295frame, because it is figure and frame simultaneously, (...) the
material of the house, which neither contains nor is contained.’
- As a rule, urban development forms the homogeneous
ground of the city, in particular the texture of residential and
workplaces, from which the > gestalts of individual buildings
or spaces, e.g. > monuments or prominent public squares, are
set off as figures. In the space-body continuum, this figure/
ground relationship is reversed. We find neither a continuous
background, nor a clear dominance by the figure of either
body/mass or space. Observable instead is that which Aldo
van Eyck has referred to as reciprocity: the one is reached
with the help of the other. In representations of the spatial
structure of urban planning, reciprocity is expressed through
a figure/ground layout in the style of Giambattista Nolli’s
plan of Rome. Depicted (in white) within the structural mass
(black) are public interiors, as well as squares and streets. In
a church interior, for instance, one remains at the same time
within the object (black) and in space (white), while the de-
sign of the interior walls frequently resembles the articulation
of the facade. Often, squares and interiors are endowed with
higher design Prägnanz than structural features themselves. In
a ‘through-layered’ (Hofer, 1979) urbanistic structure, object-
figure (black) and spatial-figure (white) are superimposed. In
them, the square and street realms are not set off from build-
ings by a sharp contours; instead, the ambivalent assignment
of black and white in the figure/ground layout corresponds
to the fundamental possibility of adopting a position within
the architectural body, and simultaneously in an interior or
exterior space (> transparency).
The principle extends from the urban planning dimen-
sion all the way to the scale of interior architecture, consisting
of wall niches and recesses, window reveals and door jambs.
Constructive parts and spatial units that can be designated in
multiple ways allow the corresponding experience to be espe-
cially vivid. As a consequence, rigid divisions – according to
which outdoor spaces are found outside of architectural struc-