"Habitability" or “The habitable” must provide shelter and care for the human being, since habitation, according to M. Heidegger (1889 – 1976), is the fundamental feature of man's being.[7].
In the conference “Build, inhabit, think” (1951),[7] Heidegger places us in a truth that would seem unquestionable: “In inhabiting we arrive, so it seems, only by means of building” (Heidegger, 1951), building has as its goal inhabiting. However, Heidegger warns us that not all constructions fulfill the function of being “dwelling.” We have the case of constructions that are not housing, such as the highway for the truck driver, the yarn factory for a worker or the power plant run by an engineer, in which they are “at home”, but they do not live there. Living goes beyond buildings. A construction can house man. Man lives in a construction, but dwelling is not living in a place, understanding living as having accommodation.
On the other hand, the constructions that are spoken of that are not homes, are in some way made from inhabiting, since they serve for the habitation of man, with which we cannot affirm that building is what generates inhabiting, but vice versa: "Inhabiting would be in each case the end that all construction pursues" (Heidegger, 1951).
The meaning of “build”, which in Old High German is buan, means to inhabit, which in turn means: to remain, to reside. Now, the word buan does not say that building is only living, but rather it refers to how we should think about the living that it mentions. If we talk about dwelling we are talking about a form of behavior that man carries out. Thus, Heidegger affirms that working itself is already a way of living, since living is not inactivity, we live from our profession, we live when we do business or travel, even when walking we live, thus building or bauen is originally living.
The existential implication of this statement is reflected by stating that originally building and inhabiting were understood in the same way: Bauen, buan, bhu, beo come from the word bin (I am), ich bin, du bist (I am, you are) bis sei (I know). So ich bin or du bist is: I dwell, you dwell. That is, the way men are on earth.
Hence Heidegger affirms the indissoluble identity between being a man and living: “Being a man means: being on earth as a mortal, means: living” (Heidegger, 1951). The ancient word “bauen” means that man is to the extent that he dwells, bauen means at the same time to shelter and care.
Building as shelter and care is not just about producing. In the case of ships and temples that are a product of construction, then we would not be talking about caring, but about erecting. To build as to care in Latin is collere, culture and to build, in the sense of raising buildings, is aedificare in Latin, for Heidegger they are included in the very construction, to inhabit. Thus, building, like living, is being on earth, it is living the “usual”. Living like this is behind the activities of caring and building, they are activities that claim the name of building.
Heidegger says that, in terms of building, although the essential meaning of language has been forgotten, “dwelling testifies to the origin of these meanings” (Heidegger, 1951).
But when understanding what the language says about building we have to:.
- Building is properly inhabiting.
- Dwelling is the way mortals are on earth.
- Building as living unfolds in building that cares – that is, that cares for growth – and in building that erects buildings.
Inquiring again into the essence of Dwelling, the ancient Saxon wuon, and the Gothic wunian, mean the same as the bauen, to remain and reside. But the Wunian Gothic says more clearly the experience of this abiding. Wunian means to be at peace or satisfied, brought to peace and abiding in it. Friede which means peace is the free, das Frye, fry means: “preserved from harm”. Freien (liberating) is properly caring.
Caring is something positive, it is leaving something in its essence. Hence: “The fundamental feature of living is this caring (guarding, watching over), (Heidegger, 1951).