Building Dwelling Thinking (Makeup)

The concept of dwelling and building before I was exposed to Heidegger’s thoughts seemed to be what many people believe, that buildings were the centerpiece of dwelling, or were the only places that people were able to dwell. The building was the home of a person’s life, where they were centered from going to different places or doing activities throughout the day. However, Heidegger refutes this by providing examples of how people are able to dwell in different places where they cannot reside. “The truck driver is at home on the highway, but he does not have his lodgings there” (Heidegger 347). Heidegger rather argues that dwelling does not center with a person’s relationship with buildings, but rather a person’s relationship with the surrounding world. What this means is that we are reactive creatures, responding to being forced to dwell rather than experiencing dwelling as a result to the different type of habitats we form. “We do not dwell because we have built, but we build and have built because we dwell, that is, because we are dwellers” (Heidegger 350).

Heidegger also emphasizes how objects and structures have their own relationship to the universe outside of our perception of them. He uses bridges as an example of this thinking. “The bridge swings over the stream with “ease and power.” It does not just connect the banks that are already there” (Heidegger 354). Heidegger is drawing attention to the fact that the bridge isn’t just a way for people to cross from one place to the other, but rather that it has it’s own relationship to the river. This ties into what we were talking about in class about perceptions of different objects. The bridge perceived Ready-To-Hand can only be seen through its relationship to people, or rather what purpose it serves. However, through Ready-At-Hand perception, the bridge or other objects have their own relationships with the surrounding world.

Citations:

Heidegger, Martin. Building, Dwelling, Thinking, 2000.