth (X)

vast asphalt [/tarmac] deserts of parking lots

Christopher Crockett

parking blight

B D Finch

Summary of reference entries provided

huge expanses of parking spaces

polyglot45

Wasteland carparks or carpark wastelands?

Michael GREEN

Discussion entries: 7

Answers

13 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +5

acres of tarmac

Explanation:
I think this is a way you might express this pejorative use of the idea of vast areas of space being taken over by soulless carparks.

The idea is expressed in this document from the CNRS although the English version they give is very poor
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=18218813

Evans (X)
Local time: 06:09
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 75

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Christopher Crockett: "Acres of asphalt" for the U.S. dialect. "Tarmac" is, for some reason, only used for airport runways over here; I've never seen it used for parking lots or roads.

3 mins

-> divided, as ever, by a common language! thanks Christopher

agree

EmmaMorton: or parking lots as far as the eye can see? It's obvious that "nappes" is used figuratively here...

8 mins

-> thanks Emma

agree

Travelin Ann: with Christopher on asphalt for US

20 mins

-> cheers Ann

agree

Michael GREEN: Yes, but ... not wishing to nitpick, stretches of tarmac / asphalt can (and often do) have other uses than parking lots ...

42 mins

-> thanks Michael, they do, but I think it is car parks that first spring to mind

agree

Chris Hall

7 hrs

-> cheers, Chris

59 mins confidence:

parking blight

Explanation:
Somewhat free translation, but I think this could be used in the context.

"The phrase NIMBY comes to mind but who will wish to help us to be free of the car parking blight? Back to top ..."
www.redbridge.gov.uk/.../yaf_postsm10119_Commuter-car-parki... -

B D Finch
France
Local time: 07:09
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 163

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

carpark wasteland

Bourth (X)
Local time: 07:09
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 539

Grading comment

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thank you Alex, that is more on the lines of what I was thinking, but I needed confirmation of that.

1 hr confidence:

vast asphalt [/tarmac] deserts of parking lots

Explanation:
Preferring "deserts" to Bourth's "wasteland," with "tarmac" for those stuck in the British dialect.

Christopher Crockett
Local time: 01:09
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 79

Reference comments

37 mins peer agreement (net): +1

Reference: huge expanses of parking spaces

Reference information:
Stadia: a design and development guide - Google Books ResultGeraint John, Rod Sheard - 2000 - Architecture - 267 pages
vast expanses of tarmac have a deadening effect on the surrounding environment unless ... network but surrounded by huge expanses of parking spaces. ...
books.google.com/books?isbn=0750645342...

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Note added at 38 mins (2010-02-15 14:29:27 GMT)
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giant parking lots

polyglot45
Native speaker of:

English,

French
PRO pts in category: 12

1 day 1 hr

Reference: Wasteland carparks or carpark wastelands?

Reference information:
While I take the point that the text can be talking about "wastelands of carparks", I think that in the context of "urban wasteland", the text is talking more about carparks ON wasteland: following "nappes de parkings" the list goes on to mention a series of "abandoned" areas : "champs urbains, cités à l'abandon, des no man's land" - good French term - and concludes with "où personne n'ose aller".
I take "des no man's land, où personne n'ose aller" to refer to the abandoned areas listed, in which case parking lots don't qualify unless they are "unofficial".

Example sentence(s):

the city centre met with the stock market crash and left the place with wasteland carparks, a prefabricated ghost-town.

Reference: http://supernaut.info/2007/10/daniels-secret-town/

Michael GREEN
France
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4

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nappe de parking

English translation: car park desert/wasteland

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