What we do not build is as important as what we do. Examining negative space in urban design.
In the figure-ground drawings that architects use to analyze cities, it is the black that tends to receive all the attention. But the white — the void, the space between and within buildings — is where the life of the city actually unfolds.
The quality of urban life is determined not by buildings but by the spaces that buildings define. The urban designer’s first question should be "what kind of space do we want to create?" not "what should we build here?"
The great public spaces of the European city are not primarily defined by the buildings that surround them but by the spatial qualities of the voids they enclose.
The alternative is to begin the design process with the void — to design the spaces first and let the buildings be defined by the spaces they enclose.
