Vacant to vibrant: Rethinking the future of retail space

In this Insight Paper, Vacant to Vibrant: Rethinking the Future of Retail Space, Loretta Collins explores how underused retail buildings can be reimagined as lively, community-focused destinations. Drawing on lessons from Japan and a deep understanding of human behaviour, the insight paper examines how adaptive reuse, community engagement and thoughtful design can transform former department stores into places for social connection, leisure and everyday life. Rather than viewing vacancy as failure, the paper positions it as an opportunity to create meaningful, inclusive environments that respond to how people move, gather and belong in the city.

Introduction

Many cities face a challenge: vacant retail buildings that were once bustling hubs now sit empty. These spaces, however, represent opportunity. By rethinking their purpose, they can be transformed into vibrant community destinations that combine public realm, leisure facilities, dining, and play. Building on reflections on why people choose to inhabit certain spaces in Japan (Why Do People Inhabit Spaces? Lessons from Japan), this article explores how a former department store, through adaptive reuse, community engagement, and thoughtful design, could become an exciting urban destination.

Successful places are those that invite engagement. Careful attention to comfort, interactivity, elevated viewpoints, and sensory richness encourages people not just to visit, but to spend time, explore, and connect. By layering these elements into a formerly transactional environment, empty buildings can be transformed into hubs of social connection and community pride.

From Department Store to destination

Transforming a former department store into a vibrant urban destination requires more than demolition and reconstruction; it demands imagination, layering, and response to the existing structure. Adaptive reuse allows elements of the building to be retained and repurposed, providing a framework for new experiences while reducing waste and maintaining a connection to the site’s history.

Underused retail floors become platforms for social engagement, leisure, and discovery. Public squares can replace former sales floors, framed by terraces, dining outlets, and informal gathering areas. Play zones, water features, and landscaping provide opportunities for families and young people, while leisure facilities and flexible spaces invite interaction and experimentation. By integrating park, leisure, dining, and play within the existing structure, a monolithic retail block is reconfigured as a dynamic, multi-dimensional destination.

The result is a place where architecture responds to human behaviour: moving from enclosed, transactional environments to open landscapes that welcome a diverse range of activities and users. By considering not just what the space houses, but how people move, gather, and connect within it, a former department store can become more than a building, it can become the heart of community life.

Community as a catalyst

Reimagining a former retail building as a community destination requires an understanding of how people already use the city, and how they want to use it in the future. Community engagement plays a critical role, ensuring the project responds to local needs rather than replicating generic models of redevelopment.

Presentations, workshops, and consultation sessions provide insight into everyday patterns of movement, gathering, and behaviour. This feedback informs access, spatial programming, and the creation of areas that feel safe and welcoming for a wide range of users. The process supports the development of flexible and inclusive spaces that can adapt to different activities and audiences over time.

Engagement also fosters a sense of shared ownership and belonging. When local perspectives inform the design, the resulting spaces are more likely to be valued, used, and maintained. The project shifts from a top-down retail intervention to a collaborative placemaking exercise, where architecture acts as a framework for social life rather than a finished object.

Designing for belonging

A successful destination provides choice and variety, allowing people to move, pause, and interact according to their own needs. Landscaped corners, intimate seating, open terraces, and flexible leisure areas invite visitors to gather, observe, or simply enjoy the environment. Play areas, water features, and multi-generational facilities make the space accessible and appealing to families, young people, and everyday users alike.

Sensory design reinforces this experience. Changes in texture, the sound of water, natural light, and planting all contribute to a sense of activity and interest. People are more likely to stay in environments that feel safe, stimulating, and responsive to their movements and interactions. By integrating these qualities into the design, the space encourages social connection while allowing people to use it in their own way.

The result is a place that is flexible, inclusive, and vibrant, where architecture and landscape work together to encourage discovery and interaction. By combining thoughtful design with adaptable programming, a formerly empty retail building can become a destination people feel ownership of, and one that they keep coming back to.

Embedding a design narrative

A successful urban destination reflects the character and identity of its community. Careful research into local culture can inform design decisions, embedding narrative elements into both architecture and landscape. Facade treatments, cladding patterns, and street art can draw inspiration from regional motifs, colours, and textures, creating subtle references that give the space a distinctive story.

Materials, forms, and detailing can also echo the surrounding environment through colour palettes, textures, and shapes that resonate with local traditions and landscapes. These cultural cues provide a sense of familiarity and connection, enriching the experience of the space and reinforcing its role as a community destination.

When local identity is thoughtfully layered into design, it fosters pride, ownership, and emotional engagement. Visitors and communities do not simply use the space; they recognise it as part of their place. Cultural storytelling ensures the destination resonates on multiple levels, making it both universally welcoming and uniquely rooted in context.

Beyond vacant spaces

The transformation of underused retail buildings illustrates a fresh approach to design. Vacant spaces can be more than empty structures; they can become vibrant destinations that support social interaction, leisure, dining, and play. By combining adaptive reuse with community insight and thoughtful design, these spaces can move beyond conventional retail layouts to become flexible, engaging, and valued parts of the city.

Looking ahead, architects and developers have an opportunity to prioritise experience, connectivity, and adaptability over functionality alone. Layered programming, integration of cultural narratives, and attention to comfort and exploration create environments that encourage everyday use and sustained engagement.

By designing spaces that respond to how people move, gather, and interact, formerly empty retail buildings can be repurposed as destinations that strengthen local identity, support daily life, and provide value to the wider community. Thoughtful design transforms these spaces into places that are functional, welcoming, and distinctly connected to the people who use them.

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In conclusion, with imagination, community insight, and human-centred design, empty retail buildings can be transformed into meaningful places of belonging, shifting vacancy from a symbol of decline into an opportunity to strengthen social life, local identity, and the everyday experience of the city.