The futility of knowing what a Building will be

"We know what our buildings are going to be", is right now the biggest statement that is floating all around wherever I go. There is a wide ocean of possibilities that lies between Knowing and Seeking Architecture. The seeking is the journey. The knowing, is just one pit-stop on the way.

Even then, what does it take to "know " what a building ought to be? Is it enough if it creates an enclosure, functionally organizes its indoor usage and carries notions of aesthetics which are as fickle as the client's mind? Is it enough to declare that the building is planned for "flexibility of use"? Or that it superficially alludes to a sense of Place?

The design of a building cannot be just driven by the knowledge/ one's command of climatology/daylighting/floor use efficiency/ quick buildability although these are very valid parameters for a building to exist. Nor can its parts be "assigned" to various consultants from allied fields to make the building work.

If Louis Kahn's "Ask the brick what it wants to be" is any yardstick, then it takes more than just bricks and mortar to know what a building ought to be. 

The idea of declaring that one knows what the building should be /will be is like saying that we breathe with our nose. Though factually correct, the breath through the nose is the basis for engaging with Prana - vital Life.  This happens regardless of whose nose it is, or where the air is coming from. Likewise, the act of making a building has to engage the designer and the user's senses. It can only get better if it manages to communicate some poetics of Space and engages with the land on which it sits.

This is that vital Life- Prana- necessary for creating a distinction between a Building (a mere shell which panders to function aesthetics and climate) and Architecture.

There is no other way. 

Preferring Feel over Feeling is symptomatic of the various forms of disconnect we see around us, paradoxically enabled by technological connectivity. It has percolated into design of spaces, and is becoming responsible for further catalyzing the disconnect.

The sooner this is grasped...the better. Only then will we see the renaissance of Architecture with Soul.