"To be, to dwell, to build"

"Heidegger places great weight on language, which he regards as not only a tool for communication between human beings, but principally as a means of bringing beings to appearance and of revealing their essences. In doing so, he carefully weaves the tissue that connects dwelling with building and the Being of humans... bauen, buan, bin."


"Building is not simply the process of constructing buildings. They belong to dwelling in the sense (as proposed by Heidegger) that it is the prime means for human beings to integrate themselves in the fourfold (the four components of man's world: earth, sky, mortals, divinities)"

"To build is in itself already to dwell."




Sources:
Dwelling & Architecture - From Heidegger to Koolhaas, Pavlos Lefas, 2009, Berlin

"Building, Dwelling, Thinking", 1951

"Heidegger trusted human beings more than the proponents of Modernism did. To him we human types are manifest, warts and all; we revel in untidiness. Dwelling is not about living in a house; for us dwelling is a verb and the centre of everything we do. To dwell is not static - it is on the move and even when it stops its journey it is rarely still. It is there before we journey and there when we arrive, it is not place-specific. A good home is where we make it, it is where we lie."

dwelling |ˈdweliNG|(also dwelling place )noun (formal)a house, apartment, or other place of residence
DERIVATIVESdweller noun [ in combination ] : city-dwellers
ORIGINOld English dwellan ‘lead astray, hinder, delay’ (in Middle English‘tarry, remain in a place’)of Germanic origin; related to Middle Dutch dwellen‘stun, perplex’ and Old Norse dvelja ‘delay, tarry, stay.’

Sources:

Dwelling & Architecture - From Heidegger to Koolhaas, Pavlos Lefas, 2009, Berlin

"The Naked City", 1948

Sources:
Youtube

"Battle For Brooklyn"

"Battle for Brooklyn is an intimate look at the very public and passionate fight waged by residents and business owners of Brooklyn’s historic Prospect Heights neighborhood facing condemnation of their property to make way for the polarizing Atlantic Yards project, a massive plan to build 16 skyscrapers and a basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets. " (Battle for Brooklyn: about)

"The film focuses on graphic designer Daniel Goldstein whose apartment sits at what would be center court of the new arena.  A reluctant activist, Daniel is dragged into the fight because he can’t accept that the government should use the power of Eminent Domain to take his new apartment and hand it off to a private developer, Forest City Ratner.  The effort to stop the project pits him and his neighbors against Ratner and an entourage of lawyers and public relations emissaries, the government, as well as other residents who want the construction jobs, the basketball team, and the additional housing that the project might produce. " (Battle for Brooklyn: about)

On November 24, 2009, after approximately a six-year battle, New York’s high court, the Court of Appeals, ruled for Ratner and against Goldstein and other property owners and tenants. On March 11, 2010, Ratner held a groundbreaking ceremony at the project site.

Rendering of new Barclays Center Arena (atlanticyards.com)

Construction Progress on May 26, 2001

For more information on the project, go check the official site: Atlantic Yards
For more information on the documentary: Battle For Brooklyn

Sources:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rumur/battle-of-brooklyn
http://battleforbrooklyn.com/trailer
http://battleforbrooklyn.com/about
http://rumur.com/
http://www.atlanticyards.com/
http://www.shoparc.com/#/projects/featured
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/06/the-battle-for-brooklyn/
http://www.dddb.net/php/latestnews_ArchiveDate.php
http://www.barclayscenter.com/
http://art-bridge.org/
Images courtesy of Atlantic Yards website