A large proportion of European inhabitants live in dispersed urban settlements, much of which is labelled as sprawl, defined by monofunctional, low-density areas. However, there is increasing evidence that this may be an overly simplistic way of describing territories-in-between (TiB). This paper defines and maps functional mix in six dispersed urban areas across Europe, applying a method that goes beyond existing land-use-based mixed-use indicators but considers functional mixing on the parcel level. The paper uses data on the location of economic activities and the residential population. It concludes that, in eight cases from four European countries, mixed-use is widespread and that more than 65% of inhabited areas are mixed. Moreover, the paper relates functional mixing to specific settlement characteristics: permeability, grain size, centrality and accessibility, and connectivity. This demonstrates that functional mixing is not the result of local urban morphology or planning instruments, but of the multi-scalar qualities of a location. Therefore, there is a requirement to coordinate planning and design through different scales if mixed-use areas are to be seen as one strategy for achieving greater sustainability in the spatial development of dispersed areas.

欧洲居民中有很大一部分生活在分散的城市居住区，其中许多被标记为蔓延，由单一功能的低密度区域定义。但是，越来越多的证据表明，这可能是描述中间区域（TiB）的一种过于简单的方式。本文定义并绘制了欧洲六个分散城市地区的功能组合，并采用了一种方法，该方法超越了现有的基于土地使用的混合用途指标，而是在地块级别上考虑了功能组合。本文使用有关经济活动地点和居民人口的数据。结论是，在来自四个欧洲国家的八个案例中，混合使用是广泛的，超过65％的居住区是混合的。此外，本文将功能混合与特定的沉降特性相关：渗透率，晶粒尺寸，中心性，可访问性和连通性。这表明功能混合不是本地城市形态或规划工具的结果，而是某个地点的多标量质量的结果。因此，如果将混合用途区域视为在分散区域空间发展中实现更大可持续性的一种策略，则需要通过不同规模协调规划和设计。