I never knew that buildings are alive, that they learn and adapt; that, like children, they teach us what they need. Stewart Brand’s iconic book “How Buildings Learn” explains that we just need to listen. Most architects would rather we didn’t. And the more famous they are, the more insistent that we should listen not to the building but to them.

Not our architects.

Pradeep Sachdeva Design Associates are also talented craftspeople who understand that buildings belong to the people who live and work in them. As their inhabitants grow and change, good buildings have to change too. Good architects make that possible and easy.

The plans we began with nearly three years ago are nothing like the ones we are working from now. PSDA have been incredibly patient with us (ok, sometimes a bit exasperated too), supporting us when our suggestions make sense; explaining the difficulties when we’re being crazy.

We have changed layouts, repurposed rooms and redesigned lift shafts, ramps and corridors as new possibilities occurred or earlier decisions lost their own logic. And we haven’t even moved in yet.

But we already love our building. It doesn’t intimidate us and it doesn’t feel like it belongs to someone else. It’s ours, with all its quirks and shadows and cheerful rainbow railings. It’s a baby now and it will be an adolescent before we know it. It will grow and change and we will learn as it does.

As Stewart Brand says: “You don’t finish a building. You start one.”