What’s on the The Figure Ground Plan poster
A definition and 6 facts worth remembering.
A figure ground plan fills every building solid black and leaves all open space white, so the pattern of mass and space can be read without any other information.
- Giambattista Nolli mapped Rome this way in 1748.
- Nolli left public interiors white, as part of the space.
- Traditional cities read as solid with carved voids.
- Modernist plans read as objects in open space.
- Neither is automatically better; they behave differently.
- Draw it at 1:2000 or 1:5000 for a district.
- Nolli map of Rome — 1748
- Draw at — 1:2000 to 1:5000
- Compare Rome with Le Corbusier's Plan Voisin for Paris: solid with carved voids again…
The figure ground hides use, height and quality. It answers one question well and says nothing about the rest.
Questions about the The Figure Ground Plan poster
- What’s on the The Figure Ground Plan poster?
- A definition and 6 facts worth remembering. A figure ground plan fills every building solid black and leaves all open space white, so the pattern of mass and space can be read without any other information. Giambattista Nolli mapped Rome this way in 1748.; Nolli left public interiors white, as part of the space.; Traditional cities read as solid with carved voids.; Modernist plans read as objects in open space.; Neither is automatically better; they behave differently.; Draw it at 1:2000 or 1:5000 for a district.; Nolli map of Rome — 1748; Draw at — 1:2000 to 1:5000; Compare Rome with Le Corbusier's Plan Voisin for Paris: solid with carved voids again…. The figure ground hides use, height and quality. It answers one question well and says nothing about the rest.
- Who is the The Figure Ground Plan poster for?
- The Figure Ground Plan belongs to the Architecture section rather than to a school year, because design is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning urban design can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the The Figure Ground Plan poster?
- Draw one of your site first. It shows whether your building joins a fabric or sits alone. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so The Figure Ground Plan belongs on the wall where that design work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with The Figure Ground Plan?
- Active Frontage, Garden City and Housing Typologies sit alongside The Figure Ground Plan in the Architecture section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Active FrontageGarden CityHousing Typologies
- Is the The Figure Ground Plan poster free to download and print?
- Yes. The Figure Ground Plan downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Architecture section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the The Figure Ground Plan poster print at?
- The Figure Ground Plan is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of The Figure Ground Plan loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside The Figure Ground Plan on the same wall.
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