Finally, ‘doubt’. We’re told that beauty is in the eye of beholder, that one man’s modernism is another another’s Palladianism. The facts disagree. Over ten years, the social enterprise I founded, Create Streets, has developed a rigorous methodology for visual preference surveys. Across countries, political views and age groups, super majorities (typically 70-80%) consistently favour buildings that show care, coherence and a sense of place: local materials, depth and detail, symmetry, variety within a pattern. Not formless chaos but not sterile ‘spreadsheet architecture’ either. In an era of division, beautiful places can unite us.
