Abstract
Figure-ground plans show the footprints of buildings and the pattern of unbuilt voids in urban space. Compared historically they reveal the erosion of the public realm over time and provide an analytical basis for tissue repair. The paper traces the communicative power of figure-ground technique to its roots in gestalt psychology, and follows its revival from Colin Rowe’s studio at Cornell through to controversies in post-reunification Berlin. The impact of computerisation is discussed and the paper ends with illustrations drawn from current practice in the representation of urban past, present and future. This article was published open access under a CC BY license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Highlights
Figure-ground plans are one of the commonest types of image used in town planning, so common that it is easy to overlook their peculiar characteristics
This paper has sought to trace the diffusion of figure-ground since Colin Rowe and his students in the Cornell Urban Design Studio revived the forgotten art of mapping urban solids and voids and revealed its ‘rich perceptual potential’ (Hurtt, 1982, 56)
Their cartographic inspiration came from nineteenth- and eighteenth-century town maps engraved on steel and copper
Summary
Figure-ground plans show the footprints of buildings and the pattern of unbuilt voids in urban space. Compared historically they reveal the erosion of the public realm over time and provide an analytical basis for tissue repair. The paper traces the communicative power of figure-ground technique to its roots in gestalt psychology, and follows its revival from Colin Rowe’s studio at Cornell through to controversies in post-reunification Berlin. The impact of computerisation is discussed and the paper ends with illustrations drawn from current practice in the representation of urban past, present and future.
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