‘Sustainable’ architecture and the ‘law’ of the fourfold

Abstract

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.