Pixelated Urbanism: A Mixed-Use Strategy for Urban Density and Neighborhood Development

Abstract

Pixelated Urbanism is a strategy for dense urban living through new forms of mixed-use buildings that connect users and programs on a small scale (pixels) to create compact, vertical environments. Pixelated Urbanism moves beyond the stratified programming preconceptions of the existing mixed-use building typology with a range of programs that share space up the building height. Flexible spaces like live-work units, and new overlapped living, socializing, and working relationships create a vibrant vertical neighborhood. This thesis applies pixelated urbanism strategies to a master plan for a 212,000 SF site in the West Seattle Neighborhood. The plan re-knits five underused lots around the intersection of SW Fauntleroy and SW Alaska back into the urban fabric, and leads the way towards the city's projections of a 30% increase in jobs and households in the area in the next fifteen years. The organizing principles of pixelated urbanism are further applied in the design of a single block of the master plan.