English translation: at ground level (no crawl space)
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The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2009-09-21 13:54:12 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)
French to English translations [PRO] Tech/Engineering - Architecture
French term or phrase:pleine-terre
The document to translate details the conversion of a retirement home in Cannes consisting of 2 buildings, A and B, into 30 luxury dwellings.
In the description of building B I have "R+2 en pleine-terre" which I translated as "ground floor plus 2 floors, no basement". But elsewhere the document refers to "caves" in both buildings, and the architect's drawing of the existing buildings clearly shows a basement in building B. Confusingly in a table of the SHON the basement in building B does not appear, but that of building A does.
Building A is described as "R+2 sur sous-sol". What is the exact meaning of "pleine-terre" here? Any help gratefully received.
Explanation: Probably a confusion of:
- en pleine masse : un terrassement est dit en pleine masse s'il est pratiqué dans un sol homogène, ferme, et non rocailleux, and
- en terre-plein : Une construction est dite en terre-plein lorsque son plancher inférieur repose à même le sol, sans vide sanitaire.
[Dicobat]
This does not mean there cannot be a below-ground-level cellar, even if it is only partial, simply that the ground floor is not raised above ground level, as will be the case with more modern houses built on foundation blocks providing the vide sanitaire or "crawl space".
Re. the SHON tables, it may be because the headroom in the cellar not featuring is less than 1.8m (that figure should probably be increased these days, given that the French are taller than they used to be).
Thanks very much, I think this is the most likely explanation. Emma Paulay also had the same idea, so maybe you should share the points with her?! 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
Hello,
This may explain why Building B does not have a basement. It is "en pleine terre", i.e. complying with the rule below.
"Privilégier la perméabilité des sols pour reconstituer les nappes phréatiques.
Un espace est de pleine terre (*) lorsqu’il n’y a pas d’ouvrage dans les sous-sols.Ainsi, à titre d’exemple, un parking réalisé en sous-sol et dépassant la surface de la construction, fait perdre la qualité de pleine terre au sol resté libre en surface. L’objectif de la pleine terre est d’éviter une trop forte imperméabilisation du sol, donc de limiter les ruissellements des eaux de pluie et de reconstituer les nappes phréatiques. Afin de répondre à cet objectif, le P.L.U. propose une surface minimum réservée (30 % de la surface des terrains située en dehors de la bande de constructibilité). "
This expression, without the hyphen, usually means "in the open ground" in an agricultural sense. I have not come across its use in building descriptions and I agree it is very confusing. I'm not sure it means without a basement.
One building can be without and the other with a basement and yet both have cellars, those of the basement-less building being, for example, on the ground floor
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Answers
1 hr confidence:
at ground level (no crawl space)
Explanation: Probably a confusion of:
- en pleine masse : un terrassement est dit en pleine masse s'il est pratiqué dans un sol homogène, ferme, et non rocailleux, and
- en terre-plein : Une construction est dite en terre-plein lorsque son plancher inférieur repose à même le sol, sans vide sanitaire.
[Dicobat]
This does not mean there cannot be a below-ground-level cellar, even if it is only partial, simply that the ground floor is not raised above ground level, as will be the case with more modern houses built on foundation blocks providing the vide sanitaire or "crawl space".
Re. the SHON tables, it may be because the headroom in the cellar not featuring is less than 1.8m (that figure should probably be increased these days, given that the French are taller than they used to be).
xxxBourth Local time: 22:41 Works in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 535
Grading comment
Thanks very much, I think this is the most likely explanation. Emma Paulay also had the same idea, so maybe you should share the points with her?!
The translation workplace 
