06 Unplanned | Ashley
06 | Unplanned | Ashley, Acrylic on Chipboard, 44 x 55”h, (c) Heidi Jeub
An astroturf rug got pulled out from under our well-planted feet. The desire for a better world through planned spaces was met with a mirror to reflect on the effects of good intentions. Built environments to include some but not all, the invisible fences of design theories often take generations to undo. For the sake of equity we end up beautifying space, only to make it unaffordable for those who have little choice in the matter.
We do what’s best, or so we thought. We are educated to think of the best ideas. But when the mess is presented to us in unrest and protest, we can no longer rewind to a better choice or idea. Or maybe just take a seat.
When the world decides to push back, even to the point of a paralyzing pandemic, we see the cracks in the concrete fill with weeds we thought we resolved. Patching the cracks are no longer the best option. It will only take work… lots and lots of laborious reflection of what we are doing to cause these earthquakes of human condition.
“I am reflecting… I hope we are all reflecting,” Ashley says, about the green wash, art wash, white wash; all these washes over the concrete solutions that are the cheapest option or easiest, providing the best return for those collecting the profits. We are picking up the pieces that were results of decisions forever ago, in hopes to make it pretty for just a little bit longer.
The roads to opportunity and equity do not seem to line up, and the more we try to patch it up, the more it seems to shatter over time. We cannot assume we come in with better ideas, or a more woke approach to the problem, because sometimes we are not looking at the problem for what it is… a symptom. There is another pandemic that didn’t come out of lab or from a far away land, but may have come from a drawing table.
At what point do the planners, architects, administrators say that this cannot be fixed with a patch job? It’s not “just that easy,” as the infomercial may declare. They’ve been trying to say that the fix is easy for so very long. And now we have the opportunity to acknowledge that truth. We cannot lie to ourselves that what we have been designed to design a better world without input of humanity. It will never look like the drawing, schematics, or renderings.
Space is important, not just the building. Because it’s the people that it holds to live, work, learn, protest, worship, and consume. These tasks are all changing before our eyes, so the space is the only thing of value right now. The space is where the green will grow, if the people tend to it.
