There are several senses in which one can understand a constellation that is set up between
architecture and the ‘law’, the most salient of which is the way that the former is influenced, or
directed, by laws of different countries or regions (such as urban or building laws which restrict or
challenge architects’ creativity, or the environmental aesthetics that cities expect architects, by law,
to honour). In this paper, however, I would like to focus on a ‘law’ that is arguably more fundamental
– in fact, primordial – as far as architecture is concerned. Just like other laws, this one can, and often
is, overlooked, or ignored by many architects, but at their peril (and that of those who occupy these
buildings). The ‘law’ in question is that of what Heidegger evocatively named the ‘fourfold’ of earth,
sky, mortals and divinities, which is further intimately connected to and informed by the ‘life-giving
struggle’ that Heidegger perceives in the relationship between the constituent elements of a work of
art, or what he terms ‘world’ and ‘earth’. The aim is to draw out the implications of these concepts,
considered as a primordial ‘law’, for architecture, especially in the sense of ‘sustainable’ architecture,
albeit not in the usual sense of ‘sustainable’. To enhance understanding of Heidegger’s fruitful
heuristic, the paper draws on Harries’s illuminating elaboration on it, and its resonance with other,
compatible concepts – like Lefebvre’s tripartite conceptualization of social space – is briefly explored.
‘n Mens kan die konstellasie wat tussen argitektuur en die ‘wet’ in sig kom, op verskeie maniere
interpreteer, die mees opsigtelike waarvan die wyse is waarop eersgenoemde deur die wette van
verskillende lande of streke beïnvloed word (soos stedelike of bou-wette wat argitekte se kreatiwiteit
beperk, of die omgewingsestetika wat deur stedelike owerhede wetlik aan argitekte voorgehou
word). In hierdie artikel word daar egter op ‘n ‘wet’ gefokus wat volgens die argument meer
fundamenteel – selfs primordiaal – is ten opsigte van argitektuur. Net soos ander wette, word hierdie
‘wet’ ook dikwels deur argitekte oor die hoof gesien, weliswaar ten koste van hulself (en van diegene
wat die ooreenstemmende geboue moet bewoon of benut). Genoemde ‘wet’ is wat Heidegger
veelseggenderwys die ‘viervoud’ van aarde, lug, sterflikes en godhede noem, wat verder intiem met
die ‘lewegewende worsteling’ verbind is, wat Heidegger in die verhouding tussen die konstitutiewe
elemente van ‘n kunswerk waarneem, te wete ‘wêreld’ en ‘aarde’. Die oogmerk is hier om die
implikasies van hierdie begrippe, as verteenwoordigend van ‘n primordiale ‘wet’ vir ‘onderhoubare’
argitektuur, uit te werk. Ten einde insig in Heidegger se vrugbare heuristiek te bevorder, word daar op
Harries se verhelderende uiteensetting daarvan gesteun, en ander, daarmee versoenbare begrippe – in
die besonder Lefebvre se drieledige konseptualisering van sosiale ruimte – word kortliks ondersoek.
