charger la maison

11:49 Nov 27, 2018 

Thanks for your message. Agreed. Looking back at the text, I put:

"(...) it is an opportunity that Africa needs to seize with both hands."

Going back to "charger la maison", I thought this could perhaps be a solution in line with Daryo's thoughts:

"(...) freeing us from the constraints of a featureless international style while giving homes a distinctive identity once again."

11:36 Nov 27, 2018 

I don't believe there is any sense of 'giving weight to' here, which apart from anything else would hardly be a logical opposition to 'neutrality / aridity', as pointed out by Daryo below.

And I think better verbs might be 'grasping' or indeed the literal and more powerful 'seizing.'

10:51 Nov 27, 2018 

for all your suggestions so far. Much appreciated.

Another idea that was sent to me was along the line of "giving weight/meaning back to houses/homes".

@Daryo I understood that to mean "taking the opportunity with both hands".

00:32 Nov 27, 2018 

nous émancipent de la neutralité et de l’aridité du style international en restaurant la possibilité de *charger la maison*.

1 -- nous émancipent ... en restaurant la possibilité de "charger la maison" =>"charger" has a positive connotation, as it's paired with "emancipation"

2 -- nous émancipent de la neutralité et de l’aridité du style international => "charger la maison" is the opposite of "la neutralité et l’aridité" of some nondescript/rootless "style international"

BTW, what about "saisir ce Kairos par les cheveux"?

06:57 Nov 26, 2018 

I had the same doubt myself; but then, compared with 'neutralité' and 'aridité', perhaps the sense does have soemthing of an element of 'overladen' — did you look at the examples BDF found for us? Some of them are highly ornamented, in an exuberant way that many might find "over-the-top", certainly compared to post-War concrete austerity!
Then again, we do use 'chargé' in a positive sense too, don't we, as in 'la vieille cité chargée d'histoire'? 'Steeped in history', perhaps in EN — but difficult to see it as negative, even though we do also use it of e.g. an elderly person who bears the weight of their years.

03:39 Nov 26, 2018 

It could mean loaded with meaning.

22:22 Nov 25, 2018 

I did think of this possibility at first and it may be the right answer except I wonder why they would use "charger" with a slightly negative nuance, rather than a more positive verb.

22:01 Nov 25, 2018 

The way I read it is this:

"...nous émancipent de la neutralité et de l’aridité du style international en restaurant la possibilité de charger la maison."

I think this is meant to imply that all these new possibilities free architecture from the constraints of international style, so that houses can once again [en restaurant] be 'loaded' (overloaded?!) with decoration and detail — see these lovely examples kindly found for us by BDF:

https://bit.ly/2zzJqjl
https://maison-monde.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/maison-p...
https://maison-monde.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/hutte-or...
https://bit.ly/2Rf0AcE