Vinayak Bharne proposes that density is often achieved using blunt enforcement of crude tools like "floor-space index", when density can be much more subtly accomplished than just shooting up a tower.
Bharne advocates that FSI be replaced be a more refined massing strategy, which he calls "blending density":
"It replaces the homogeneity of FSI-based development with a calculated massing diversity that responds to and evolves from the desired character of its physical context. For instance, the FSI target of a single tower floating within a lot can also be achieved through a combination of a tower and mid-rises within the same lot appropriately massed to respond to their surrounding streets. Likewise, an FSI of a single mid-rise can be recalibrated as a combination of mid-rise and low-rise buildings making the development compatible with adjacent single-family houses. Thus, a final FSI target need not be the result of a single literal extrusion, but the average of various FSI components within a site, each carefully conceived in response to context."
Read the full story: ENABLING RESPONSIBLE URBAN FORM
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Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
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City of Thousand Oaks
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello