"Respect for the unplanned"

It reminds me of a concept that I used to teach my students in my freehand drawing and architectural studios at Texas Tech: Positive and Negative space. Here, the positive and negative does not take on biased attitude - they are simply a pair of complements, in order to define each other through their drastic contrast. Some examples of complementary pair in this manner that I can think of are:

1. In still-life drawing, the bright side versus dark side of an object: the side that the light casts on versus the side that is in shadow;

Light vs. dark on still-life
(author's diagram)

2. In typography: black text (positive) on white paper (negative);

black text on white paper
(author's diagram)

3. In figure-field of urban study: solid black for buildings and blank of all the spaces that's outside of building in an urban area;

buildings along the streets (author's diagram)

4. In architecture design: main function spaces as voids (negative) while the servant spaces as solid (positive);

main function rooms and service rooms of a building
(author's diagram)

5. In Chinese Yin-yang philosophy, the Taichi Symbol consists of two interlocked parts: the solid black for Yin and white for Yang;

Chinese yin-yang symbol
(author's diagram)

6. Of course, man and woman, day and night, etc.

It is simply a matter of complementing each other, and there is no right or wrong, good or bad.

This short line reminds me that as my main job duty is to plan, it is also important for me to respect and appreciate the unplanned. The unplanned defines and complements the planned. Thus, the unplanned could be equally valuable as the planned. Just like the "accidental playground" in Brooklyn, which is a vacant waterfront surrounded by heavily developed districts in New York City, became a heaven for kids (Campo, 2013).

The unplanned is not the underplanned.  The underplanned is a space that is not wisely used (in today's language, I assume you would say "unsustainable") and is adversary to human needs. The underplanned is what we do not wish to see or let happen. However, the unplanned, as oppose to the planned, inspires me to see them from a negative versus positive space point of view - let the unplanned boarder the planned, and let the underplanned nowhere to be found.

The nature, the woods, for instance, is an example of the unplanned. We have plenty of opportunities to deal with the nature in Hot Springs Village, or in Arkansas in general. So from this point on, I need to pay attention to how our planning projects are physically defined by the unplanned. As I continue to plan, I need to give credit to the unplanned.

negative vs. positive space
(author's diagram)

Campo, D. (2013). The Accidental Playground: Brooklyn Waterfront Narrative of the Undesigned and Unplanned. Fordham University Press