Mixing Uses
In designing new places, what role is the centre to have when all the potential ‘mixed use elements’ are sucked to the edge?
Uses are still being zoned and roads designed as strategic routes at the expense of the creation of more local relationships based on walking and cycling.
A more vibrant and sustainable form results from blurring the distinction between uses and designing places that make walking to the local centre, and bus stop or railway station, as convenient and comfortable as possible
Successful communities require a mix of commercial, educational, health, spiritual, civic and residential uses.
The benefits of mixed developments include:
- Convenient access to facilities
- Reduced travel to work congestion
- Greater opportunity for social interaction
- Greater feeling of safety
- Urban vitality and street life
- Increased viability for small businesses
To deliver successful mixed use centres you should:
- Build integrated neighbourhoods
- Enhance/ develop character areas
- Evaluate compatibility of proposed uses to maximise synergy and minimise conflict
- Mix housing types and tenures
- Centres – locate mixed use centres on public transport nodes, include residential units for evening activity and emphasise civic buildings by making them visible
- Accommodate ‘big boxes’ at the edge of the retail core and improve their design through wrapping the perimeter, using the roof for parking and arranging in a perimeter block structure
- Promote a dynamic mix of uses within transition zones