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Guest Article
their origins in the Industrial Revolution. The growing urban population favored demand. The emergence of new technologies and private businesses provided the offer. London had its Vauxhalls, Paris had its Tivoli long before Copenhagen. The World’s Fairs and their major attractions are a fine illustration of the climax of this period, which continued with the development of movie theater venues and other amusement parks until the turmoil of the two world wars. Subsequently, the modern era of economic and societal development has also brought its share of new places of recreation. The result today is a very diversified offer, which can be deeply attached to the culture of a country or which can respond to a logic of globalized development (Bowling) and technological innovation (VR). Or both!
Toward a new kind of destination?
Outside of cities, amusement parks, themed resorts and major leisure destinations are the model of a location dedicated to entertainment and designed for this sole purpose. They are increasingly moving towards a complete “resort” model by equipping themselves with an atypical hotel offer, a “second gate” leisure offer and venues for corporate events. In these new destinations, the day trip is then replaced by a two or three- day getaway as a major European capital could do. These new models sometimes generate an environmental ecosystem and educational places for the skills they need.
Forty years ago, the Puy du Fou was a summer show. Today it is a destination for the whole year with a real theme park based on shows or walk-through attractions, hotels and convention centers. But also an education center and recently a movie studio. Would the amusement park become a now kind of “city”? What if, using a funfair style inverted mirror, the city becomes an “amusement park”? An alternative for a few hours of local entertainment? Urban-based attractions can be booked in advance, alone or in a small group, and can be combined with other more traditional urban leisure experiences that shopping, museum, cinema or restaurant can be. These experiences can be aimed at all “users” of the city, from the inhabitant who is looking for an alternative activity to the tourist who finds one on his journey of discovery.
In Manchester, the city center hosts escape games and LBVRs. But also many “high end” leisure activities such as Electric Gamebox (phygital
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games), Roxy Ball Room (competitive socializing IEC) or Junkyard Golf Club (crazy mini-golf adult oriented). The new Media City district recently welcomed the Jungle Challenge experience which is IP-based on the TV show “I’m a Celebrity, get me out of here”. On the outskirts, the Trafford shopping district already hosts Chill Factor, iFly, some inflatable, trampoline, climbing or Ninja Warrior venues and some Merlin’s Midway Attractions (Sea Life, Legoland Discovery Center,…). In the same district, an aquatic resort (Therme Manchester) and an outdoor surf park (Modern Surf) are being planned. If you put all of these places on a map, it’s not far from a map of an amusement park ! Far from being opposed, the two models “amusement park-city” and “city-amusement park” are complementary depending on the experience we are looking for, from the brief day out to an entire weekend. Places “outside the cities” are becoming real destinations, while cities are welcoming urban-based attractions of all kinds on their territory. There are a few major tourist attractions, capable of attracting audiences from a long travel distance, but above all an informal network of multiple local attractions designed to attract local audiences. The immediate advantage of setting up in an urban area for a leisure center will be immediate access to a large and varied public (individuals, businesses, schools, etc.). But at the opposite, il will generate a strong competition between closer and more numerous leisure places. But also, from a real estate and land management perspective, a competition between leisure and other economically more profitable urban functions such as housing, offices or retail.
A leisure-oriented urban design? Today, a turnaround seems to have started in the relationship between leisure and real-estate. A few years ago, leisure was able to settle where it could. Now leisure offers are requested in that they can renew a territory through image as much as through use. Along with F&B, leisure has now fully integrated the strategy of large shopping centers to remain attractive despite online shopping. In England, this transformation of major retail locations sometimes gives rise to spectacular changes, when entire department stores are giving way to leisure venues on several floors integrating e-karting, climbing, bowling, eSport, etc. (Gravity Wandsworth located where a Debenhams once stood). Since the 1960s and the rise of post-war recreation, several creative experiments have attempted to bring urban design closer to amusement
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