Mixed-Use is not a Building Type | More Precise Vocabulary for Architects, Urban Designers, and Educators.

For a few years, I've been pondering a question:

"Mixed-Use" is not a type. But what is the better name?"

One of the most successful counter-proposals to suburban sprawl is a form-based approach in design and codes to encourage compact, pedestrian friendly, and lively neighborhoods.

For something to be truly urban, it must serve more than one function in the city. In a great place, everything is mixed-use.

To reinforce this, a common vocabulary of form-based building types has evolved - townhouse/row house, cottage, courtyard house, loft, urban villa, etc. These terms are successful because they instantly generate a formal image in the mind.

Yet, I often hear references to specific buildings in a master plan as simply "mixed-use" (and sometimes slip myself).

The problem is, the term "mixed-use" conjures no formal image. Upon hearing that, one person could picture a classic Main Street Shopfront Building, another a Podium Building, another a Texas donut.

When researching better vocabulary to use in both my practice and my studio classroom, I haven't found a term in the English language that really is better as a general term. Or even specific forms - i.e. What's the English equivalent of the French hôtel particulier or the Roman insula?

I've looked in several sources - the Lexicon, academic articles, O'Looney's fantastic book Increments of Neighborhood, architectural historians' works, etc.

There are valiant attempts, but several still categorize types as "mixed-use" and refer to use in the name: Live-Work Unit/Flex House, Apartment Over Retail, Office Building.

Architectural Historians are reliable for using purely form-based terms, but proposing a "three-part vertical block" at a public charrette isn't going to fly.

I posed this question in The Urban Guild group and Edward Erfurt wisely argued two key points:

1. Planners probably shouldn't be in the naming business.

2. The very promotion of "mixed-use" is awkward because it describes an imbalance that zoning created in the first place.

In practice, I've begun referring strictly to specific local precedent to generate a specific shared image. In the classroom, I've encouraged a similar approach, but also need to arm students with the precise vocabulary before they develop the "mixed-use" bad habit.

My question to you all is: What are some of the terms that you use that work?