Architecture as a gas

Should spaces be created from ideas, or should they materialize from a repeated process that is drawn from the relationships of people and ideas through the space they inhabit? To me it seems as though it should be a little of both. When thinking up spatial relations for our "site" for studio, we have to understand how people will interact in these spaces. Buildings, and spaces created between buildings, are nothing without people and experiences of people interacting in them. At a certain point you have to put a cap on the scope of thinking about space in order to generate a framework for your research and ideas. We were told that architecture is a gas that will fill up whatever container you give to it, but what determines the size and scope of the container. When do we make the step from a godlike perspective into a personal experience perspective and back again?