Intersection of rurex & philosophy: visiting Heidegger’s hut

Can a place change how we think? “At most a city-dweller gets ‘stimulated’ by a so-called ‘stay in the country’, wrote German philosopher Martin Heidegger. “But my whole work is sustained and guided by the world of these mountains and their people.” Measuring 6 by 7 meters (20 by 23 feet), Heidegger’s hut in the Black Forest wasn’t a work of architecture, but rather a typical, simple mountain cabin. In 1922 Heidegger was a popular university lecturer in Freiburg, Germany, but he hadn’t written anything big yet. That was the year he made the first of his escapes to the mountains where he would eventually do most of his most important writing, and thinking. Without running water or electricity, the hut provided a permeability with the outside world that prompted Heidegger’s deep thinking on the nature of being, authenticity and the fundamental importance of our engagement with the world. “People in the city often wonder whether one gets lonely up in the mountains... for such long and mono