VI I I

BUILDING DWELLING THINKING

wIS As soon as we have the thing

before our eyes, and in our hearts
an ear for the word, thinking
Prospers.
 Building Dwelling Thinking 345

founding representation is cogito sum, I think, I am, ich denke, ich

bin. Bin, like the English be, stems from the Indo-Germanic bheu, as
does the Latin fui (I have been) and the Greek phut) (I come to light,
grow, engender). But these words also give rise to the German word
bauen, to build. The Cartesian ich bin, floating in the unextended
realm of the res cogitans and representing all extended things out of
itself, is now required to build on the earth—and that means to dwell,
since the original meaning of bauen is wohnen, to settle a piece of
Not much more than a year before his death, Rainer Maria Rilke land, work it by farming, mining, or viniculture, and build a home on
began a poem with the following lines: it. (Also the English verb to be originally has the sense of place-
dwelling.) In short, to think about building and dwelling appears to
Jetzt war es Zeit, dall Gelder traten advance thought on the meaning of "Being." There is an essential
aus bewohnten Dingen. connection between the present essay and the earlier remarks on
(Insel ed., II, 185) "dwelling" in the "Letter on Humanism" and Being and Time (see
Now it is time that gods emerge pp. 260 and 54, above).
To be sure, there are differences in such an advance from what has
from things by which we dwell... ..
gone before. Instead of artworks we now hear of "everyday" things in
To the thing as technological component and as scientific object familiar locations, such as bridges and houses. Instead of the strife
Heidegger opposes the thing as the place where the truth of Being, of world and earth we hear of something even more alien to our cus-
disclosedness, happens. In the work of art such disclosedness is com- tomary ways of looking at things. For here Heidegger sees the thing
pellingly experienced—perhaps most of all in the work of poetry In as the concrescence of what he calls the fourfold (das Geviert) of earth,
poetry we are less disposed to manipulate things or reduce them to sky, mortals, and divinities. No introductory word of ours can explain
our own technical-scientific, quantitative frames of reference; we are what Heidegger means by this fourfold. We can only point back to the
encouraged rather to let things be what they are and show their essays on the work of art, technology, and modern science and meta-
many-sidedness. physics, and elsewhere to the poetry of Rilke and HOlderlin and the
Heidegger presented the lecture "Building Dwelling Thinking" archetypes of mythology, for possible comparisons and contrasts. At
("Bauen Wohnen Denken") to the Darmstadt Symposium on Man and the risk of making what is strange in Heidegger's essay even more
Space on August 5, 1951. It belongs to a group of three lectures com- foreign, we add the following brief remarks on bauen and wohnen,
posed in the early 1950s that unravel new though not wholly unfa- building and dwelling.
miliar strands of the question of Being. These lectures, "Building Wohnen means to reside or stay, to dwell at peace, to be content; it
Dwelling Thinking," "The Thing," and "Poetically Man Dwells," are is related to words that mean to grow accustomed to, or feel at home
dominated less by scholarly, technical-philosophical language than by in, a place. It is also tied to the German word for "delight," Wonne.
figures of myth and poetry. In them Heidegger seeks further insight For Heidegger to dwell signifies the way "we human beings are on the
into that "saving power" that begins to surge in meditation on the earth." Man's Being rests in his capacity to cultivate and safeguard
essence of technology, a new way of envisaging man's position with the earth, to protect it from thoughtless exploitation and to defend it
regard to things. In the present piece, here printed complete, the against the calumnies of the metaphysical tradition. Bauen in its
primary issue is the relation of "building" to "dwelling" and the kind origins reflects phuein, the coming to light of things that grow in time
of "thinking" that results from attention to that relation. from the earth skyward. Sky suggests divinities that epiphanize and
For modern metaphysics Denken is representation of objects and depart and in departing gesture toward mortals who delight in the
assertion of propositions by a subject. The axiomatic proposition and earth. In the unfathomable depths of this delight, at the source of

344
 Building Dwelling Thinking 345

founding representation is cogito sum, I think, I am, ich denke, ich

bin. Bin, like the English be, stems from the Indo-Germanic bheu, as
does the Latin fui (I have been) and the Greek phut) (I come to light,
grow, engender). But these words also give rise to the German word
bauen, to build. The Cartesian ich bin, floating in the unextended
realm of the res cogitans and representing all extended things out of
itself, is now required to build on the earth—and that means to dwell,
since the original meaning of bauen is wohnen, to settle a piece of
Not much more than a year before his death, Rainer Maria Rilke land, work it by farming, mining, or viniculture, and build a home on
began a poem with the following lines: it. (Also the English verb to be originally has the sense of place-
dwelling.) In short, to think about building and dwelling appears to
Jetzt war es Zeit, dall Gelder traten advance thought on the meaning of "Being." There is an essential
aus bewohnten Dingen. connection between the present essay and the earlier remarks on
(Insel ed., II, 185) "dwelling" in the "Letter on Humanism" and Being and Time (see
Now it is time that gods emerge pp. 260 and 54, above).
To be sure, there are differences in such an advance from what has
from things by which we dwell... ..
gone before. Instead of artworks we now hear of "everyday" things in
To the thing as technological component and as scientific object familiar locations, such as bridges and houses. Instead of the strife
Heidegger opposes the thing as the place where the truth of Being, of world and earth we hear of something even more alien to our cus-
disclosedness, happens. In the work of art such disclosedness is com- tomary ways of looking at things. For here Heidegger sees the thing
pellingly experienced—perhaps most of all in the work of poetry In as the concrescence of what he calls the fourfold (das Geviert) of earth,
poetry we are less disposed to manipulate things or reduce them to sky, mortals, and divinities. No introductory word of ours can explain
our own technical-scientific, quantitative frames of reference; we are what Heidegger means by this fourfold. We can only point back to the
encouraged rather to let things be what they are and show their essays on the work of art, technology, and modern science and meta-
many-sidedness. physics, and elsewhere to the poetry of Rilke and HOlderlin and the
Heidegger presented the lecture "Building Dwelling Thinking" archetypes of mythology, for possible comparisons and contrasts. At
("Bauen Wohnen Denken") to the Darmstadt Symposium on Man and the risk of making what is strange in Heidegger's essay even more
Space on August 5, 1951. It belongs to a group of three lectures com- foreign, we add the following brief remarks on bauen and wohnen,
posed in the early 1950s that unravel new though not wholly unfa- building and dwelling.
miliar strands of the question of Being. These lectures, "Building Wohnen means to reside or stay, to dwell at peace, to be content; it
Dwelling Thinking," "The Thing," and "Poetically Man Dwells," are is related to words that mean to grow accustomed to, or feel at home
dominated less by scholarly, technical-philosophical language than by in, a place. It is also tied to the German word for "delight," Wonne.
figures of myth and poetry. In them Heidegger seeks further insight For Heidegger to dwell signifies the way "we human beings are on the
into that "saving power" that begins to surge in meditation on the earth." Man's Being rests in his capacity to cultivate and safeguard
essence of technology, a new way of envisaging man's position with the earth, to protect it from thoughtless exploitation and to defend it
regard to things. In the present piece, here printed complete, the against the calumnies of the metaphysical tradition. Bauen in its
primary issue is the relation of "building" to "dwelling" and the kind origins reflects phuein, the coming to light of things that grow in time
of "thinking" that results from attention to that relation. from the earth skyward. Sky suggests divinities that epiphanize and
For modern metaphysics Denken is representation of objects and depart and in departing gesture toward mortals who delight in the
assertion of propositions by a subject. The axiomatic proposition and earth. In the unfathomable depths of this delight, at the source of

344
346 BASIC WRITINGS

man's being at home on the earth, occurs what Heidegger elsewhere BUILDING DWELLING THINKING
has called "being held out into the nothing," which preserves the un-
concealment and secures the concealment at play in Being. "Being"
originally names the unified presencing of the fourfold of earth, sky,
divinities, and mortals—in the things. To open thinking to this one-
fold presencing in things is indeed to persevere in the question of
Being.
In what follows we shall try to think about dwelling and building.
This thinking about building does not presume to discover architec-
tural ideas, let alone to give rules for building. This venture in
thought does not view building as an art or as a technique of con-
struction; rather, it traces building back into that domain to which
everything that is belongs. We ask:
1. What is it to dwell?
2. How does building belong to dwelling?

We attain to dwelling, so it seems, only by means of building. The

latter, building, has the former, dwelling, as its goal. Still, not every
building is a dwelling. Bridges and hangars, stadiums and power
stations are buildings but not dwellings; railway stations and high-
ways, dams and market halls are built, but they are not dwelling
places. Even so, these buildings are in the domain of our dwelling.
That domain extends over these buildings and so is not limited to
the dwelling place. The truck driver is at home on the highway, but
he does not have his lodgings there; the working woman is at home
in the spinning mill, but does not have her dwelling place there; the
chief engineer is at home in the power station, but he does not

Martin Heidegger, "Building Dwelling Thinking," appears in Martin Heidegger, Po-

etry, Language, Thought, translated by Albert Hofstadter (New York: Harper & Row,
1971), pp. 145-61. The German text appears in Martin Heidegger, Vortrage and Auf-
siitze (Pfullingen: Gunther Neske Verlag, 1954), pp. 145-62.

347

M.VC.arTz

•
346 BASIC WRITINGS

man's being at home on the earth, occurs what Heidegger elsewhere BUILDING DWELLING THINKING
has called "being held out into the nothing," which preserves the un-
concealment and secures the concealment at play in Being. "Being"
originally names the unified presencing of the fourfold of earth, sky,
divinities, and mortals—in the things. To open thinking to this one-
fold presencing in things is indeed to persevere in the question of
Being.
In what follows we shall try to think about dwelling and building.
This thinking about building does not presume to discover architec-
tural ideas, let alone to give rules for building. This venture in
thought does not view building as an art or as a technique of con-
struction; rather, it traces building back into that domain to which
everything that is belongs. We ask:
1. What is it to dwell?
2. How does building belong to dwelling?

We attain to dwelling, so it seems, only by means of building. The

latter, building, has the former, dwelling, as its goal. Still, not every
building is a dwelling. Bridges and hangars, stadiums and power
stations are buildings but not dwellings; railway stations and high-
ways, dams and market halls are built, but they are not dwelling
places. Even so, these buildings are in the domain of our dwelling.
That domain extends over these buildings and so is not limited to
the dwelling place. The truck driver is at home on the highway, but
he does not have his lodgings there; the working woman is at home
in the spinning mill, but does not have her dwelling place there; the
chief engineer is at home in the power station, but he does not

Martin Heidegger, "Building Dwelling Thinking," appears in Martin Heidegger, Po-

etry, Language, Thought, translated by Albert Hofstadter (New York: Harper & Row,
1971), pp. 145-61. The German text appears in Martin Heidegger, Vortrage and Auf-
siitze (Pfullingen: Gunther Neske Verlag, 1954), pp. 145-62.

347

M.VC.arTz

•
348 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 349

dwell there. These buildings house man. He inhabits them and yet preserved in the German word Nachbar, neighbor. The Nachbar is
does not dwell in them, if to dwell means solely to have our lodgings the Nachgebur, the Nachgebauer, the near-dweller, he who dwells
in them. In today's housing shortage even this much is reassuring nearby. The verbs buri, biiren, beuren, beuron, all signify dwelling,
and to the good; residential buildings do indeed provide lodgings; the place of dwelling. Now, to be sure, the old word buan not only
today's houses may even be well planned, easy to keep, attractively tells us that bauen, to build, is really to dwell; it also gives us a clue
cheap, open to air, light, and sun, but—do the houses in themselves as to how we have to think about the dwelling it signifies. When we
hold any guarantee that dwelling occurs in them? Yet those build- speak of dwelling we usually think of an activity that man performs
ings that are not dwelling places remain in turn determined by alongside many other activities. We work here and dwell there. We
dwelling insofar as they serve man's dwelling. Thus dwelling would do not merely dwell—that would be virtual inactivity—we practice
in any case be the end that presides over all building. Dwelling and a profession, we do business, we travel and find shelter on the way,
building are related as end and means. However, as long as this is now here, now there. Bauen originally means to dwell. Where the
all we have in mind, we take dwelling and building as two separate word bauen still speaks in its original sense it also says how far the
activities, an idea that has something correct in it. Yet at the same essence of dwelling reaches. That is, bauen, buan, bhu, beo are our
time by the means-end schema we block our view of the essential word bin in the versions: ich bin, I am, du bist, you are, the imper-
relations. For building is not merely a means and a way toward ative form bis, be. What then does ich bin mean? The old word
dwelling—to build is in itself already to dwell. Who tells us this? bauen, to which the bin belongs, answers: ich bin, du bist mean I
Who gives us a standard at all by which we can take the measure dwell, you dwell. The way in which you are and I am, the manner
of the essence of dwelling and building? in which we humans are on the earth, is buan, dwelling. To be a
It is language that tells us about the essence of a thing, provided human being means to be on the earth as a mortal. It means to
that we respect language's own essence. In the meantime, to be dwell. The old word bauen, which says that man is insofar as he
sure, there rages round the earth an unbridled yet clever talking, dwells, this word bauen, however, also means at the same time to
writing, and broadcasting of spoken words. Man acts as though he cherish and protect, to preserve and care for, specifically to till the
were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language soil, to cultivate the vine. Such building only takes care—it tends
remains the master of man. Perhaps it is before all else man's sub- the growth that ripens into fruit of its own accord. Building in the
version of this relation of dominance that drives his essential being sense of preserving and nurturing is not making anything. Ship-
into alienation. That we retain a concern for care in speaking is all building and temple-building, on the other hand, do in a certain
to the good, but it is of no help to us as long as language still serves way make their own works. Here building, in contrast with cultivat-
us even then only as a means of expression. Among all the appeals ing, is a constructing. Both modes of building—building as culti-
that we human beings, on our part, can help to be voiced, language vating, Latin colere, cultura, and building as the raising up of
is the highest and everywhere the first. edifices, aedificare—are comprised within genuine building, that is,
Now, what does bauen, to build, mean? The Old High German dwelling. Building as dwelling, that is, as being on the earth, how-
word for building, buan, means to dwell. This signifies to remain, ever, remains for man's everyday experience that which is from the
to stay in a place. The proper meaning of the verb bauen, namely, outset "habitual"—we inhabit it, as our language says so beautifully:
to dwell, has been lost to us. But a covert trace of it has been it is the Gewohnte. For this reason it recedes behind the manifold
348 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 349

dwell there. These buildings house man. He inhabits them and yet preserved in the German word Nachbar, neighbor. The Nachbar is
does not dwell in them, if to dwell means solely to have our lodgings the Nachgebur, the Nachgebauer, the near-dweller, he who dwells
in them. In today's housing shortage even this much is reassuring nearby. The verbs buri, biiren, beuren, beuron, all signify dwelling,
and to the good; residential buildings do indeed provide lodgings; the place of dwelling. Now, to be sure, the old word buan not only
today's houses may even be well planned, easy to keep, attractively tells us that bauen, to build, is really to dwell; it also gives us a clue
cheap, open to air, light, and sun, but—do the houses in themselves as to how we have to think about the dwelling it signifies. When we
hold any guarantee that dwelling occurs in them? Yet those build- speak of dwelling we usually think of an activity that man performs
ings that are not dwelling places remain in turn determined by alongside many other activities. We work here and dwell there. We
dwelling insofar as they serve man's dwelling. Thus dwelling would do not merely dwell—that would be virtual inactivity—we practice
in any case be the end that presides over all building. Dwelling and a profession, we do business, we travel and find shelter on the way,
building are related as end and means. However, as long as this is now here, now there. Bauen originally means to dwell. Where the
all we have in mind, we take dwelling and building as two separate word bauen still speaks in its original sense it also says how far the
activities, an idea that has something correct in it. Yet at the same essence of dwelling reaches. That is, bauen, buan, bhu, beo are our
time by the means-end schema we block our view of the essential word bin in the versions: ich bin, I am, du bist, you are, the imper-
relations. For building is not merely a means and a way toward ative form bis, be. What then does ich bin mean? The old word
dwelling—to build is in itself already to dwell. Who tells us this? bauen, to which the bin belongs, answers: ich bin, du bist mean I
Who gives us a standard at all by which we can take the measure dwell, you dwell. The way in which you are and I am, the manner
of the essence of dwelling and building? in which we humans are on the earth, is buan, dwelling. To be a
It is language that tells us about the essence of a thing, provided human being means to be on the earth as a mortal. It means to
that we respect language's own essence. In the meantime, to be dwell. The old word bauen, which says that man is insofar as he
sure, there rages round the earth an unbridled yet clever talking, dwells, this word bauen, however, also means at the same time to
writing, and broadcasting of spoken words. Man acts as though he cherish and protect, to preserve and care for, specifically to till the
were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language soil, to cultivate the vine. Such building only takes care—it tends
remains the master of man. Perhaps it is before all else man's sub- the growth that ripens into fruit of its own accord. Building in the
version of this relation of dominance that drives his essential being sense of preserving and nurturing is not making anything. Ship-
into alienation. That we retain a concern for care in speaking is all building and temple-building, on the other hand, do in a certain
to the good, but it is of no help to us as long as language still serves way make their own works. Here building, in contrast with cultivat-
us even then only as a means of expression. Among all the appeals ing, is a constructing. Both modes of building—building as culti-
that we human beings, on our part, can help to be voiced, language vating, Latin colere, cultura, and building as the raising up of
is the highest and everywhere the first. edifices, aedificare—are comprised within genuine building, that is,
Now, what does bauen, to build, mean? The Old High German dwelling. Building as dwelling, that is, as being on the earth, how-
word for building, buan, means to dwell. This signifies to remain, ever, remains for man's everyday experience that which is from the
to stay in a place. The proper meaning of the verb bauen, namely, outset "habitual"—we inhabit it, as our language says so beautifully:
to dwell, has been lost to us. But a covert trace of it has been it is the Gewohnte. For this reason it recedes behind the manifold
350 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 351

ways in which dwelling is accomplished, the activities of cultivation But the Gothic wunian says more distinctly how this remaining is
and construction. These activities later claim the name of bauen, experienced. Wunian means to be at peace, to be brought to peace,
building, and with it the matter of building, exclusively for them- to remain in peace. The word for peace, Friede, means the free,
selves. The proper sense of bauen, namely dwelling, falls into das Frye; and fry means preserved from harm and danger, preserved
oblivion. from something, safeguarded. To free actually means to spare. The
At first sight this event looks as though it were no more than a sparing itself consists not only in the fact that we do not harm the
change of meaning of mere terms. In truth, however, something one whom we spare. Real sparing is something positive and takes
decisive is concealed in it; namely, dwelling is not experienced as place when we leave something beforehand in its own essence,
man's Being; dwelling is never thought of as the basic character of when we return it specifically to its essential being, when we "free"
human being. it in the proper sense of the word into a preserve of peace. To dwell,
That language in a way retracts the proper meaning of the word to be set at peace, means to remain at peace within the free, the
bauen, which is dwelling, is evidence of the original one of these preserve, the free sphere that safeguards each thing in its essence.
meanings; for with the essential words of language, what they gen- The fundamental character of dwelling is this sparing. It pervades
uinely say easily falls into oblivion in favor of foreground meanings. dwelling in its whole range. That range reveals itself to us as soon
Man has hardly yet pondered the mystery of this process. Language as we recall that human being consists in dwelling and, indeed,
withdraws from man its simple and high speech. But its primal call dwelling in the sense of the stay of mortals on the earth.
does not thereby become incapable of speech; it merely falls silent. But "on the earth" already means "under the sky." Both of these
Man, though, fails to heed this silence. also mean "remaining before the divinities" and include a "belong-
But if we listen to what language says in the word bauen we hear ing to men's being with one another." By a primal oneness the
three things: four—earth and sky, divinities and mortals—belong together in
one.
1. Building is really dwelling. Earth is the serving bearer, blossoming and fruiting, spreading
2. Dwelling is the manner in which mortals are on the earth. out in rock and water, rising up into plant and animal. When we
3. Building as dwelling unfolds into the building that cultivates say earth, we are already thinking of the other three along with it,
growing things and the building that erects buildings. but we give no thought to the simple oneness of the four.
If we give thought to this threefold fact, we obtain a clue and The sky is the vaulting path of the sun, the course of the chang-
note the following: as long as we do not bear in mind that all build- ing moon, the wandering glitter of the stars, the year's seasons and
ing is in itself a dwelling, we cannot even adequately ask, let alone their changes, the light and dusk of day, the gloom and glow of
properly decide, what the building of buildings might be in its es- night, the clemency and inclemency of the weather, the drifting
sence. We do not dwell because we have built, but we build and clouds and blue depth of the ether. When we say sky, we are already
have built because we dwell, that is, because we are dwellers. But thinking of the other three along with it, but we give no thought to
in what does the essence of dwelling consist? Let us listen once the simple oneness of the four.
more to what language says to us. The Old Saxon wuon, the Gothic The divinities are the beckoning messengers of the godhead. Out
wunian, like the old word bauen, mean to remain, to stay in a place. of the holy sway of the godhead, the god appears in his presence or
350 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 351

ways in which dwelling is accomplished, the activities of cultivation But the Gothic wunian says more distinctly how this remaining is
and construction. These activities later claim the name of bauen, experienced. Wunian means to be at peace, to be brought to peace,
building, and with it the matter of building, exclusively for them- to remain in peace. The word for peace, Friede, means the free,
selves. The proper sense of bauen, namely dwelling, falls into das Frye; and fry means preserved from harm and danger, preserved
oblivion. from something, safeguarded. To free actually means to spare. The
At first sight this event looks as though it were no more than a sparing itself consists not only in the fact that we do not harm the
change of meaning of mere terms. In truth, however, something one whom we spare. Real sparing is something positive and takes
decisive is concealed in it; namely, dwelling is not experienced as place when we leave something beforehand in its own essence,
man's Being; dwelling is never thought of as the basic character of when we return it specifically to its essential being, when we "free"
human being. it in the proper sense of the word into a preserve of peace. To dwell,
That language in a way retracts the proper meaning of the word to be set at peace, means to remain at peace within the free, the
bauen, which is dwelling, is evidence of the original one of these preserve, the free sphere that safeguards each thing in its essence.
meanings; for with the essential words of language, what they gen- The fundamental character of dwelling is this sparing. It pervades
uinely say easily falls into oblivion in favor of foreground meanings. dwelling in its whole range. That range reveals itself to us as soon
Man has hardly yet pondered the mystery of this process. Language as we recall that human being consists in dwelling and, indeed,
withdraws from man its simple and high speech. But its primal call dwelling in the sense of the stay of mortals on the earth.
does not thereby become incapable of speech; it merely falls silent. But "on the earth" already means "under the sky." Both of these
Man, though, fails to heed this silence. also mean "remaining before the divinities" and include a "belong-
But if we listen to what language says in the word bauen we hear ing to men's being with one another." By a primal oneness the
three things: four—earth and sky, divinities and mortals—belong together in
one.
1. Building is really dwelling. Earth is the serving bearer, blossoming and fruiting, spreading
2. Dwelling is the manner in which mortals are on the earth. out in rock and water, rising up into plant and animal. When we
3. Building as dwelling unfolds into the building that cultivates say earth, we are already thinking of the other three along with it,
growing things and the building that erects buildings. but we give no thought to the simple oneness of the four.
If we give thought to this threefold fact, we obtain a clue and The sky is the vaulting path of the sun, the course of the chang-
note the following: as long as we do not bear in mind that all build- ing moon, the wandering glitter of the stars, the year's seasons and
ing is in itself a dwelling, we cannot even adequately ask, let alone their changes, the light and dusk of day, the gloom and glow of
properly decide, what the building of buildings might be in its es- night, the clemency and inclemency of the weather, the drifting
sence. We do not dwell because we have built, but we build and clouds and blue depth of the ether. When we say sky, we are already
have built because we dwell, that is, because we are dwellers. But thinking of the other three along with it, but we give no thought to
in what does the essence of dwelling consist? Let us listen once the simple oneness of the four.
more to what language says to us. The Old Saxon wuon, the Gothic The divinities are the beckoning messengers of the godhead. Out
wunian, like the old word bauen, mean to remain, to stay in a place. of the holy sway of the godhead, the god appears in his presence or
352 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 353

withdraws into his concealment. When we speak of the divinities, the essence of death in no way means to make death, as the empty
we are already thinking of the other three along with them, but we nothing, the goal. Nor does it mean to darken dwelling by blindly
give no thought to the simple oneness of the four. staring toward the end.
The mortals are the human beings. They are called mortals be- In saving the earth, in receiving the sky, in awaiting the divinities,
cause they can die. To die means to be capable of death as death. in initiating mortals, dwelling propriates as the fourfold preservation
Only man dies, and indeed continually, as long as he remains on of the fourfold. To spare and preserve means to take under our
earth, under the sky, before the divinities. When we speak of mor- care, to look after the fourfold in its essence. What we take under
tals, we are already thinking of the other three along with them, our care must be kept safe. But if dwelling preserves the fourfold,
but we give no thought to the simple oneness of the four. where does it keep the fourfold's essence? How do mortals make
This simple oneness of the four we call the fourfold. Mortals are their dwelling such a preserving? Mortals would never be capable of
in the fourfold by dwelling. But the basic character of dwelling is it if dwelling were merely a staying on earth under the sky, before
safeguarding. Mortals dwell in the way they safeguard the fourfold the divinities, among mortals. Rather, dwelling itself is always a
in its essential unfolding. Accordingly, the safeguarding that dwells staying with things. Dwelling, as preserving, keeps the fourfold in
is fourfold. that with which mortals stay: in things.
Mortals dwell in that they save the earth—taking the word in the Staying with things, however, is not merely something attached
old sense still known to Lessing. Saving does not only snatch some- to this fourfold preservation as a fifth something. On the contrary:
thing from a danger. To save properly means to set something free staying with things is the only way in which the fourfold stay within
into its own essence. To save the earth is more than to exploit it or the fourfold is accomplished at any time in simple unity. Dwelling
even wear it out. Saving the earth does not master the earth and preserves the fourfold by bringing the essence of the fourfold into
does not subjugate it, which is merely one step from boundless things. But things themselves secure the fourfold only when they
spoliation. themselves as things are let be in their essence. How does this hap-
Mortals dwell in that they receive the sky as sky. They leave to pen? In this way, that mortals nurse and nurture the things that
the sun and the moon their journey, to the stars their courses, to grow, and specially construct things that do not grow. Cultivating
the seasons their blessing and their inclemency; they do not turn and construction are building in the narrower sense. Dwelling, in-
night into day nor day into a harassed unrest. asmuch as it keeps the fourfold in things, is, as this keeping, a
Mortals dwell in that they await the divinities as divinities. In building. With this, we are on our way to the second question.
hope they hold up to the divinities what is unhoped for. They wait
for intimations of their coming and do not mistake the signs of their
absence. They do not make their gods for themselves and do not II
worship idols. In the very depth of misfortune they wait for the weal
that has been withdrawn. In what way does building belong to dwelling?
Mortals dwell in that they initiate their own essential being—their The answer to this question will clarify for us what building,
being capable of death as death—into the use and practice of this understood by way of the essence of dwelling, really is. We limit
capacity, so that there may be a good death. To initiate mortals into ourselves to building in the sense of constructing things and inquire:
352 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 353

withdraws into his concealment. When we speak of the divinities, the essence of death in no way means to make death, as the empty
we are already thinking of the other three along with them, but we nothing, the goal. Nor does it mean to darken dwelling by blindly
give no thought to the simple oneness of the four. staring toward the end.
The mortals are the human beings. They are called mortals be- In saving the earth, in receiving the sky, in awaiting the divinities,
cause they can die. To die means to be capable of death as death. in initiating mortals, dwelling propriates as the fourfold preservation
Only man dies, and indeed continually, as long as he remains on of the fourfold. To spare and preserve means to take under our
earth, under the sky, before the divinities. When we speak of mor- care, to look after the fourfold in its essence. What we take under
tals, we are already thinking of the other three along with them, our care must be kept safe. But if dwelling preserves the fourfold,
but we give no thought to the simple oneness of the four. where does it keep the fourfold's essence? How do mortals make
This simple oneness of the four we call the fourfold. Mortals are their dwelling such a preserving? Mortals would never be capable of
in the fourfold by dwelling. But the basic character of dwelling is it if dwelling were merely a staying on earth under the sky, before
safeguarding. Mortals dwell in the way they safeguard the fourfold the divinities, among mortals. Rather, dwelling itself is always a
in its essential unfolding. Accordingly, the safeguarding that dwells staying with things. Dwelling, as preserving, keeps the fourfold in
is fourfold. that with which mortals stay: in things.
Mortals dwell in that they save the earth—taking the word in the Staying with things, however, is not merely something attached
old sense still known to Lessing. Saving does not only snatch some- to this fourfold preservation as a fifth something. On the contrary:
thing from a danger. To save properly means to set something free staying with things is the only way in which the fourfold stay within
into its own essence. To save the earth is more than to exploit it or the fourfold is accomplished at any time in simple unity. Dwelling
even wear it out. Saving the earth does not master the earth and preserves the fourfold by bringing the essence of the fourfold into
does not subjugate it, which is merely one step from boundless things. But things themselves secure the fourfold only when they
spoliation. themselves as things are let be in their essence. How does this hap-
Mortals dwell in that they receive the sky as sky. They leave to pen? In this way, that mortals nurse and nurture the things that
the sun and the moon their journey, to the stars their courses, to grow, and specially construct things that do not grow. Cultivating
the seasons their blessing and their inclemency; they do not turn and construction are building in the narrower sense. Dwelling, in-
night into day nor day into a harassed unrest. asmuch as it keeps the fourfold in things, is, as this keeping, a
Mortals dwell in that they await the divinities as divinities. In building. With this, we are on our way to the second question.
hope they hold up to the divinities what is unhoped for. They wait
for intimations of their coming and do not mistake the signs of their
absence. They do not make their gods for themselves and do not II
worship idols. In the very depth of misfortune they wait for the weal
that has been withdrawn. In what way does building belong to dwelling?
Mortals dwell in that they initiate their own essential being—their The answer to this question will clarify for us what building,
being capable of death as death—into the use and practice of this understood by way of the essence of dwelling, really is. We limit
capacity, so that there may be a good death. To initiate mortals into ourselves to building in the sense of constructing things and inquire:
354 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 355

what is a built thing? A bridge may serve as an example for our this vaulting of the bridge's course or forget that they, always them-
reflections. selves on their way to the last bridge, are actually striving to sur-
The bridge swings over the stream "with ease and power." It does mount all that is common and unsound in them in order to bring
not just connect banks that are already there. The banks emerge as themselves before the haleness of the divinities. The bridge gathers,
banks only as the bridge crosses the stream. The bridge expressly as a passage that crosses, before the divinities—whether we explic-
causes them to lie across from each other. One side is set off against itly think of, and visibly give thanks for, their presence, as in the
the other by the bridge. Nor do the banks stretch along the stream figure of the saint of the bridge, or whether that divine presence is
as indifferent border strips of the dry land. With the banks, the obstructed or even pushed wholly aside.
bridge brings to the stream the one and the other expanse of the The bridge gathers to itself in its own way earth and sky, divinities
landscape lying behind them. It brings stream and bank and land and mortals.
into each other's neighborhood. The bridge gathers the earth as Gathering [Versammlung], by an ancient word of our language,
landscape around the stream. Thus it guides and attends the stream is called thing. The bridge is a thing—and, indeed, it is such as the
through the meadows. Resting upright in the stream's bed, the gathering of the fourfold which we have described. To be sure,
bridge-piers bear the swing of the arches that leave the stream's people think of the bridge as primarily and properly merely a bridge;
waters to run their course. The waters may wander on quiet and after that, and occasionally, it might possibly express much else
gay, the sky's floods from storm or thaw may shoot past the piers in besides; and as such an expression it would then become a symbol,
torrential waves—the bridge is ready for the sky's weather and its for instance a symbol of those things we mentioned before. But the
fickle nature. Even where the bridge covers the stream, it holds its bridge, if it is a true bridge, is never first of all a mere bridge and
flow up to the sky by taking it for a moment under the vaulted then afterward a symbol. And just as little is the bridge in the first
gateway and then setting it free once more. place exclusively a symbol, in the sense that it expresses something
The bridge lets the stream run its course and at the same time that strictly speaking does not belong to it. If we take the bridge
grants mortals their way, so that they may come and go from shore strictly as such, it never appears as an expression. The bridge is a
to shore. Bridges initiate in many ways. The city bridge leads from thing and only that. Only? As this thing it gathers the fourfold.
the precincts of the castle to the cathedral square; the river bridge Our thinking has of course long been accustomed to understate
near the country town brings wagons and horse teams to the sur- the essence of the thing. The consequence, in the course of West-
rounding villages. The old stone bridge's humble brook crossing ern thought, has been that the thing is represented as an unknown
gives to the harvest wagon its passage from the fields into the village X to which perceptible properties are attached. From this point of
and carries the lumber cart from the field path to the road. The view, everything that already belongs to the gathering essence of this
highway bridge is tied into the network of long-distance traffic, thing does, of course, appear as something that is afterward read
paced and calculated for maximum yield. Always and ever differ- into it. Yet the bridge would never be a mere bridge if it were not a
ently the bridge initiates the lingering and hastening ways of men thing.
to and fro, so that they may get to other banks and in the end, as To be sure, the bridge is a thing of its own kind; for it gathers the
mortals, to the other side. Now in a high arch, now in a low, the fourfold in such a way that it allows a site for it. But only something
bridge vaults over glen and stream—whether mortals keep in mind that is itself a locale can make space for a site. The locale is not
354 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 355

what is a built thing? A bridge may serve as an example for our this vaulting of the bridge's course or forget that they, always them-
reflections. selves on their way to the last bridge, are actually striving to sur-
The bridge swings over the stream "with ease and power." It does mount all that is common and unsound in them in order to bring
not just connect banks that are already there. The banks emerge as themselves before the haleness of the divinities. The bridge gathers,
banks only as the bridge crosses the stream. The bridge expressly as a passage that crosses, before the divinities—whether we explic-
causes them to lie across from each other. One side is set off against itly think of, and visibly give thanks for, their presence, as in the
the other by the bridge. Nor do the banks stretch along the stream figure of the saint of the bridge, or whether that divine presence is
as indifferent border strips of the dry land. With the banks, the obstructed or even pushed wholly aside.
bridge brings to the stream the one and the other expanse of the The bridge gathers to itself in its own way earth and sky, divinities
landscape lying behind them. It brings stream and bank and land and mortals.
into each other's neighborhood. The bridge gathers the earth as Gathering [Versammlung], by an ancient word of our language,
landscape around the stream. Thus it guides and attends the stream is called thing. The bridge is a thing—and, indeed, it is such as the
through the meadows. Resting upright in the stream's bed, the gathering of the fourfold which we have described. To be sure,
bridge-piers bear the swing of the arches that leave the stream's people think of the bridge as primarily and properly merely a bridge;
waters to run their course. The waters may wander on quiet and after that, and occasionally, it might possibly express much else
gay, the sky's floods from storm or thaw may shoot past the piers in besides; and as such an expression it would then become a symbol,
torrential waves—the bridge is ready for the sky's weather and its for instance a symbol of those things we mentioned before. But the
fickle nature. Even where the bridge covers the stream, it holds its bridge, if it is a true bridge, is never first of all a mere bridge and
flow up to the sky by taking it for a moment under the vaulted then afterward a symbol. And just as little is the bridge in the first
gateway and then setting it free once more. place exclusively a symbol, in the sense that it expresses something
The bridge lets the stream run its course and at the same time that strictly speaking does not belong to it. If we take the bridge
grants mortals their way, so that they may come and go from shore strictly as such, it never appears as an expression. The bridge is a
to shore. Bridges initiate in many ways. The city bridge leads from thing and only that. Only? As this thing it gathers the fourfold.
the precincts of the castle to the cathedral square; the river bridge Our thinking has of course long been accustomed to understate
near the country town brings wagons and horse teams to the sur- the essence of the thing. The consequence, in the course of West-
rounding villages. The old stone bridge's humble brook crossing ern thought, has been that the thing is represented as an unknown
gives to the harvest wagon its passage from the fields into the village X to which perceptible properties are attached. From this point of
and carries the lumber cart from the field path to the road. The view, everything that already belongs to the gathering essence of this
highway bridge is tied into the network of long-distance traffic, thing does, of course, appear as something that is afterward read
paced and calculated for maximum yield. Always and ever differ- into it. Yet the bridge would never be a mere bridge if it were not a
ently the bridge initiates the lingering and hastening ways of men thing.
to and fro, so that they may get to other banks and in the end, as To be sure, the bridge is a thing of its own kind; for it gathers the
mortals, to the other side. Now in a high arch, now in a low, the fourfold in such a way that it allows a site for it. But only something
bridge vaults over glen and stream—whether mortals keep in mind that is itself a locale can make space for a site. The locale is not
356 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 357

already there before the bridge is. Before the bridge stands, there For one thing, what is the relation between locale and space? For
are of course many spots along the stream that can be occupied by another, what is the relation between man and space?
something. One of them proves to be a locale, and does so because The bridge is a locale. As such a thing, it allows a space into
of the bridge. Thus the bridge does not first come to a locale to which earth and sky, divinities and mortals are admitted. The space
stand in it; rather, a locale comes into existence only by virtue of allowed by the bridge contains many places variously near or far
the bridge. The bridge is a thing; it gathers the fourfold, but in such from the bridge. These places, however, may be treated as mere
a way that it allows a site for the fourfold. By this site are deter- positions between which there lies a measurable distance; a dis-
mined the places and paths by which a space is provided for. tance, in Greek stadion, always has room made for it, and indeed
Only things that are locales in this manner allow for spaces. What by bare positions. The space that is thus made by positions is space
the word for space, Raum, designates is said by its ancient meaning. of a peculiar sort. As distance or "stadion" it is what the same word,
Raum, Rum, means a place that is freed for settlement and lodging. stadion, means in Latin, a spatium, an intervening space or inter-
A space is something that has been made room for, something that val. Thus nearness and remoteness between men and things can
has been freed, namely, within a boundary, Greek peras. A bound- become mere distance, mere intervals of intervening space. In a
ary is not that at which something stops but, as the Greeks recog- space that is represented purely as spatium, the bridge now appears
nized, the boundary is that from which something begins its as a mere something at some position, which can be occupied at
essential unfolding. That is why the concept is that of horismos, any time by something else or replaced by a mere marker. What is
that is, the horizon, the boundary. Space is in essence that for more, the mere dimensions of height, breadth, and depth can be
which room has been made, that which is let into its bounds. That abstracted from space as intervals. What is so abstracted we repre-
for which room is made is always granted and hence is joined, that sent as the pure manifold of the three dimensions. Yet the room
is, gathered, by virtue of a locale, that is, by such a thing as the made by this manifold is also no longer determined by distances; it
bridge. Accordingly, spaces receive their essential being from locales is no longer a spatium, but now no more than extensio—extension.
and not from "space." But from space as extensio a further abstraction can be made, to
Things which, as locales, allow a site we now in anticipation call analytic-algebraic relations. What these relations make room for is
buildings. They are so called because they are made by a process of the possibility of the purely mathematical construction of manifolds
building-construction. Of what sort this making—building—must with an arbitrary number of dimensions. The space provided for in
be, however, we find out only after we have first given thought to this mathematical manner may be called "space," the "one" space
the essence of those things that of themselves require building as as such. But in this sense "the" space, "space," contains no spaces
the process by which they are made. These things are locales that and no places. We never find in it any locales, that is, things of the
allow a site for the fourfold, a site that in each case provides for a kind the bridge is. As against that, however, in the spaces provided
space. The relation between locale and space lies in the essence of for by locales there is always space as interval, and in this interval
these things as locales, but so does the relation of the-locale to the in turn there is space as pure extension. Spatium and extensio af-
man who lives there. Therefore we shall now try to clarify the es- ford at any time the possibility of measuring things and what they
sence of these things that we call buildings by the following brief make room for, according to distances, spans, and directions, and
consideration. of computing these magnitudes. But the fact that they are univer-
356 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 357

already there before the bridge is. Before the bridge stands, there For one thing, what is the relation between locale and space? For
are of course many spots along the stream that can be occupied by another, what is the relation between man and space?
something. One of them proves to be a locale, and does so because The bridge is a locale. As such a thing, it allows a space into
of the bridge. Thus the bridge does not first come to a locale to which earth and sky, divinities and mortals are admitted. The space
stand in it; rather, a locale comes into existence only by virtue of allowed by the bridge contains many places variously near or far
the bridge. The bridge is a thing; it gathers the fourfold, but in such from the bridge. These places, however, may be treated as mere
a way that it allows a site for the fourfold. By this site are deter- positions between which there lies a measurable distance; a dis-
mined the places and paths by which a space is provided for. tance, in Greek stadion, always has room made for it, and indeed
Only things that are locales in this manner allow for spaces. What by bare positions. The space that is thus made by positions is space
the word for space, Raum, designates is said by its ancient meaning. of a peculiar sort. As distance or "stadion" it is what the same word,
Raum, Rum, means a place that is freed for settlement and lodging. stadion, means in Latin, a spatium, an intervening space or inter-
A space is something that has been made room for, something that val. Thus nearness and remoteness between men and things can
has been freed, namely, within a boundary, Greek peras. A bound- become mere distance, mere intervals of intervening space. In a
ary is not that at which something stops but, as the Greeks recog- space that is represented purely as spatium, the bridge now appears
nized, the boundary is that from which something begins its as a mere something at some position, which can be occupied at
essential unfolding. That is why the concept is that of horismos, any time by something else or replaced by a mere marker. What is
that is, the horizon, the boundary. Space is in essence that for more, the mere dimensions of height, breadth, and depth can be
which room has been made, that which is let into its bounds. That abstracted from space as intervals. What is so abstracted we repre-
for which room is made is always granted and hence is joined, that sent as the pure manifold of the three dimensions. Yet the room
is, gathered, by virtue of a locale, that is, by such a thing as the made by this manifold is also no longer determined by distances; it
bridge. Accordingly, spaces receive their essential being from locales is no longer a spatium, but now no more than extensio—extension.
and not from "space." But from space as extensio a further abstraction can be made, to
Things which, as locales, allow a site we now in anticipation call analytic-algebraic relations. What these relations make room for is
buildings. They are so called because they are made by a process of the possibility of the purely mathematical construction of manifolds
building-construction. Of what sort this making—building—must with an arbitrary number of dimensions. The space provided for in
be, however, we find out only after we have first given thought to this mathematical manner may be called "space," the "one" space
the essence of those things that of themselves require building as as such. But in this sense "the" space, "space," contains no spaces
the process by which they are made. These things are locales that and no places. We never find in it any locales, that is, things of the
allow a site for the fourfold, a site that in each case provides for a kind the bridge is. As against that, however, in the spaces provided
space. The relation between locale and space lies in the essence of for by locales there is always space as interval, and in this interval
these things as locales, but so does the relation of the-locale to the in turn there is space as pure extension. Spatium and extensio af-
man who lives there. Therefore we shall now try to clarify the es- ford at any time the possibility of measuring things and what they
sence of these things that we call buildings by the following brief make room for, according to distances, spans, and directions, and
consideration. of computing these magnitudes. But the fact that they are univer-
 358 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 359

sally applicable to everything that has extension can in no case may even be much nearer to that bridge and to what it makes room
make numerical magnitudes the ground of the essence of spaces for than someone who uses it daily as an indifferent river crossing.
and locales that are measurable with the aid of mathematics. How Spaces, and with them space as such—"space"—are always provid-
even modern physics was compelled by the facts themselves to rep- ed for already within the stay of mortals. Spaces open up by the
resent the spatial medium of cosmic space as a field-unity deter- fact that they are let into the dwelling of man. To say that mortals
mined by body as dynamic center cannot be discussed here. are is to say that in dwelling they persist through spaces by virtue
The spaces through which we go daily are provided for by locales; of their stay among things and locales. And only because mortals
their essence is grounded in things of the type of buildings. If we pervade, persist through, spaces by their very essence are they able
pay heed to these relations between locales and spaces, between to go through spaces. But in going through spaces we do not give
spaces and space, we get a clue to help us in thinking of the relation up our standing in them. Rather, we always go through spaces in
of man and space. such a way that we already sustain them by staying constantly with
When we speak of man and space, it sounds as though man stood near and remote locales and things. When I go toward the door of
on one side, space on the other. Yet space is not something that the lecture hall, I am already there, and I could not go to it at all
faces man. It is neither an external object nor an inner experience. if I were not such that I am there. I am never here only, as this
It is not that there are men, and over and above them space; for encapsulated body; rather, I am there, that is, I already pervade the
when I say "a man," and in saying this word think of a being who space of the room, and only thus can I go through it.
exists in a human manner—that is, who dwells—then by the name Even when mortals turn "inward," taking stock of themselves,
"man," I already name the stay within the fourfold among things. they do not leave behind their belonging to the fourfold. When, as
Even when we relate ourselves to those things that are not in our we say, we come to our senses and reflect on ourselves, we come
immediate reach, we are staying with the things themselves. We do back to ourselves from things without ever abandoning our stay
not represent distant things merely in our mind—as the textbooks among things. Indeed, the loss of rapport with things that occurs
have it—so that only mental representations of distant things run in states of depression would be wholly impossible if even such a
through our minds and heads as substitutes for the things. If all of state were not still what it is as a human state: that is, a staying with
us now think, from where we are right here, of the old bridge in things. Only if this stay already characterizes human being can the
Heidelberg, this thinking toward that locale is not a mere experi- things among which we are also fail to speak to us, fail to concern
ence inside the persons present here; rather, it belongs to the es- us any longer.
sence of our thinking of that bridge that in itself thinking persists Man's relation to locales, and through locales to spaces, inheres
fl
through [durchsteht] the distance to that locale. From this spot in his dwelling. The relationship between man and space is none
right here, we are there at the bridge—we are by no means at some other than dwelling, thought essentially.
representational content in our consciousness. From right here we When we think, in the manner just attempted, about the relation
li between locale and space, but also about the relation of man and
For a discussion of "thing" and "space" in modern physics, see Reading VI. For a space, a light falls on the essence of the things that are locales and
criticism of Cartesian "space" and the analysis of the "spatiality" of Dasein, see Being
and Time, sections I9-24.—En. that we call buildings.
 358 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 359

sally applicable to everything that has extension can in no case may even be much nearer to that bridge and to what it makes room
make numerical magnitudes the ground of the essence of spaces for than someone who uses it daily as an indifferent river crossing.
and locales that are measurable with the aid of mathematics. How Spaces, and with them space as such—"space"—are always provid-
even modern physics was compelled by the facts themselves to rep- ed for already within the stay of mortals. Spaces open up by the
resent the spatial medium of cosmic space as a field-unity deter- fact that they are let into the dwelling of man. To say that mortals
mined by body as dynamic center cannot be discussed here. are is to say that in dwelling they persist through spaces by virtue
The spaces through which we go daily are provided for by locales; of their stay among things and locales. And only because mortals
their essence is grounded in things of the type of buildings. If we pervade, persist through, spaces by their very essence are they able
pay heed to these relations between locales and spaces, between to go through spaces. But in going through spaces we do not give
spaces and space, we get a clue to help us in thinking of the relation up our standing in them. Rather, we always go through spaces in
of man and space. such a way that we already sustain them by staying constantly with
When we speak of man and space, it sounds as though man stood near and remote locales and things. When I go toward the door of
on one side, space on the other. Yet space is not something that the lecture hall, I am already there, and I could not go to it at all
faces man. It is neither an external object nor an inner experience. if I were not such that I am there. I am never here only, as this
It is not that there are men, and over and above them space; for encapsulated body; rather, I am there, that is, I already pervade the
when I say "a man," and in saying this word think of a being who space of the room, and only thus can I go through it.
exists in a human manner—that is, who dwells—then by the name Even when mortals turn "inward," taking stock of themselves,
"man," I already name the stay within the fourfold among things. they do not leave behind their belonging to the fourfold. When, as
Even when we relate ourselves to those things that are not in our we say, we come to our senses and reflect on ourselves, we come
immediate reach, we are staying with the things themselves. We do back to ourselves from things without ever abandoning our stay
not represent distant things merely in our mind—as the textbooks among things. Indeed, the loss of rapport with things that occurs
have it—so that only mental representations of distant things run in states of depression would be wholly impossible if even such a
through our minds and heads as substitutes for the things. If all of state were not still what it is as a human state: that is, a staying with
us now think, from where we are right here, of the old bridge in things. Only if this stay already characterizes human being can the
Heidelberg, this thinking toward that locale is not a mere experi- things among which we are also fail to speak to us, fail to concern
ence inside the persons present here; rather, it belongs to the es- us any longer.
sence of our thinking of that bridge that in itself thinking persists Man's relation to locales, and through locales to spaces, inheres
fl
through [durchsteht] the distance to that locale. From this spot in his dwelling. The relationship between man and space is none
right here, we are there at the bridge—we are by no means at some other than dwelling, thought essentially.
representational content in our consciousness. From right here we When we think, in the manner just attempted, about the relation
li between locale and space, but also about the relation of man and
For a discussion of "thing" and "space" in modern physics, see Reading VI. For a space, a light falls on the essence of the things that are locales and
criticism of Cartesian "space" and the analysis of the "spatiality" of Dasein, see Being
and Time, sections I9-24.—En. that we call buildings.
360 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 361

The bridge is a thing of this sort. The locale allows the simple mons of the fourfold. All planning remains grounded on this
onefold of earth and sky, of divinities and mortals, to enter into a responding, and planning in turn opens up to the designer the pre-
site by arranging the site into spaces. The locale makes room for cincts suitable for his designs.
the fourfold in a double sense. The locale admits the fourfold and As soon as we try to think of the essence of constructive building
it installs the fourfold. The two—making room in the sense of ad- in terms of a letting-dwell, we come to know more clearly what that
mitting and in the sense of installing—belong together. As a double process of making consists in by which building is accomplished.
space-making, the locale is a shelter for the fourfold or, by the same Usually we take production to be an activity whose performance
token, a house. Things such as locales shelter or house men's lives. has a result, the finished structure, as its consequence. It is possible
Things of this sort are housings, though not necessarily dwelling- to conceive of making in that way; we thereby grasp something that
houses in the narrower sense. is correct, and yet never touch its essence, which is a producing
The making of such things is building. Its essence consists in this, that brings something forth. For building brings the fourfold hither
that it corresponds to the character of these things. They are locales into a thing, the bridge, and brings forth the thing as a locale, out
that allow spaces. This is why building, by virtue of constructing into what is already present, room for which is only now made by
locales, is a founding and joining of spaces. Because building pro- this locale.
duces locales, the joining of the spaces of these locales necessarily The Greek for "to bring forth or to produce" is tikto. The word
brings with it space, as spatium and as extensio, into the thingly techne, technique, belongs to the verb's root, tec. To the Greeks
structure of buildings. But building never shapes pure "space." Nei- techne means neither art nor handicraft but, rather, to make some-
ther directly nor indirectly. Nevertheless, because it produces things thing appear, within what is present, as this or that, in this way or
as locales, building is closer to the essence of spaces and to the that way. The Greeks conceive of techne, producing, in terms of
essential origins of "space" than any geometry and mathematics. letting appear. Techne thus conceived has been concealed in the
Building puts up locales that make space and a site for the fourfold. tectonics of architecture since ancient times. Of late it still remains
From the simple oneness in which earth and sky, divinities and concealed, and more resolutely, in the technology of power ma-
mortals belong together, building receives the directive for its erect- chinery. But the essence of the erecting of buildings cannot be
ing of locales. Building takes over from the fourfold the standard for understood adequately in terms either of architecture or of engi-
all the traversing and measuring of the spaces that in each case are neering construction, nor in terms of a mere combination of the
provided for by the locales that have been founded. The edifices two. The erecting of buildings would not be suitably defined even
guard the fourfold. They are things that in their own way preserve if we were to think of it in the sense of the original Greek techne as
the fourfold. To preserve the fourfold, to save the earth, to receive solely a letting-appear, which brings something made, as something
the sky, to await the divinities, to initiate mortals—this fourfold present, among the things that are already present.
preserving is the simple essence of dwelling. In this way, then, do The essence of building is letting dwell. Building accomplishes its
genuine buildings give form to dwelling in its essence, and house essential process in the raising of locales by the joining of their
this essential unfolding. spaces. Only if we are capable of dwelling, only then can we build.
Building thus characterized is a distinctive letting-dwell. When- Let us think for a while of a farmhouse in the Black Forest, which
ever it is such in fact, building already has responded to the sum- was built some two hundred years ago by the dwelling of peasants.
360 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 361

The bridge is a thing of this sort. The locale allows the simple mons of the fourfold. All planning remains grounded on this
onefold of earth and sky, of divinities and mortals, to enter into a responding, and planning in turn opens up to the designer the pre-
site by arranging the site into spaces. The locale makes room for cincts suitable for his designs.
the fourfold in a double sense. The locale admits the fourfold and As soon as we try to think of the essence of constructive building
it installs the fourfold. The two—making room in the sense of ad- in terms of a letting-dwell, we come to know more clearly what that
mitting and in the sense of installing—belong together. As a double process of making consists in by which building is accomplished.
space-making, the locale is a shelter for the fourfold or, by the same Usually we take production to be an activity whose performance
token, a house. Things such as locales shelter or house men's lives. has a result, the finished structure, as its consequence. It is possible
Things of this sort are housings, though not necessarily dwelling- to conceive of making in that way; we thereby grasp something that
houses in the narrower sense. is correct, and yet never touch its essence, which is a producing
The making of such things is building. Its essence consists in this, that brings something forth. For building brings the fourfold hither
that it corresponds to the character of these things. They are locales into a thing, the bridge, and brings forth the thing as a locale, out
that allow spaces. This is why building, by virtue of constructing into what is already present, room for which is only now made by
locales, is a founding and joining of spaces. Because building pro- this locale.
duces locales, the joining of the spaces of these locales necessarily The Greek for "to bring forth or to produce" is tikto. The word
brings with it space, as spatium and as extensio, into the thingly techne, technique, belongs to the verb's root, tec. To the Greeks
structure of buildings. But building never shapes pure "space." Nei- techne means neither art nor handicraft but, rather, to make some-
ther directly nor indirectly. Nevertheless, because it produces things thing appear, within what is present, as this or that, in this way or
as locales, building is closer to the essence of spaces and to the that way. The Greeks conceive of techne, producing, in terms of
essential origins of "space" than any geometry and mathematics. letting appear. Techne thus conceived has been concealed in the
Building puts up locales that make space and a site for the fourfold. tectonics of architecture since ancient times. Of late it still remains
From the simple oneness in which earth and sky, divinities and concealed, and more resolutely, in the technology of power ma-
mortals belong together, building receives the directive for its erect- chinery. But the essence of the erecting of buildings cannot be
ing of locales. Building takes over from the fourfold the standard for understood adequately in terms either of architecture or of engi-
all the traversing and measuring of the spaces that in each case are neering construction, nor in terms of a mere combination of the
provided for by the locales that have been founded. The edifices two. The erecting of buildings would not be suitably defined even
guard the fourfold. They are things that in their own way preserve if we were to think of it in the sense of the original Greek techne as
the fourfold. To preserve the fourfold, to save the earth, to receive solely a letting-appear, which brings something made, as something
the sky, to await the divinities, to initiate mortals—this fourfold present, among the things that are already present.
preserving is the simple essence of dwelling. In this way, then, do The essence of building is letting dwell. Building accomplishes its
genuine buildings give form to dwelling in its essence, and house essential process in the raising of locales by the joining of their
this essential unfolding. spaces. Only if we are capable of dwelling, only then can we build.
Building thus characterized is a distinctive letting-dwell. When- Let us think for a while of a farmhouse in the Black Forest, which
ever it is such in fact, building already has responded to the sum- was built some two hundred years ago by the dwelling of peasants.
362 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 363

Here the self-sufficiency of the power to let earth and sky, divinities We are attempting to trace in thought the essence of dwelling.
and mortals enter in simple oneness into things ordered the house. The next step on this path would be the question: What is the state
It placed the farm on the wind-sheltered mountain slope, looking of dwelling in our precarious age? On all sides we hear talk about
south, among the meadows close to the spring. It gave it the wide the housing shortage, and with good reason. Nor is there just talk;
overhanging shingle roof whose proper slope bears up under the there is action too. We try to fill the need by providing houses, by
burden of snow, and that, reaching deep down, shields the cham- promoting the building of houses, planning the whole architectural
bers against the storms of the long winter nights. It did not forget enterprise. However hard and bitter, however hampering and
the altar corner behind the community table; it made room in its threatening the lack of houses remains, the proper plight of dwell-
chamber for the hallowed places of childbed and the "tree of the ing does not lie merely in a lack of houses. The proper plight of
dead"—for that is what they call a coffin there: the Totenbaum- dwelling is indeed older than the world wars with their destruction,
and in this way it designed for the different generations under one older also than the increase of the earth's population and the con-
roof the character of their journey through time. A craft that, itself dition of the industrial workers. The proper dwelling plight lies in
sprung from dwelling, still uses its tools and its gear as things, built this, that mortals ever search anew for the essence of dwelling, that
the farmhouse. they must ever learn to dwell. What if man's homelessness consisted
Only if we are capable of dwelling, only then can we build. Our in this, that man still does not even think of the proper plight of
reference to the Black Forest farm in no way means that we should dwelling as the plight? Yet as soon as man gives thought to his home-
or could go back to building such houses; rather, it illustrates by a lessness, it is a misery no longer. Rightly considered and kept well
dwelling that has been how it was able to build. in mind, it is the sole summons that calls mortals into their dwell-
Dwelling, however, is the basic character of Being, in keeping with ing.
which mortals exist. Perhaps this attempt to think about dwelling But how else can mortals answer this summons than by trying on
and building will bring out somewhat more clearly that building their part, on their own, to bring dwelling to the fullness of its
belongs to dwelling and how it receives its essence from dwelling. essence? This they accomplish when they build out of dwelling, and
Enough will have been gained if dwelling and building have become think for the sake of dwelling.
worthy of questioning and thus have remained worthy of thought.
But that thinking itself belongs to dwelling in the same sense as
building, although in a different way, may perhaps be attested to by
the course of thought here attempted.
Building and thinking are, each in its own way, inescapable for
dwelling. The two, however, are also insufficient for dwelling so
long as each busies itself with its own affairs in separation, instead
of listening to the other. They are able to listen if both—building
and thinking—belong to dwelling, if they remain within their limits
and realize that the one as much as the other comes from the
workshop of long experience and incessant practice.
362 BASIC WRITINGS Building Dwelling Thinking 363

Here the self-sufficiency of the power to let earth and sky, divinities We are attempting to trace in thought the essence of dwelling.
and mortals enter in simple oneness into things ordered the house. The next step on this path would be the question: What is the state
It placed the farm on the wind-sheltered mountain slope, looking of dwelling in our precarious age? On all sides we hear talk about
south, among the meadows close to the spring. It gave it the wide the housing shortage, and with good reason. Nor is there just talk;
overhanging shingle roof whose proper slope bears up under the there is action too. We try to fill the need by providing houses, by
burden of snow, and that, reaching deep down, shields the cham- promoting the building of houses, planning the whole architectural
bers against the storms of the long winter nights. It did not forget enterprise. However hard and bitter, however hampering and
the altar corner behind the community table; it made room in its threatening the lack of houses remains, the proper plight of dwell-
chamber for the hallowed places of childbed and the "tree of the ing does not lie merely in a lack of houses. The proper plight of
dead"—for that is what they call a coffin there: the Totenbaum- dwelling is indeed older than the world wars with their destruction,
and in this way it designed for the different generations under one older also than the increase of the earth's population and the con-
roof the character of their journey through time. A craft that, itself dition of the industrial workers. The proper dwelling plight lies in
sprung from dwelling, still uses its tools and its gear as things, built this, that mortals ever search anew for the essence of dwelling, that
the farmhouse. they must ever learn to dwell. What if man's homelessness consisted
Only if we are capable of dwelling, only then can we build. Our in this, that man still does not even think of the proper plight of
reference to the Black Forest farm in no way means that we should dwelling as the plight? Yet as soon as man gives thought to his home-
or could go back to building such houses; rather, it illustrates by a lessness, it is a misery no longer. Rightly considered and kept well
dwelling that has been how it was able to build. in mind, it is the sole summons that calls mortals into their dwell-
Dwelling, however, is the basic character of Being, in keeping with ing.
which mortals exist. Perhaps this attempt to think about dwelling But how else can mortals answer this summons than by trying on
and building will bring out somewhat more clearly that building their part, on their own, to bring dwelling to the fullness of its
belongs to dwelling and how it receives its essence from dwelling. essence? This they accomplish when they build out of dwelling, and
Enough will have been gained if dwelling and building have become think for the sake of dwelling.
worthy of questioning and thus have remained worthy of thought.
But that thinking itself belongs to dwelling in the same sense as
building, although in a different way, may perhaps be attested to by
the course of thought here attempted.
Building and thinking are, each in its own way, inescapable for
dwelling. The two, however, are also insufficient for dwelling so
long as each busies itself with its own affairs in separation, instead
of listening to the other. They are able to listen if both—building
and thinking—belong to dwelling, if they remain within their limits
and realize that the one as much as the other comes from the
workshop of long experience and incessant practice.
 IX

WHAT CALLS FOR THINKING?

(from What Is Called Thinking?)

cog We never come to thoughts.

They come to us.