“Building, Dwelling, Thinking” Martin Heidegger- Review

Heidegger asserts that the modern has brought about a negative severance between building and dwelling. He looks at the origins of the German word "bauen" – "to build" and claims that it has lost its original meaning of "being" in a certain place. Heidegger then proceeds to argue that the manner in which we dwell is the manner in which we are, we exist, on the face of the earth – an extension of our identity, of who we are.
In his "Building Dwelling Thinking" Martin Heidegger relates to his key concept of "fourfold" as a central aspect of dwelling. The four elements of the fourfold are earth and sky, divinities and mortals. The fourfold is a kind of fullness which is a part of dwelling. This unity of the fourfold cannot be divided into its components and each one of these can only be what it is only when the others are kept in mind. Therefore, Heidegger claims, a man is not only a being in the world, but a part of the fourfold of earth, sky, divinities and mortals.

Earth
Earth is the supporting ground on which we stride. It supports us in the most physical sense and also by nurturing, watering and providing for us. Despite its perceived stability, the earth as part of the fourfold is an elusive element.

Sky
The sky as part of Heidegger's fourfold as the sky in their usual referential meaning but they have some additional layers of meaning. Human beings' gaze towards the sky gives birth the metaphors that reflect the fact that we are always both here but also "beyond". Therefore "sky" as a part of the fourfold are a spiritual component relating to eternity.

Mortals
The mortals in Heidegger's fourfold are human beings. Relating to mankind as mortals emphasizes our finiteness and instability of our existence. Only through "memto mori", the remembering of our inevitable death, can we come to terms with our essential nature. By this we can sustain a proper dwelling which leads, according to Heidegger, to a "good death" as human beings which in not nothingness but rather our essential nature.

Divinities

Following Holderlin, Heidegger understands the divinities as the most basic criterion of mankind. God for Heidegger is a poetic fiction, an anonymous creator and provider. And it is through his anonymity that god sets the standards for dwelling in the world, by his concealed presence in everything that surrounds us.

Heidegger's fourfold is the unity of earth, sky, mortals and divinities. It is part of our being in space and the site in which dwelling takes place. Human beings provide access to the fourfold by being a part of it and by their dwelling, sustaining the fourfold and its unity.
In this fourfold unity humans exist in their dwelling which is "done right" by "sparing the earth" and maintaining its true nature without exploiting it. Dwelling according the Heidegger is accepting the sky as sky, with their blessing and atrocities. Dwelling is also constituted by "awaiting the divinities as divinities" and by recognizing our limited existence.
Since dwelling relates to the manner in which we exist, our "being in the world", Heidegger holds that problems of building are essentially problems of dwelling. Building is, in fact, dwelling, and with dwelling being the manner in which human beings exist on earth building as dwelling is something which nurtures things, natural or man-made.

Heidegger proceeds to argue that modern times have brought about confusion in the understanding of relations between building and dwelling with building not conceived as related to the state of our existence in the world. Building, in other words, in not a mere problem of providing shelter or housing. Building as dwelling is not just a functional need for a building, in this respect, does not only make apparent but also constitutes a part of the tradition that it endows. It is built as a part of a community and enables this community to experience a mutual sense of the present, forged by a known historical past and a predicted future.

According to Martin Heidegger in "Building Dwelling Thinking" the relation between man and space takes on the form of dwelling. A building is what allows for a sense of place in which dwelling occurs. A bridge stretched across a river, Heidegger argues, provides such a sense of space. Out of numerous possibilities along the river, the construction of a bridge was the site in which a place was constituted. For Heidegger the bridge in not just a functional object, nor is it a dual signifier of referential object and symbolic meaning. For Heidegger, a bridge is a manifestation of the fourfold which is at the base of all dwelling. A bridge collects and unites all aspects of the fourfold, earth, sky, mortals and divinities into a "thing". Such things are distinguishes form one another by the manner in which the manifest the unity of the fourfold. A bridge, in other words, allows for dwelling on account of its predetermined unification of the fourfold.
Space is therefore something which stems out of a place. The fourfold of existence can only appear in the space created by a certain place, and the place, in the case of the bridge, was created only upon it construction. Actual geometric space is only a subsequent object of human contemplation. Therefore Heidegger distinguishes physical space from place. The bridge, as a place, constitutes its own part (and whole) of the world. Space, in a sense, is something which is created before it is experienced.

Heidegger sums up "Building Dwelling Thinking" by another example of a place of dwelling: the Black Forest farm house. The example of the Black Forest farm serves to illustrate how, for Heidegger, dwelling should be carried out.
Dwelling, to simplify matters, is something like "making yourself at home". Building is a form of dwelling, and dwelling is a form of thinking. The example of the Black Forest farm shows how building allows foe dwelling which is having a sense of place. Heidegger describes the Black Forest house and illustrates how it manifests the four part of the fourfold.