Summary for Martin Heidegger, “Building,

Dwelling, Thinking”
The idea or link the Heidegger establishes between building, dwelling and thinking is very much
so described in an opening statement:

“As soon as we have the thing

Before our eyes, and in our hearts an ear for the word,

Thinking prospers.

                Heidegger is referring here to the idea of caring; the original conception of the word
Bauen (the coming of light of things that grown in time on earth)

Wohnen: to stay, or dwell at peace, to be content.

                Heidegger proposes a different view of building, not as tectonic, construction, or

technique, but traces its origins to which he claims everything belongs.  His beginning questions
of what it means to dwell and how does building belong to dwelling.  Within this evolves a few
key themes and definitions to attribute to his theory.

                The goal of building is dwelling.  Dwelling contains a certain emotional state of being
attached to it, therefore it is generally attached to the emotional or psychological state of the
user in question; to dwell as previously stated is an action that is done so at peace or
contentment.  The domain of dwelling is not restricted to a physical specific space associated
with home, nor is it necessarily stationary.  Heidegger refers to a truck driver at home on the
road.  It is this mental state of being that defines what it means to dwell; only, this state has
often been associated with a place of upbringing, households or spaces of comfort- broader
cultural ideologies of space linked to this positive emotion, signs or symbols of dwelling in
culture that often restrict the notion of building and dwelling.  Dwelling and building are related
as an end and means.  This is not to be misconstrued as a linear process (to build leads to
dwelling); in fact, the act of building in itself is the act of dwelling simultaneously. 
                The measure by which Heidegger establishes as the rule from which to guide what it
means to dwell is language.  It is through his tracings of the changing meaning of building and
dwelling he establishes as a temporal change in the fundamental meaning and understanding of
the terms building and dwelling.  This change reflects a change in association of the term.  He
claims that language is in fact the master of man, not the other way around.  Here the evolution
of a few key terms will be covered to demonstrate the importance of language in the articulation
of his theory:

Nachbar/Nachgebauer: the neighbor, the near-dweller

Buri, bùren, beuren: Verbs associated with the act of dwelling

Buan: old word referenced to bauen (to build) is really to dwell (bauen originally means to
dwell)

Ich bin, du bist, Sie sind: I am, you are, we are: the manner in which humans are on earth is
buan: dwelling

Bauen: to build, dwell, also to care for, cherish, protect, preserve, nurture

Building as dwelling is its genuine state; two modes of building: as cultivation (creation) and
building as the raising up of edifices are comprised within this genuine form.  This process is
“habitual” as we inhabit it in our daily lives.  The meaning of cultivation and construction
activities later took on the word of bauen or building, rejecting or forgetting the original
meaning of bauen, to dwell.  Language retracts the original meaning of the word- withdrawing
its high speech, its primal meaning falling silent and thus it becomes lost in translation.   It is
through this process that Heidegger describes the removal of dwelling as the basic character of
Being in a human state.  Language thus reveals three key facts about Bauen:

1. Building is really dwelling

2. Dwelling is the manner in which mortals are on earth
3. Building as dwelling unfolds into the building that cultivates growing things and the
building that erects buildings
1. WE do not dwell because we have built, but we build and have built because we
dwell: that is, because we are dwellers
It is important to consider though that not all building is as dwelling.  Moving on to the meaning
of Friede, the free, das Frye means preservation from harm and danger.  To free actually means
to spare in its natural state and is a positive notion: into a preserve of peace.  To dwell is to be at
peace and thus the fundamental character of dwelling is the act of sparing- to remain at peace
within the free.  These notions contain much influence and significance today as the topic and
discussion of ecological preservation become forefront in our culture.  Heidegger seems to
allude to the same premise.  We as mortals on Earth are striving for this state- to dwell is a
natural state of preservation of nature and natural states, building in the form of preserving,
caring for, or growth.  This then demonstrates how building is dwelling, however building when
strictly referencing physical construction does not necessarily encapsulate this notion.  One can
build without dwelling. 

The next important point of discussion is Heidegger’s establishment of the fourfold.  In a primal
order, the sky, earth, divinity and mortals unite in a simple oneness.  It is acknowledgement of
the fourfold and our role as mortals within it that establishes dwelling.  To dwell is a learned
process that changes as ideas change, and to properly dwell as mortals Heidegger claims we
must do so preserving the fourfold.  This is where existential being resides, an awareness of our
own subjective experience and place as preservers and safegaurders of the fourfold.  It is
important here that within the fourfold Heidegger acknowledges Divinities while other
existentialist thinkers do not.  To exist and dwell is thus to be at a natural or peaceful state,
where objects we have built contain locales or significance through this process, and in this state
of mind is where thinking and awareness of our condition arises.  Through being aware, we
come to acknowledge the fourfold and the finite relationship of ourselves as standing reserves
and can then go on living in a state of proper dwelling.