Figure Ground

The figure ground, a traditional planimetric analysis of solid and void, stretches back through the history of mapping as a specific tool to illustrate the city. Giambattista Nolli's Pianta Grande di Roma, produced in 1748, is a pivotal example of the implementation of this technique often discussed by architects, urbanists and theorists. ¹ Without going into a lengthy analysis of this particular map, what is significant about it is its precision and its systematic recording of the city of Rome. Nolli was commissioned by the Pope to take stock of the holdings of the church within the city. This led Nolli to draw out the first floor plan of every church, while indicating every other building as a black mass, and every street or open space as a void. The city is transformed in this reading, showing a dense network of streets that open seamlessly into piazzas. This technique illustrates connected buildings as whole masses relative to the connected network of white space made of up streets and open areas. It can simplify the complexities of the city to a relatively small number of relationships, so the technique of the figure ground is pervasive in mapping cities. ²