<b><b>Malcolm Pitcher calls for a more expressive design culture in the housebuilding industry and a proper focus on the needs of the modern family unit</b></b><br><b>I&amp;’m in reflective mood this month. I&amp;’m sitting in my back garden enjoying the sunshine, sipping a cold Bud and reading the September Housebuilder magazine.</b><br> Alex Ely&amp;’s interesting article on new housing design and his plea that housebuilders have to fundamentally review the way they procure design reminds me of the contrast I experienced between my time at Honda Cars and my first few years in housebuilding.<p></p><p><b><b>a great lesson </b></b><br> Soon after joining Honda, I was asked to co-ordinate the European marketing input for the next generation Civic. With no job description to give me any clues, I set about doing it the traditional way with lots of research and masses of statistics presented in a huge tome of words and charts.</p><p> My Japanese bosses looked at it politely but also with a look of slight horror. And then I learnt one of the greatest lessons of my whole career to date.</p><p> One of them turned to me and said &amp;“let the designers breath&amp;”. In other words, don&amp;’t constrain the designers with too much information and …