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French to English translations [PRO] Tech/Engineering - Architecture
French term or phrase:miroitement
Target=UK
Context: Article for an Architecture magazine
Vouloir dresser un inventaire du vocabulaire des maquettes est une entreprise vouée à la déception. Comment fixer dans la conception le miroitement des actions libres ? Les maquettes sont d’abord des occurrences, des cas et des faits.
The whole question is bothering me. I can't actually get my head round it.
Not sure what category to put this in, so I've chosen 'architecture' and if I find that's not helpful, I'll put it into 'general'.
I want to avoid misunderstandings of the word 'maquette'
Explanation: I think the point is that it is NOT a lexicon. The author is arguing against any such thing and that it would be "une entreprise vouée à la déception". How can the scintillation of free expression be nailed down into a concept?
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2014-11-12 17:26:42 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I understand it as meaning that maquettes allow the freedom to explore various aspects of the work, to abstract those aspects from the whole in order to play with and develop them and see what happens.
"Les maquettes sont d’abord des occurrences, des cas et des faits. Elles sont l’expression de la multiplicité et de l’hétérogénéité qui font l’architecture "
So the maquettes and the making of them are not constrained by the needs of an actual structure they have their own realities. I was looking last week at some of Sonia Delaunay's fashion designs. Their relationship to the finished garment was similar to this relationship between a maquette and the finished building. The designs themselves left a whole lot of unanswered questions about how the garments were to be made, but expressed the effects the garments should produce.
I would like to thank you all for your help on this one. I believe that Didier helped me out most, because he made me think about the second possibility of 'miroitement' as in 'miroiter', i.e. painting something in glowing colours. With a combination of 'scintillation', 'dazzle' and this idea, I came up with 'splendour', which was my choice in the end. Who should get the points? Should anyone? I really don't know. I'm giving a couple of points to BD Finch, because her answer was helpful. Again thank you to everyone. I really found this quite difficult at first and you helped me find what I consider to be an acceptable solution.
that a model/mock-up is static and cannot make proper allowance for the dynamic movements of the various parties involved, each reflecting in some way on the other
Thanks for the context - it's a lot clearer now. I think Didier and polyglot45 are on the right lines - perhaps "dazzle" is the idea. I love Didier's quote about architects, which is equally applicable to translators.
"faire miroiter" ça peut être tenter de tromper, mais quand c'est à soi-même qu'on fait miroiter ce que pourrait être une "action libre" (si je remportais le projet, si j'avais le budget, is je trouvais les matériaux....) la suite explique "la maquette construit et problématise", c'est un support d'imagination.
J'ai dans mon bureau une affiche sur le point de vue des architectes:
"Un Architecte est un homme qui sait très peu de choses sur un très grand nombre de sujets et qui, progressivement, en sait de moins en moins sur un nombre toujours plus grand de choses, jusqu’à ce qu’il ne sache pratiquement plus rien sur à peu près tout. Au contraire, un Ingénieur est un homme qui sait beaucoup de choses dans des domaines très limités et qui, au cours de sa vie professionnelle, en sait de plus en plus sur des sujets de plus en plus limités, jusqu’à ce que, finalement, il sache pratiquement tout sur à peu près rien. Un Entrepreneur commence à savoir tout sur tout mais finit par ne plus rien savoir sur rien et ceci est dû en ce qui le concerne à la fréquentation des Architectes et des Ingénieurs. Mohammed MOKZOUNI, Entrepreneur irakien"
pour moi, cette expression me fait toujours penser à "mener en bateau" - donc ensorceler quelqu'un en tenant des propos prometteurs mais peu susceptibles de se réaliser !!!
Perhaps a neutral word like 'interplay" might suffice ?
"faire miroiter" à quelqu'un c'est le laisser rêver, lui faire croire à quelque chose qui pourrait éventuellement se réaliser.
Les maquettes servent alors à illustrer cette idée qui peut ne pas être réalisable techniquement ou financièrement, c'est le sens à mon avis de "actions libres": dégagées des contraintes de la réalité ou de la réalisation en vraie grandeur
Pour exprimer ça en anglais je passe la main à plus compétent que moi mais c'est ce que je comprends de la fréquentation des architectes
Miranda Joubioux (X)
ASKER
Full paragraph
16:12 Nov 12, 2014
Vouloir dresser un inventaire du vocabulaire des maquettes est une entreprise vouée à la déception. Comment fixer dans la conception le miroitement des actions libres ? Les maquettes sont d’abord des occurrences, des cas et des faits. Elles sont l’expression de la multiplicité et de l’hétérogénéité qui font l’architecture en suivant la formule d’Aldo Rossi, « l’architecture ce sont les architectures ». Dans ce paysage volubile, on pourrait cependant s’amuser – tel est le mot clé des maquettes – à repérer quelques familles. Sans entamer une historiographie savante, encore moins une analyse fonctionnelle, nous tenterons plutôt une petite mythologie archaïque des maquettes. Si ce lexique partial devait nourrir une seule ambition, ce serait celle de montrer que la maquette constitue un paradigme contemporain de la représentation en architecture. Sa caractéristique principale ? Elle tient à distance la modélisation. En effet, la maquette est irréductible au modèle et, sous certains aspects, elle s’y oppose. Quand le modèle vise la transparence, la maquette construit et problématise, elle se complaît dans une opacité qui enrichit notre perception au lieu de la simplifier.
I feel sure this isn't talking about LITERALLY drawing up a glossary of architectural modelling terms — but rather, in any way formalizing the 'language' used in model making; I think they're sort of trying to say that "any resemblance between architects' models and reality is purely coincidental", as the saying goes... that when models are not tied down by the same formal constraints as actual buildings, an awful lot of things can be got away with, as long as they look sexy...
Miranda Joubioux (X)
ASKER
16:06 Nov 12, 2014
If it helps the article goes on to draw up a list of the different types of architectural models La maquette apollinienne La maquette objet d’inanité La maquette machinerie La maquette schème etc.
We don't need the whole article, just a few paragraphs. You know much more about the background than we do - for example, why would someone want to "dresser un inventaire du vocabulaire des maquettes"?
Miranda Joubioux (X)
ASKER
No more context
15:57 Nov 12, 2014
I'm afraid I can't give any more context. It's one of those articles that goes all over the place, and I'd have to copy the whole 3 page article here.
Miranda Joubioux (X)
ASKER
@Phil
15:56 Nov 12, 2014
Yes we are talking about architectural models here. For 'actions libres' it could be 'free expression', but the word 'action' in relation to creating models bothers me. As I said, the whole question needs to be looked at.
Are we talking about architectural models here? And what do you understand by "actions libres"? A little bit more context might help - could we have a few paragraphs, do you think?
Miranda Joubioux (X)
ASKER
15:46 Nov 12, 2014
Nope, I still don't get it. Since this is a sort of lexicon, I had thought that 'miroitement' could be 'reflection' - basically how do you put down these down on paper, but I'm really not at all sure I've grasped this one.
Explanation: I think the point is that it is NOT a lexicon. The author is arguing against any such thing and that it would be "une entreprise vouée à la déception". How can the scintillation of free expression be nailed down into a concept?
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2014-11-12 17:26:42 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I understand it as meaning that maquettes allow the freedom to explore various aspects of the work, to abstract those aspects from the whole in order to play with and develop them and see what happens.
"Les maquettes sont d’abord des occurrences, des cas et des faits. Elles sont l’expression de la multiplicité et de l’hétérogénéité qui font l’architecture "
So the maquettes and the making of them are not constrained by the needs of an actual structure they have their own realities. I was looking last week at some of Sonia Delaunay's fashion designs. Their relationship to the finished garment was similar to this relationship between a maquette and the finished building. The designs themselves left a whole lot of unanswered questions about how the garments were to be made, but expressed the effects the garments should produce.
B D Finch France Local time: 13:41 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 163
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