in 1748 Giambattista Nolli published a grand survey of Rome, which he began in 1736. This is universally known as the Nolli plan.  In addition to the remarkable accuracy of the etching, features of the plan included its orientation to the North and in particular its representation of public and private space.

It uses the figure-ground representation which represents buildings and city blocks shown in dark hatch and open spaces left white.  What differs to previous maps is that Nolli represented enclosed public spaces such as the colonnades in St. Peter’s Square and the Pantheon as open civic spaces.  This allows the public-private demarcation to be more subtle and a deeper reading of the city.  At the time it would have been quite revolutionary to see the city more as it would be experienced by the inhabitant, and even now as a representation it quite astonishing in its detail.

It is a stunningly beautiful map and the University of Stanford has a wonderful interactive version, linked here.  It was so accurate and such an undertaking that he government of the City of Rome used it as a base for planning until the 1970’s (according to Wikipedia), almost 250 years after it was published.

We use Nolli and figure-ground representations of the areas around our projects.  With suburban projects they can clearly show the densification of the suburbs as larger suburban lots are sub-divided.  The reduction of significant landscape and removal of water paths as maximal plot coverage is pursued becomes clear.  In suburban situations rather than urban, the representation shows landscape vs built form. An interesting evolution would be due to see shared landscape (deep planting and large trees) seen differently from private landscape (fenced lawn).

As well as a useful tool they are lovely to look at as a snapshot of our suburban condition in Brisbane

Images of the Nolli Map taken from University of Stanford Interactive Nolli Map Website 2.0