On Thu, 29 Apr 1999 16:04:47 +1000 (EST) Martin Skitmore
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Has anyone ever researched what "the public" actually wants/needs? There
> seems to be a lot of second guessing going on here. Who are the
> stakeholders and are they to lead or follow in this matter? And what's
> wrong with living "in a box" anyway?
>
> Martin.
>
Good on you, Martin!
I do not have the answers to these questions. But I have had the experience of
working with house developers, using them to test the marketability of passive
solar designs. They certainly gave the impression that they were quite
knowledgeable about their target market.
Expense and resale risk seem to have something to do with it. I do not think
that large numbers of people would be incapable of working out economic value
for themselves.
There must be some unrecognised factor(s) at work. For example, because of the
way builders are capitalised, there is likely to be just a small number of
houses available in a given area. This would mean very little choice for people
looking to buy at any given time. This could be preventing people from
exercising choice in the way they do when buying cars, say.
----------------------
Conall O Cathain
Senior Lecturer in Architecture
Queen's University, Belfast, Ireland
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