A global placement phase of physical design of an integrated circuit includes iteratively spreading a plurality of modules comprising the integrated circuit within a die area based on density of the plurality of modules and optimizing module placement by preserving global module density while improving a local objective, such as local wirelength and/or local density, in individual subareas among a plurality of subareas of the die area. After global placement, detailed placement of modules in the plurality of subareas is performed.