by Peter Lloyd Jones. Head of the School of Three Dimensional Design at Kingston Polytechnic. An international conference called ' Design for Need ' took place in April at the Royal College of Art in London. After the collapse of the ' functionalist ' ethic which had supported the Modern Movement in architecture and design, some designers are claiming the right to act as problem solvers to society. Peter Lloyd Jones , paimter and designer, questions whether ' need ' is a useful concept as a criterion for selecting and solving design problems.