If our life doesn't include the arts, we are but animals. Even animals often contrive shelters more beautiful than the design of some low-cost housing developments. Many high cost housing developments have oversized houses that boast about their size while only having skin deep beauty. Beauty can not by itself make bad people into good people, but it is one of the positive influences on us. Design needs to reflect hope, not mere subsistence.
Art can give a measure of self worth, identity, and hope, even where little else exists.
Art sets us apart as special. Art is a part of our aware experience that only humans and the creator are privileged to have. To deny aesthetics for economic reasons or for practical considerations, does not make the world a better place. To affirm beauty and truth, even for the poorest of the poor points in the direction of value, of hope, and away from Diaspora. In the end, these things probably work best when every person participates in the design of their own places and products.