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Which floor is the first floor in your building? Depends which country your building is in, and more! My apartment building is 1,2… but my mall is G,M,1,2… (s

by biztos 4y ago

Which floor is the first floor in your building? Depends which country your building is in, and more! My apartment building is 1,2… but my mall is G,M,1,2… (same country different architects). For many years I lived in Europe where it’s usually G,1,2… (where G can also be E or Fsz or whatever) and when I was in the US I had to remember that 1 is G, though L,2,3… is also common. City people live with index ambiguity all the time and our brains manage just fine.

joaonmatos 4y ago
Quick complement. Where I’m from (Portugal) we use the literal number 0 for the ground floor.
- avereveard 4y ago
  In Europe is common for elevator to use zero for ground, even if language/culture has a specific name for it (piano terra/piano rialzato here)
- fjkdlsjflkds 4y ago
  Actually, "rés-do-chão" would be the more common term. Still... in Portugal, the "first floor" is implicitly never the ground floor (but the floor above it), so 0-based indexing is respected (as you suggest).
  - joaonmatos 4y ago
    On elevators you don’t see “R/C” unless the elevator is very old, and the same for office building directories or shopping centres. In almost all cases it’s the number zero. OTOH, in countries like Germany you will see the “E” for Erdgeschoss everywhere.
2143 4y ago
Yes, where I'm at — large country in Asia — we count floors starting from 0 (aka G for Ground). Confused me when I visited USA.
- Tao3300 4y ago
  G or L (for lobby) followed by 1 isn't uncommon in the US. > Confused me when I visited USA It's applied inconsistently enough to be confusing for natives too!
  - loonster 4y ago
    It's the consistent inconsistencies that causes it to be less confusing. It would be really weird to go from someplace very orderly to another that is haphazard.
  - 988747 4y ago
    I've just come back from the vacation in the US, and my experience was: when the hotel has G or L for the ground floor, it still has 2 for the floor directly above it. "G or L followed by 1" never happened to me.
lkuty 4y ago
In Belgium (french speaking part of the country, like in France) we call the ground floor (where you enter the buidling) "rez-de-chaussée" (or "rez" for short) which is the equivalent of 0 and then the first floor, numbered 1, is on top of it and you use an elevator or stairs to reach it.
rswail 4y ago
Not only that but which floor is the 13th (in the West) or 14th (in China)? Often those numbers are skipped because "luck", "feng shui", or other superstitious nonsense. Do you count the machine floors in high rise buildings? In AU, the ground floor is effectively "zero", the first floor is the one above ground. Depending on the design of the building, there might be a "mezzanine" floor between ground and 1st. Basements usually follow the same pattern, so B1 is the first floor below ground etc.
- nawitus 4y ago
  In one department store in Finland there are two separate numbering schemes, see this photo from the elevator: https://hs.mediadelivery.fi/img/some/default/c244c43c30084291833bcfd3ea6285ec.jpg https://hs.mediadelivery.fi/img/some/default/c244c43c3008429...
dathinab 4y ago
> Which floor is the first floor in your building? 0.5 ... yep that won't work In some buildings build around 1900 where I live the "ground" floor is not on the ground but around 1/2 a floor above the ground floor. While the cellar is just half below the ground. Because of this the cellar has above ground level windows allowing legal cellar apartments (oversimplified in Germany apartments require windows which are above ground). This creates a lot of confusion. By convention this 0.5 floor still counts as ground floor with the floor number 0. But people confuse it all the time for the first floor. Especially if in some cases you do have a few utility rooms exactly at ground floor. Now things get worse if you live in a cellar apartment in such house: By convention floor -1. Because nearly everyone will thing you mistyped as normally you legally can't have apartments below the ground floor. Another fun index ambiguity is for apartments build on a mountain side/cliff. In this case depending on which side of the house you look at the ground floor might be at, above or below the ground level. Often the floor level with the main entrance counts as ground floor, but sometimes it is not the case and e.g. the lowest floor not below ground or the highest floor even with a "ground". So yes, index/floor level ambiguity is everywhere and much worse then just is ground floor 0 or 1 ;)

by biztos 4y ago

joaonmatos 4y ago

Quick complement. Where I’m from (Portugal) we use the literal number 0 for the ground floor.

avereveard 4y ago
In Europe is common for elevator to use zero for ground, even if language/culture has a specific name for it (piano terra/piano rialzato here)
fjkdlsjflkds 4y ago
Actually, "rés-do-chão" would be the more common term. Still... in Portugal, the "first floor" is implicitly never the ground floor (but the floor above it), so 0-based indexing is respected (as you suggest).
- joaonmatos 4y ago
  On elevators you don’t see “R/C” unless the elevator is very old, and the same for office building directories or shopping centres. In almost all cases it’s the number zero. OTOH, in countries like Germany you will see the “E” for Erdgeschoss everywhere.

2143 4y ago

Yes, where I'm at — large country in Asia — we count floors starting from 0 (aka G for Ground). Confused me when I visited USA.

Tao3300 4y ago
G or L (for lobby) followed by 1 isn't uncommon in the US. > Confused me when I visited USA It's applied inconsistently enough to be confusing for natives too!
- loonster 4y ago
  It's the consistent inconsistencies that causes it to be less confusing. It would be really weird to go from someplace very orderly to another that is haphazard.
- 988747 4y ago
  I've just come back from the vacation in the US, and my experience was: when the hotel has G or L for the ground floor, it still has 2 for the floor directly above it. "G or L followed by 1" never happened to me.

lkuty 4y ago

In Belgium (french speaking part of the country, like in France) we call the ground floor (where you enter the buidling) "rez-de-chaussée" (or "rez" for short) which is the equivalent of 0 and then the first floor, numbered 1, is on top of it and you use an elevator or stairs to reach it.

rswail 4y ago

Not only that but which floor is the 13th (in the West) or 14th (in China)? Often those numbers are skipped because "luck", "feng shui", or other superstitious nonsense. Do you count the machine floors in high rise buildings? In AU, the ground floor is effectively "zero", the first floor is the one above ground. Depending on the design of the building, there might be a "mezzanine" floor between ground and 1st. Basements usually follow the same pattern, so B1 is the first floor below ground etc.

nawitus 4y ago
In one department store in Finland there are two separate numbering schemes, see this photo from the elevator: https://hs.mediadelivery.fi/img/some/default/c244c43c30084291833bcfd3ea6285ec.jpg https://hs.mediadelivery.fi/img/some/default/c244c43c3008429...

dathinab 4y ago

> Which floor is the first floor in your building? 0.5 ... yep that won't work In some buildings build around 1900 where I live the "ground" floor is not on the ground but around 1/2 a floor above the ground floor. While the cellar is just half below the ground. Because of this the cellar has above ground level windows allowing legal cellar apartments (oversimplified in Germany apartments require windows which are above ground). This creates a lot of confusion. By convention this 0.5 floor still counts as ground floor with the floor number 0. But people confuse it all the time for the first floor. Especially if in some cases you do have a few utility rooms exactly at ground floor. Now things get worse if you live in a cellar apartment in such house: By convention floor -1. Because nearly everyone will thing you mistyped as normally you legally can't have apartments below the ground floor. Another fun index ambiguity is for apartments build on a mountain side/cliff. In this case depending on which side of the house you look at the ground floor might be at, above or below the ground level. Often the floor level with the main entrance counts as ground floor, but sometimes it is not the case and e.g. the lowest floor not below ground or the highest floor even with a "ground". So yes, index/floor level ambiguity is everywhere and much worse then just is ground floor 0 or 1 ;)