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Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

architecture habitée (architectural theory)

English translation:

lived-in architecture

Added to glossary by Evans (X)
Jul 8, 2010 14:45
13 yrs ago
French term

architecture habitée

French to English Art/Literary Architecture urban planning, architecture
This phrase pops up a lot in architectural texts and I was wondering, if there is a similar term in English, apart from the obvious. So far I have been using "inhabited architecture" which works fine, but I was wondering if anyone in architectural circles knew if there was another set English phrase that I haven't come across yet?
Proposed translations (English)
3 +3 lived-in architecture
4 residential architecture
3 inhabited spaces
Change log

Jul 22, 2010 14:20: Evans (X) Created KOG entry

Discussion

Sandra Mouton Jul 11, 2010:
Like in "lieu habité" I understood "architecture habitée" in a slightly different way. More along the lines of the meaning in "lieu habité", i.e. "where a special spirit dwells" with the metaphor of a ghost.
I am not sure this comment is of great help, though ;-(
SMcG (X) Jul 8, 2010:
Yes, this is just my 5 cents: and do with it what you will... but is the phrase "inhabited architecture" not a theoretical idea relating to the notion that architecture has to be "inhabited" by itself, a space or the person looking at it? Constantin Brancusi has a famous quote: "architecture is inhabited sculpture". This dovetails with both your French examples, the first ressures us that the pavillion is not just a crass machine to draw in the public but has something theoretical behind it and the second relating to the overzelous desire for theoretical approaches in architectural design - that are not utilitarian - leading to the planners dream going wrong in social planning.
Miranda Joubioux (X) Jul 8, 2010:
I have come across inhabited architecture on frequent occasions and I don't have any difficulty in using it. I see it as a movement away from sterile architecture. It not only can be lived in, but it is.
Sasha Barral-Robinson (asker) Jul 8, 2010:
Some examples below This really isn't a question that requires context to a certain extent because it is a term referring to a new aspiration in architecture, as a generic term which pops up a lot in urban planning texts and architectural profiles. It is an idea related to the elimination of boundaries between landscape design and architecture and is also used as an alternative approach to modernist international architecture. It's more of an idea used in architectural theory I guess.
Sasha Barral-Robinson (asker) Jul 8, 2010:
Cette appétence pour l’architecture habitée - et non pas seulement habitable - la conduit naturellement à réaliser de nombreux programmes de logements sociaux, où les articulations sont si nombreuses et si difficiles à mettre en œuvre
Sasha Barral-Robinson (asker) Jul 8, 2010:
ils sont le signe rassurant que le pavillon n’est pas qu’une machine à aspirer le public, mais que c’est aussi une architecture habitée.
philgoddard Jul 8, 2010:
Could you give us a couple of French examples please? Inhabited architecture is fine, but something else might suggest itself if we have some context.

Proposed translations

+3
35 mins
Selected

lived-in architecture

Well P Bourdon wrote a book about Corbusier which was entitled in English: "Lived-in Architecture: Le Corbusier's Pessac Revisited" and I think it translates the idea too.

And other instances of the expression I've found:

“Original design and lived-in design”
http://incrementalhouse.blogspot.com/2008/07/pessac-france-q...

"original, lived-in architecture being replaced by a shadowy, boutique image of itself"

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/davis/davis1-24-08....

“Architecture needed to be seen as the next step in the evolution of the mediated transmission of meaning, beginning with sign, symbol, text, sound, image, and moving-image into all aspects of lived-in Architecture (space, place, form, shape, structure, inhabitation, urban ecosystem, and so on), but also as abstract and dimensional information structure”

http://www.cluster.eu/transmitting-architecture-revisited-on...
Note from asker:
This is a nice suggestion.
Peer comment(s):
agree philgoddard : "Inhabited" is fine, but this would be a good alternative.
14 mins
yes, I agree, thanks Phil
agree Alison Sabedoria (X)
25 mins
thanks, Wordeffect
agree Miranda Joubioux (X) : As Phil says, an alternative.
32 mins
thanks, Miranda
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
1 hr

residential architecture

Common enough to be used as a name for an industry journal.
Something went wrong...
1 day 42 mins

inhabited spaces

I think 'architecture' refers to built spaces
Something went wrong...
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