The activities we enjoy in our leisure and free time are almost endless. However, when it comes to shared experiences and activities, whether with family or friends, the options begin to narrow. Moreover, some of these experiences and/or activities appeal to broad sections of the public. Going out for lunch or dinner in a restaurant, having fun in an amusement park, cooling off in a water park or swimming pool, going to a cinema to watch a big screen movie, enjoying spa treatments and whirlpool baths, enjoying the fun of children in playgrounds, going on a boat trip, going to concerts, seeking adventure. To opt for these leisure and free time activities, and many others, it is often necessary to travel long distances, plan them on different days and even in different holiday seasons.
Imagining a single place for all leisure options
Whilst there are large shopping centres in areas close to some cities that offer multiple leisure and recreation options, shopping is the main activity there. But what if there was a place where leisure was the main activity, where all the options for enjoying leisure and free time with family and/or friends were concentrated? For now, nothing like it exists, and that is why the Amusement Logic’s Design Department has set out to imagine it. We are talking about the design of a mega leisure complex for leisure and free time: the Leisure City. After all, the leisure time available in today’s social life is growing at the same rate as labour productivity (which, by the way, has practically not stopped growing since the Industrial Revolution).
An urban plan for leisure-related uses only
So far we have seen residential urban plans of all sizes being developed in many cities around the world. They include streets, blocks, landscaped areas and other spaces dedicated to various services. The Leisure City coincides with these urban plans in the need for streets, landscaped areas and services, with the difference that the urban plan is entirely for leisure-related uses and not, or not necessarily, for residential use. It is a large area which, in summary, includes a water park, theme and amusement park, family entertainment centre, adventure circuit, multiplex cinema, sports area (as inclusive and comprehensive as possible), boating lakes, concert stages, auditoriums for events and exhibition spaces, restaurants, green areas for picnics and, of course, hotels for visitors from afar, national or international, and the tourists it attracts.
Leisure time, time with meaning
The Leisure City is, all in all and in a general sense, a large development in which the connecting element between all the facilities and buildings is leisure and entertainment. All visitors, from the youngest to the oldest, have their place in the Leisure City. Everyone will find an activity, an occupation, an experience, a moment that makes them feel fulfilled, relaxed, amused, entertained, fulfilled, uplifted… Fundamental facets of the person such as health and wellbeing, exercise and sport, culture and art, positive emotions, recreation and entertainment all come together in the same place. In this way, the Leisure City aims to make citizens’ leisure time meaningful. This is how we imagine Leisure City.
