Comments on: Garage converted into modernist apartment

By: CH

CH — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 18:12:00 +0000

Is that really 41m^2 living space? It just looks much smaller. My first apartment was 27,5m^2, and compared to that this apartment seems like a lot less.

It’s really cute from the outside, but from the inside it leaves me a bit… disappointed. Like all the energy went into constructing the “box” and nothing was left for the rest.

By: Anon_Mahna

Anon_Mahna — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:39:00 +0000

I’d go the other direction, just sleep on a cot in the corner and buy another motorcycle to park in the house :)

By: cellocgw

cellocgw — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 02:14:00 +0000

No, people use “begs the question” incorrectly because they’re illiterate but desperately trying to look intelligent. This has nothing to do with evolution of language or slowly-changing word meaning (see “vulgar” or “gay”).

By: The Life Of Bryan

The Life Of Bryan — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 00:02:00 +0000

I loved it until I noticed the profound lack of proper cable management. I still love it, but now that’s all I can see.

By: David Pescovitz

David Pescovitz — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 23:54:00 +0000

Thanks all for the provenance info!

By: Gilbert Wham

Gilbert Wham — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 23:52:00 +0000

I did that with my living-space.

By: abhishek727 mishra

abhishek727 mishra — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:44:00 +0000

Here is a link to a video about this house. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBYS3ZsC-cY

Dickie Anginson correctly notes that this was a part of ‘we the tiny house people’

By: wysinwyg

wysinwyg — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:31:00 +0000

Yup, just like an Audi dealership.

By: wysinwyg

wysinwyg — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:28:00 +0000

Proper use of phrases very obviously does evolve. For examples see Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language,” especially the part on cliches. For an example I got from a Stephen Pinker book, the phrase “coming to a head” is a reference to the formation of zits. I bet you’ve used that phrase and I bet you’ve never thought of it as a metaphor comparing your situation to the formation of a zit.

The use of the word “contact” as a verb has only been accepted as proper usage in the last few decades so any phrase using “contact” as a verb is a product of the sort of evolution you are denying ever happens.

By: wysinwyg

wysinwyg — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:26:00 +0000

But this is already a pretty common usage of “begs the question” and I’ve never seen a case where the meaning was ambiguous because of the two usages.

Using “ambivalent” incorrectly is a problem because it actually means just about the opposite of what it’s used to mean. This correction on “begs the question” is, in my opinion, unnecessarily pedantic.

By: Little Mouse

Little Mouse — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:56:00 +0000

I find it interesting to see what they did within the predefined space, but it seems to be playing far too heavily on the idea that it’s a crazily small space and we should be amazed at how luxurious it can be. The problem I have with that is that this just seems like a classier looking version of every central city apartment that has ever existed where space is at a premium.

By: Clark

Clark — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:16:00 +0000

There’s something to be said about doing things “right” in the conventional meaning of the word. English is a living language but it doesn’t mean it has to be destroyed with abandon. I appreciate convention because it is what gives us a common language. If you use a more progressive version of English than someone else does, at which point are you no longer speaking the same language? And I’m not just talking about a cultural gap but a real linguistic one.

By: Clark

Clark — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:11:00 +0000

Thank you! I have been using it incorrectly all this time. I appreciate learning the real and correct meaning of this term.

By: Clark

Clark — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:10:00 +0000

I agree and more precisely, it looks like the waiting area in a German brand auto dealership.

By: jtropp1

jtropp1 — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 19:41:00 +0000

Proper use of a phrase doesn’t evolve.

“I could care less” isn’t “more evolved”; a mistake, common though it may be, is still a mistake.

And there’s nothing (racially) offensive about calling someone “niggardly.”

By: jtropp1

jtropp1 — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 19:27:00 +0000

Best way to irritate a philosopher even more than by misusing “beg the question” –> Say something to the effect of: “It’s all relative!”

By: jayson

jayson — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 19:00:00 +0000

“English is a living language” is not an excuse for being ignorant.

Want to coin some neologisms, turn a clever phrase, or bring some wonderful new loan words in from another language? Congratulations, you’re participating in English as a living language!

Fell asleep during class in high school and can’t use basic grammar and proper word choices? Don’t lash out at others, look for opportunities to learn.

By: Kenmrph

Kenmrph — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 18:56:00 +0000

It looks quite nice, but I’d be tempted to put the god-knows-how-much spent on all the fancy designy bits towards, you know, a bigger apartment. But I’m a shlub with a bunch of junk.

By: howaboutthisdangit

howaboutthisdangit — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 18:28:00 +0000

You beat me to it and you said it so much better than I could have. Dictionaries and textbooks do not define language, they simply document its most common usage.

By: jlargentaye

jlargentaye — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 18:27:00 +0000

And according to their page, this is in Passage Buhan, in Bordeaux, France. ("Point P", the panel seen in one the pictures, is a French firm.)

By: Bruce Dickinson

Bruce Dickinson — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 18:27:00 +0000

Well, I suppose that begs the question, jtropp:
if it’s used more often to mean “raise the question” than “a fallacy of presumption”, doesn’t that suggest that the definition of the phrase has evolved?

By: Joseph Brenner

Joseph Brenner — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 18:25:00 +0000

Converting a garage into a modernist apartment? What’s the difference?

By: greebo

greebo — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:47:00 +0000

That page on logical fallacies is delicious, as it exemplifies both uses of the phrase:
1) Their argument is a begging the question logical fallacy, as it has the form “The correct use of ‘begging the question’ is this way because here’s our definition”
2) The whole argument just begs the question: who gave them the authority to restrict the use of a common English expression in this way?

When will these pedants learn that the English language is a living language and is only defined by the way its used?

By: xian

xian — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:45:00 +0000

Interestingly, the city law there requires every residence to have a parking spot, and the open air patio they created fulfills that requirement – so that’s basically what they did!

By: s2redux

s2redux — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:06:00 +0000

I suspect you could re-redefine as livery space some of the space in this newly redefined living space, serving the need for both parking and mild irony…but then it would become a post-modernist apartment.

By: Churba S

Churba S — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:03:00 +0000

Impressive. Most people just convert their garage into an enormous mess.

By: jandrese

jandrese — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:59:00 +0000

It looks like a waiting room.

By: jtropp1

jtropp1 — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:47:00 +0000

“Of course, it begs the question: Where do you park? (I’m kidding.)”

Buddy, you’d best be “kidding” about using the expression “begs the question” that way.

Please. Think of the children. Aren’t there enough fallacies floating around already?

http://begthequestion.info/

(Counterpoint: http://www.qwantz.com/comics/comic2-724.png )

By: Joshua Ochs

Joshua Ochs — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:45:00 +0000

My only practical concern is what the heating/cooling efficiency of such a structure is going to be like – especially from the floor. But it’s still an incredible retrofit of space.

By: Felipe Esquivel Reed

Felipe Esquivel Reed — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:44:00 +0000

My first appartment was something very similar. It was tiny but cosy.