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Functional zoning & land use analysis

Zoning diagrams and functional zoning analysis

What each part of the area is used for, drawn three ways: land use by parcel, every building by its use, and a zoning plan that finds the street blocks and labels each one with its dominant and mixed uses. Ready for the analysis board and editable afterwards.

Land use by parcelBuilding usesZoning by street blockSVG · PDF · PNG
Zoning plan of Barcelona with graded zones, paths and labels, generated in MapToNap
What you can make

The drawings, and what each one shows

Land use map (free)

Residential, commercial, civic, industrial and green land use from OpenStreetMap, with the share of each in the legend.

Building uses (Pro)

Every building coloured by its use, with two magnified insets for the areas that matter.

Zoning plan by block (Max)

Street blocks found from the street network, numbered, each coloured by its dominant use; mixed uses hatched.

Zoning plan, graded (Max)

Graded zones with paths and labels, styled as a presentation zoning diagram.

Activity centres (Pro)

Where each kind of facility clusters, and the centres that form.

Bubble diagram for the design

From analysis to programme: the bubble diagram tool turns functions and adjacencies into a zoning sketch for your own project.

Examples

Straight out of MapToNap

Untouched exports from real sites. Free drawings carry a watermark; Pro and Max drawings are marked.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence. The images are MapToNap output.

Guide

How to make a functional zoning analysis

  1. Map land use first. Start with the area-wide picture: which zones are residential, commercial, civic, industrial or green, and in what proportion.
  2. Go down to buildings. Land use polygons are coarse; building uses show the mix inside a zone, such as shops on the ground floor of a residential block.
  3. Summarise by block. A zoning plan gives each street block one dominant use and marks mixed blocks, which is the level at which planning decisions are usually discussed.
  4. Find the centres. Clusters of facilities show where the area is alive and where it is not, and which streets connect the centres.
  5. Conclude for the site. Which uses are missing, which ones the project should support, and how the site connects to the nearest centre.
Frequently asked questions

Before you start

What is a zoning diagram in architecture?

A zoning diagram divides an area or a building into zones by function, such as residential, commercial, public or green, to explain how it is organised. In site analysis it shows the functional structure around the site; in design it organises the programme.

Is this the legal zoning of the site?

No. The drawings show actual land and building uses mapped in OpenStreetMap, not the legal zoning or the master plan of the municipality. Check the local planning documents for what may be built.

What if a building has no use tagged?

It is drawn as unspecified and counted separately in the legend, so the drawing never invents a use. In well-mapped cities most buildings are tagged.

Is it free?

You can try MapToNap free: four 2D drawings (roads, land use, green and water, urban fabric) and one 3D drawing, with a watermark and no sign-up. Without the watermark and with all 68 analyses there are one-time passes: Pro €7.99 or Max €12.99 for 30 days, or a year of Max for €49. Nothing renews automatically.

Do I need to install anything? Does it work on a phone?

No installation and no setup. MapToNap runs in the browser on any computer, tablet or phone, iPhone or Android: open maptonap.com/app, type an address and press Generate. 3D drawings and simulations run smoothest on a computer.

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