Multifunctional land use in the city

The need for urban and spatial sustainability and for an efftcient urban land use has generated much interest in new forms of urban architecture. In The Netherlands, at present an intensive discussion is taking place on so-called multifunctional land use. This concept aims to concentrate and combine several socio-economic functions in the same area, so as to save scarce space and to exploit economies of synergy. In particular in densely populated countries like The Netherlands, we witness nowadays a shift in attention towards the development of integrated models and processes of multifunctional land use within given geographical boundaries. The present paper describes the concept of multifunctional land use in more detail, and outlines critically the underlying relevant backgrounds and related principles. Directions for new research ideas will also come to the fore, some of which will be dealt with in subsequent contributions to this special issue.