creasing number of individuals in a modern society uprooted from their
original social milieu, but, in addition, no succeeding milieu succeeds
in becoming truly “home” either.^18Modernity frees people from the limitations imposed on them by their family or clan
or by their village community, offering them unheard-of options and often material
improvements as well; there is, however, a price to pay. The renunciation of the tra-
ditional framework of reference for their lives means a loss of certainties and of
meaning. For many people it is far from easy to learn to live with this.
In the context of philosophy, too, modernity is often described as a condition
that is diametrically opposed to dwelling. It is worth taking a look at Martin Heideg-
ger, the leading representative of this kind of criticism.
“Building, Dwelling, Thinking” is the title of a lecture that Heidegger gave at
the 1951 Darmstädter Gespräch,which had as its theme Mensch und Raum (Man
and Space).^19 At first sight the text is very accessible and can be read as an introduc-
tion to Heidegger’s thought. Heidegger begins with an etymological explanation: the
Old English and High German word for building, he says, buan, means to dwell.
Moreover, buanis related to “I am”: it refers, then, not only to building and dwelling
but also to being. Heidegger then develops the idea that dwelling is the principal term
of the three. Dwelling refers to a way of being that has to do with a cautious and
guarded attitude. The main feature of dwelling is to preserve and care for, to allow
things to exist in their essence. What has to be nurtured and preserved is the
dweller’s relationship with das Geviert: the fourfold of heaven and earth, divinities
and mortals. Heaven stands for the cosmos, the course of the seasons, the cycle of
day and night; the earth is there to serve and to support, as life-giver; the divinities
are the beckoning messengers of the godhead; and the people are called mortals be-
cause they can die, because they are capable of death as death. This leads to the
fourfold definition that mortals dwell insofar as they save the earth, receive heaven
as heaven, await the divinities as divinities, and are capable of death as death. In
other words, the person who “dwells” is someone who is open to these funda-
mental dimensions of “being.”
It may be useful here to look a little more closely at Heidegger’s concept of
Seinsvergessenheit(forgetfulness of Being). Although he does not use the term ex-
plicitly in this text, the idea does play a substantial role. For Heidegger, true “being”
means to be open to the fourfold, to tend the fourfold in its essence. But that is just
what is lacking in our present condition. Modernity is characterized by forgetfulness
of Being: people no longer grasp “Being”; they are not open to the fourfold. What
prevails is an instrumentalist attitude based on considerations of usefulness and ef-
ficiency, from which cautiousness and cherishing are far removed.
Heidegger’s concept of truth is inseparable from his ideas about Being. He re-
jects the classical theory of adequatio: in his view, truth does not lie in statements
and facts being identical. His concept of truth refers to the Greek notion of ale ̄ theia.
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Architecture Facing Modernity