Creating Being

Abstract

Heidegger is well known for his arguments that architecture “shelters being,” and allows us to “dwell” in order that we may “think” in his special ontological sense of the term. This chapter takes serious these reflections on the relationship between the built environment and the question of the meaning of Being. Without endorsing such views wholesale, the argument is that there is indeed an existential dimension to buildings—how could there not be?—and therefore that architects have a special responsibility to consider this issue of Being in their work.