建 is a compound ideographic character, composed of 廴 and 聿. 廴 means walking and suggests the meaning of action; 聿 means writing brush and suggest the meaning of the law; hence 建 means “to establish the law/legislate”. 建 serves as a phonetic component to form characters.
See also 聿 writing brush
Characters formed by the phonetic component 建
键, 毽, 健, 踺,腱, 楗, 鞬, 徤 with the same pronunciation jiàn
犍, 睷 with the same pronunciation jiān
湕, 鰎, 湕 with the same pronunciation jiǎn
揵 qián
煡 jìn