“Building, Dwelling, Thinking” – an afterthought
This is a post long due. The idea has crystallized over a while. Recently a close friend Namrata Toraskar shared the article ” Building, Dwelling, Thinking”(1) – Martin Heidegger (Translation and Commentary by Adam Bobeck). She has been researching and writing on the nostalgic vernacular of a few handpicked villages of Himachal Pradesh.
The essay crystallized many old loosely woven ideas into a tapestry in my mind (that many of my fellow workshop participants have already heard these ideas). I am trying to share the just of it through this short blog.
Dwelling – as Heidegger reminds us – is the stay of mortals on the earth: “But ‘on the earth’ – the German philosopher clarifies – already means ‘under the sky.’ Both of these also means ‘remaining before the divinities’ (die Göttlichen) and include a ‘belonging to men’s being with one another.’” There is an original unity within which the Four – earth and sky, divinities and mortals – are just one thing. The mortals are in the Fourfold because they dwell. If the fundamental character of dwelling is looking after, it is quadruple care that comprises saving the earth, receiving the sky, awaiting the divinities and escorting the mortals. It is staying with things while letting them keep their essence. Dwelling is looking after your own space, being in a relation with space, filling the artificial gap between designing, constructing and eventually dwelling.
The basic feature of “dwelling” is sparing. To remain in peace. To be in “freedom” that spares everything in its essence. Sparing means to let something be in its own nature. To be “free”. This is “Dwelling”. It closely relates to the definition of permaculture. Heidegger talks of building as cultivating – to “preserve” and take care of, to guard the growth that produces fruit. It also means that we need to remain and stay in a “place”. This spacial – temporal variance in “place” is different for different “dwellers”. However, the central idea to dwell is to create and preserve the unity of the fourfold – The earth, the sky, the divinities, and the mortals.
Dwelling happens when the people’s relationship with the “place” depends on the relationship of the “place” with the fourfold. If the place does not allow a site for the fourfold, it is not meant to be. It is not to be built. Hence building is really “dwelling”, and as humans, we are “Dwellers”. Clearly from the above definition, things that do not have the fourfold, it will not have a location. It might become a mere commodity, an object without a relationship with a “place”. In essence, it is the way we build in this globalized world.
The idea of the relationship between man and his space was recently crystallized in a previous blog post on Epidermises and Metamorphosis. Heidegger very poetically clarifies the idea of “Purusha”, while writing that “humans” and “space” are not opposite each other. Space is neither an external object or an inner experience. A person itself ” Purusha”, is the inheritance of the fourfold among things. And that is how we understand man, the relationships of man are obviously not visible at first sight. It goes closely with the Japanese construct – “What is not visible to the eye is more important than what is.” So one needs to be able to see through the client’s eyes to understand the ide of their “dwelling”.
The kind of building he/she “needs” is closely related to the way he/she “dwells”. All planning depends on the way he/she responds to the summons of the four-fold. The intent and ability to save the earth, to receive the sky, await the divinities and lead the mortals. Designing is only to bring forth what is already present. We can only build what we are capable of dwelling. The one who embodies the fourfold is a teacher and can lead me to the fourfold. I would pay to be guided.
Secondly, as “dwelling” is an ever-changing process, (a constant man responding to a constantly changing environment), “building” is an ongoing attempt to dwell. An ideal “dweller” will not need my services, as, for him/her, dwelling and building go hand in hand. A building for a “dweller – builder” is in a constantly adapting space. It is the design of a genius that embodies the fourfold at every stage of adaptation. There is a lot to learn from such a culture, and I would pay to be guided.
Thirdly, the act of “building” is as simple as the act of “dwelling”, I would love to be guided by a master and a teacher who would guide me with “building – dwelling”. I would pay to be guided. I would also have to practice “building – dwelling”. For I can “dwell”, what I am capable of building.
Finally, the act of “dwelling” is as diverse as the diversity in “places”, or the diversity in nature itself. Each place has a pattern of “dwelling”, something that is clear and precise but cannot be easily defined (Christopher Alexander). This pattern is a result of “dwelling”. It is itself the embodiment of the fourfold. Someone living with these patterns is worth learning from. Their patterns/materials/techniques/skills are useless to us, as they cannot be replicated unless we learn to “dwell” like them. As an outsider, we probably will never be able to “dwell” like them. However, we must understand their relationships between “dwelling” and “building”, so that we can form our own with the way we want to, or can “dwell”. A fellow “dweller” like me who wants to find a better way to “dwell”, will find a partner in me. We can build and dwell together.
For the time to come, we have to work with our hands, we have to “build” as a means to “dwell”, and “dwell” as a means to “build”. We can be of service to a civilization who is desperately looking for a change, an alternative, a better way to “dwell”. A choice does exist. Do we participate in society, or do we ignore, or do we run away? In either of the paths taken, we have to respond to the summons of the fourfold. It is now more than ever, that we have to think about “dwelling”.
In fond memory of the best days of my “dwelling”, with my fellow “dwellers, that I deeply love, from the bottom of my heart. It is a pity that the ways of the world keeps us away from “dwelling” together again. This was the construction site of “casa amealco”. Thank you Paulino Rico, Maestro Andres Flores, Maggi, Lobo, and Maestro James Anthony.
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