This paper examines how comfort is experienced at Dutch post-war shopping centers by studying the behavior of users. Since the development of the first shopping center in the Netherlands, the Lijnbaan in Rotterdam, retail spaces served as public spaces for the neighborhood where community life could emerge. Throughout the years, new typologies for retail spaces were introduced, to respond to the evolving public life of society. To be able to continue fulfilling the needs that the modern consumer seeks in a public space, it is important to understand how shopping centers are currently valued by its users. Comfort is a basic need that influences the value of a space and helps stimulate other needs
such as passive engagement, active engagement, relaxation and discovery. By methods of observational analysis, results are collected on the different ways in which people experience comfort while walking, standing and sitting at shopping centers. These show a strong relationship with the objects, functions, building design elements and natural design elements with the space.