© Ossip van Duivenbode, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
© Ossip van Duivenbode, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
© Iwan Baan, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
© Iwan Baan, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
© Image courtesy BLOX, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
© Julien Lanoo
© Frans Parthesius
Monostructures and the separation of functions have been determining factors of city development in Europe since the Athens Charter. Increasingly, however, countermodels are emerging with mixed urban expressions in which the coexistence and mingling of housing, work, trade and leisure are ­gaining ground. Diversity and small-scale, heterogeneous structures are commonly present at a district level; but innovative combinations of functions are evident even in individual buildings, especially in view of present-day housing shortages, changing working conditions, limited areal resources and overburdened infrastructures.

Hybrid developments can result in complex problems, of course. Who will initiate, plan and use them? What functions will be appropriate, and how should they be laid out? Concepts range from smaller buildings by private clients or communal projects in public-private partnership to large complexes by major developers. The following examples show that alongside classical expressions of mixed urban uses with commercial, service and housing facilities, unconventional ideas are increasingly gaining ground.