Dwelling as the Ontological Condition for Designing

In the essay Building Dwelling Thinking, Heidegger takes us from the ordinary and shallow interpretation of dwelling as inhabiting in a building to a more profound understanding of dwelling as sparing and preserving. Recognising dwelling as sparing and preserving emphasises the primacy of involvement and caring for the world we are existentially rooted in. The notions of dwelling and building provide a useful framework for understanding and critiquing design activity. The paper claims that dwelling is made possible through designing the world and at the same time dwelling is the ontological condition for designing. A Heideggerian understanding of dwelling requires deconstructing our taken for granted concepts and activities, such as, building, thing, place, etc. Heideggerian questioning shows us the way.