In numeral urban areas, it is a tendency that different types of buildings are planned to be separate from each other. Overall, I believe that the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.
It is true there are various advantages of this urban planning strategy. Firstly, buildings with different purposes do not interfere with each other. For example, commercial buildings and residential buildings are often far from each other these days. One of the reasons is that people living in the residential areas can enjoy a quiet and peaceful environment instead of the hustle and bustle. People also do not need to worry about the high crime rate in the commercial areas. Secondly, clustering buildings of the same functions also makes it easier to share infrastructure. For instance, office buildings often require certain facilities such as bus stops and fire stations. If these buildings are close to each other, these amenities can be reused, and thus the cost can be reduced.
Despite the benefits, there are a host of disadvantages of this urban planning methodology. It is inconvenient when people need to travel between buildings to do different activities. Take the U.S. as an example; office buildings are predominantly located in the city center while homes are mostly situated in the suburbs. Because of this, it is not uncommon that people can take hours to commute. Additionally, it is undeniable that many shops are not within the walking distance in the U.S.. People have to drive to just buy necessities such as groceries, which is time-consuming and cost-inefficient.
In conclusion, although people can make some arguments in favor of segregating buildings of different functionality, there are significant more benefits to mix them in terms of efficiency.