In Praise of Figure Grounds

Figure Ground drawings are a valuable tool for understanding cities and any built environment. They reveal the interrelationship between buildings and the spaces around them. Figure ground plans can be read in a number of ways. The black shapes can be read as the continuous urban form of a traditional city, while the white shapes can be read as the figurative spaces carved out of the urban fabric. Strong urban fabric can be recognized in the different patterns of streets and blocks, and the shapes of the open spaces. Sprawl can be recognized in the fragmentation of isolated buildings, as objects floating in undifferentiated space.

I have been drawing figure ground plans for decades, typically at a preferred scale of 1 : 5000, which is large enough to cover a city centre or neighbourhood and small enough to still be able to identify individual buildings. Here is a selection.

A selection of these figure ground drawings is on display in the lobby of our former office at 1328 Mission St San Francisco.

When teaching the UC Berkeley Master of Urban Design students I have started the studio by asking the students to draw a figure ground plan of their home town in a 1 mile square size as a way for the students to  introduce themselves to their classmates. Typically the students are from all over the world and it is interesting to see where they lived and the different patterns of urbanism. Urban; suburban; traditional cities; planned versus unplanned cities; gated compounds; zeilenbau style Chinese slab blocks; or sprawl. This exercise helps introduce a dialogue about urban form, building typologies and cultural differences and the forces that have made these environments.