The Planner’s Pentangle: A Proposal for a Twenty-First-Century Model of Planning

The planner’s triangle—the model that visually defined planning as the balance of equity, economy, and environment to achieve sustainability—has influenced theory, practice, and pedagogy for a quarter of a century. We argue that the triangle requires updating. Even if sustainability remains the center of planning’s conceptual model, the vertices must be rethought. We propose a planner’s pentangle with five priorities as vertices: Wellness, Equity, Economy, Environment, and Esthetics (WE4). The pentangle concept represents planning’s history more comprehensively. It also more accurately represents the state of planning in the twenty-first century when health/wellness and cultural/esthetic concerns are increasingly important.