The dialectical relationship between human being and place constitutes a central axis in intellectual currents, philosophical schools, and creative works. The processes of building and dwelling, along with the critical reflection they entail, are among the essential issues that have received considerable scholarly attention; indeed, they have transcended their disciplinary boundaries to establish broad and complex ontological and philosophical concepts. In this context, Martin Heidegger’s analysis of the specific relation between human existence and place stands out, situated within his phenomenological‑hermeneutical project. Heidegger holds that Dasein (human being) achieves its existence only insofar as it is a “Being‑in‑the‑world.” From this perspective, the human being is the site of the disclosure of Being, and its spatiality is shaped according to its proximity to or distance from things. Heidegger seeks to revive the lost intimacy (familiarity) between the world and the human being – the very intimacy that the modern age has led to the reinforcement of alienation from the meaning of place. In parallel, in the new roman, place is not merely a secondary narrative element; rather, treating it as a primary subject is one of the defining features of novelistic practice. Accordingly, this study aims to offer a phenomenological reading of *Al-Khawāja* by the Syrian writer Muḥammad Ṭaʻʻān, based on Heidegger’s concepts of building and dwelling. The article adopts an interdisciplinary perspective that reconciles literature and philosophy, and seeks to analyze the manifestation of the experience of human existence through literary language and narrative space. Dwelling is understood here not merely as material residence, but as a mode of Being‑in‑the‑world. By deconstructing the spatial structure of the novel, the study reveals the literary text as a space capable of embodying Heideggerian concepts and uncovering the complex relations among language, Being, and place.