Prince Charles and his faster horse

Prince Charles has recently asked for local residents to have a say in planning permissions for new buildings in the wake of his objections to the Lord Rogers designs for the Chelsea Barracks. He objected to these plans on the basis that they were “unsypathetic and unsuitable” for the area. His idea seems to be to ask local residents in the hope that they would object to ‘new’ designs.

He is probably right in the sense that people often object to new things in research surveys if asked the right (wrong) questions. Henry Ford famously said that if he had asked customers he would have designed a faster horse.

These are the typical faults attributed to market research but seem to me to be not a criticism of research but instead a criticism of bad research. Of course people often ask for more of the same but only if the question is posed in the wrong way.

Ask people if they are proud of the London skyline and wish for a truly international and cutting edge city and they would probably say something different. Look at their motivations for living in London and why they are proud of where they live and I suspect great architecture would feature highly.

So lets not give reactionaries the excuse of research for repeating old designs and products and instead lets focus research on understanding basic human motivations and beliefs. In that way we will be able to inspire new designers (of buildings and products) instead of stifling them. That is what research should aim for.