" The German theologian Paul Tilich explained that art had always left him cold as a pampered and trouble-free young man, despite the best pedagogical efforts of his parents and teachers, Then the First World War broke out, he was called up and, in a period of leave from his battalion(three quarters of whose members would be killed in the course of conflict), he found himself in the Kaiser Friedruch Museum in Berlin during a rain storm. There, a small upper gallery, he came across Sandro Botticelli's Madonna and Child with Eight Singing Angels and, on meeting the wise, fragile, compassionate gaze of the Virgin, surprised himself by beginning to sob uncontrollably. He experienced what he described as a moment of 'revelatory ecstasy', tears welling up in his eyes at the disjunction between the exceptionally tender atmosphere of the picture and the barbarous lessons he had learnt in the trenches.
It is in dialogue with that pain that many beautiful things acquire their value."
Alain argued about how does a building respond or speak to us, but somehow, people or even architects just failed to feel the emotional dialogue between the building and us. Designing is not only about making the elevations or the sections looking good, designing the heart of the building is the toughest part. The architect himself needs to be emotional or artistic enough and play balance between all aspects.
Just like Alain wrote in the book, " We might, quite aside from all other requirements, need to be a little sad before building can properly touch us.", just like the painting.
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