The Real Ground

This chapter explores the role of figure-ground representation, in-between spaces, and complexity in shaping urban movement. It begins with Giambattista Nolli&s;s Pianta Grande di Roma , the 18th-century mapping of Rome redefined public and private space by revealing hidden thresholds and circulation routes. Nolli&s;s integration of sacred interiors with public streets emphasized the importance of the void spaces for centuries to follow. The chapter also revisits Leonardo da Vinci&s;s maps, in which da Vinci employed walking-based survey methods to derive precise cartographic forms, contrasting with other oblique views of the time. The representation of figure and ground, building and street, is traced through more recent modern representations of urban space and juxtaposed with unconventional urban morphologies. This includes less binary representations of figure-ground, such as Ganvié&s;s water-based routes, Matera&s;s subterranean voids, and Hong Kong&s;s intricate vertical networks, which challenge our definition of the ground. These examples set the foundation for challenging what circulation, the proverbial ground for spaces of movement in architecture, could be. The Ewha Womans University in Seoul, where a monumental cut into the landscape becomes both a circulation path and a social seam, reinforces this reimagining. This layered void opens to the sky, reimagining the ground as a dynamic and connective surface. The chapter advocates for a more nuanced and dynamic approach to the reality of “the ground,” capturing the layered, temporal, and context-dependent nature of these environments. It argues that circulation is not merely a connector between destinations but a vital, lived space that reflects the reciprocal relationship between void and solid, or between path and place.