chris collister Apr 5, 2013:

Faire un oeuf. The pleasing alliteration was purely coincidental, but if the lattice work (like the Gherkin) is at angles other than 90° and 0° then "lace" could fit

Miranda Joubioux (X) (asker) Apr 5, 2013:

@Chris I don't think I need to be airy-fairy here, since it is not the general tone of the document, despite the alliterative 'L's. I'm very used to translating and reading architectural articles. It is important to get across the picture of the building as a whole. Here this is quite an unusual feature, so I think I'm going to stick with 'lattice work". Thank you very much for your help there are plenty of other ideas here that might help someone one day.

chris collister Apr 5, 2013:

"Laced with an anodised aluminium lattice" could work, especially with the alliterative "L"s. Try googling some architectural sites for airy-fairy descriptions of buildings.

Miranda Joubioux (X) (asker) Apr 5, 2013:

I asked the client to send me a picture, and it turns out that it is not a structural element, but something more decorative. The block of apartments has a large number of loggias, and behind and in between them can be seen a sort of lozenge shape lattice work in anodised aluminium. Perhaps this does serve a structural purpose, but it is difficult to ascertain from the picture. It's almost like trellis work. So far lattice work seems the closest to the original 'corset'. You can actually imagine the way in which a corset is tied... :-)

Wendy Streitparth Apr 5, 2013:

Encased in anodised aluminium?

Miranda Joubioux (X) (asker) Apr 5, 2013:

Yes I see what you mean Tony :-)
I've had a look at drawings of this building (pretty sketchy on the net).
It's not curved or anything. It's a straightforward housing block.
However there isn't enough detail to see what this anodised aluminium structure looks like. It's an unusual choice of words.

Tony M Apr 5, 2013:

Sounds like a Zenith! Our local one has a sort of metal surround that bulges out as if it is having trouble containing the fat Zenith within!

http://c1038.r38.cf3.rackcdn.com/group1/building1798/media/m...

polyglot45 Apr 5, 2013:

sheath but I think a verbal construction (past participle) might be better - wrapped, cloaked, enclosed, held, contained, enveloped, swaddled

chris collister Apr 5, 2013:

Girdle, skeleton, carapace, cloak, mantle; encased, girded with,.... etc. But no, probably not "corset", which conjures up other images. "Girded about with anodised aluminium and its ever changing reflections..." etc sounds suitably (too?) poetic. There's not much you can do with the very unpoetic "anodised" though.