Anytime, anywhere, anything your heart desires is just a few clicks away. Online shopping has surged over the past decade, whilst the shopping area around the corner is dealing with vacancies and decay. Consequently, the appearance and livability of cities decline with the dilapidation of what should be the heart of people’s public life.

The problem of retail vacancy has been addressed by multiple actors in retail, real estate, and management branches, which all agree that leisure and experience play an important role in the revitalization of these shopping areas. Shopping is not just about the purchase of products anymore, it is about the full leisure experience it provides, from arrival to departure —and beyond.

This research approaches the subject from a designer point of view. The design of the environment plays a large role in the experience of a place. By observing people using, and interacting with, their environment in Dutch inner city shopping areas, it explores which spatial aspects influence the shopping/leisure experience. The resulting framework is used in the redesign of a shopping area into a space for leisure.