Some spaces, despite being shabby and cramped, attract daily visitors, while others, despite being lavishly built with significant investment, remain empty with no foot traffic. What makes the difference? We often think that copying 'trendy concepts' or installing fancy structures and flashy devices will naturally draw crowds. But reality is quite the opposite. Most spaces created this way only generate brief initial buzz before fading from people's memory and being abandoned without finding their purpose.
In fact, people aren't looking for pretty spaces—they're looking for spaces with reasons to stay. It's not structure but 'experience,' not interior design but 'participation,' not one-time events but 'narratives that make you want to return' that determine a space's value. Spaces that look spectacular on the outside but create no stories, roles, or relationships quickly reach the end of their lifespan. Conversely, old buildings, small alleys, and places that seem ordinary to others can become 'living spaces' that create special experiences for someone. Today, I want to talk about precisely this point—the secret of spaces that people keep visiting, in other words, what gives spaces the power to come 'alive.' Let's explore together that crucial difference that transcends glamour and scale, one that's not easily visible to the eye.
It should be space for content, not content for space.
When we think of movies, dramas, variety shows, or games, anyone can get lost in the story and forget time, no matter where they are. We find ourselves binge-watching from the subway on our way to work, discovering we've reached mid-season of a show we only meant to watch briefly, or staying up all night to the point where it affects our daily life. This ultimately happens because content draws people's time and stirs their emotions.
The problem is that many spaces think about this order backwards. They create the space first (establishing OOO clusters, tourism spaces, media art spaces, future experience centers, 4th Industrial Revolution centers, etc.) and think about content last. Since most of the budget goes to space creation, there's no money left for the content that actually brings in visitors. For spaces that people want to revisit, content must lead the space. Only spaces designed with stories, assigned roles, and structured so participants can become protagonists within them survive long-term.
We must pay attention to the fact that people don't experience what they see, but rather 'experience what they imagine.'
If we recall reading Harry Potter, even though we were looking at text, we vividly imagined that world as if we had actually visited Hogwarts. We imagined Sherlock Holmes's room and found ourselves looking over our shoulders while reading Stephen King novels. With just a few lines of text, people create their own scenes and feel emotions and tension as if they were real. On the other hand, no matter how spectacular media art or giant graphics we see, we often look away quickly. The more flashy the screen, the less room there is for imagination to intervene. People don't experience visual information itself, but rather experience the imagination they create anew in their minds based on that information. Therefore, rather than focusing on decorating spaces lavishly, it's more important to design the margins and context where various stories can be contained.
Third, we must create simultaneous spaces.
When we think back to childhood neighborhood alleys, they were ordinary scenery to adults but endless playgrounds to children. Different games like hide-and-seek, freeze tag, and marble games unfolded simultaneously, and each corner of the alley constantly created new expectations and excitement. A structure where different experiences overlapped within one space operated naturally.
However, many recent spaces operate with content and space combined one-to-one. Exhibition halls only show predetermined content, and experience spaces mostly provide only one scenario. Over time, content becomes outdated and spaces quickly become boring. This is why visiting once is enough for these spaces. Now, spaces need to move away from top-down, information-centered exhibitions and consider structures where each corner can contain different contexts and experiences. We need overlapping qualities where each user can have different experiences, tension from not knowing what awaits, and exploration elements that encourage return visits.
What would combining these three elements look like? Let me give you some examples!
Realworld Space: Transforming an Ordinary Knowledge Industry Center into a Playable Theme Park
Realworld space is a prime example of 'space for content.' Currently, Realworld has spaces in four locations—Seongsu, Konkuk University, Cheongju, and Gwangju. The Seongsu location transformed the first and second floors of an ordinary knowledge industry center into a small theme park with multiple narratives and roles overlapping within one space. This space of just about 80 pyeong (approximately 2,640 sq ft) attracts 150,000 visitors annually. Here, within a worldview based on a mystery hotel motif, visitors become different characters each time—hotel guests, detectives, accomplices, families of missing persons—and carry out missions. Through a mobile app, they follow the story's flow, with each room, corridor, staircase, and corner all functioning as sets and 'scenes.' As mentioned earlier, the most important consideration when creating space is that it must be structured to contain various stories. Rather than large, spacious areas, the key is having various small set spaces with different concepts.
Here, each room is decorated with intriguing themes. There are dreamlike rooms that can accommodate various stories, rooms like Alice's rabbit hole from Wonderland, mirror rooms, guest rooms, and even swimming pools. Each one is Instagram-worthy while also being able to contain stories of various moods. Like the anticipation we felt exploring childhood alleys, what lies beyond each room is unpredictable. Therefore, just entering each space generates interest and naturally creates the desire to take photos and videos.
And various content is combined with this space. Since it's space for content, various stories—love stories, thrillers, sci-fi, horror—can blend harmoniously with the space. Once created, content can be transplanted to various spaces in Seoul, Cheongju, Gwangju, and elsewhere without additional construction. Since creating new content doesn't require additional construction, the space gradually accumulates more things to enjoy over time, eventually growing into an urban theme park.
As a simultaneous space model, this place welcomes family visitors, teenagers, couples, and friend groups, each following different routes and choosing stories that suit them. Rather than one space being tied to only one function and theme, the same place feels like completely different experiences depending on the time and users. This is also an example of 'space where multiple contents operate simultaneously.' That's why Realworld space has become a hotspot that many people constantly visit. It's an excellent example of space for content, space for experiencing imagination, and simultaneous space.
Japan's SCRAP: Transforming an Ordinary Commercial Building into the World's Best Urban Theme Park
Tokyo Mystery Circus, operated by SCRAP (the company that invented the world's first escape room), is the place that most intuitively demonstrates the concept of 'simultaneous space.' Located in the heart of Shinjuku's Kabukicho, this space fills five floors where each floor hosts different types of games and events. Escape games, infiltration action, mystery letter games, mini puzzles, cafes, and merchandise shops—dozens of narratives run simultaneously within one building. Visitors can choose games based on their mood, difficulty level, and group size that day, moving throughout the building to experience multiple stories 'consecutively.' While the interior design and finish quality are relatively low, people's satisfaction levels are considerable. You might be surprised by the crowd density when visiting on weekends or holidays. When I visited at year-end, I wondered if games were even possible, but once I started playing, I found myself completely immersed. This space is known to attract over 400,000 visitors annually.
Malaysia's RexKL: Transforming a Closed Theater into a Book Entertainment Store Visited by People Worldwide
RexKL in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is famous as a content space that revived a closed theater (Rex Cinema). Originally a large theater that opened in 1947, it couldn't keep up with the times and ceased operations in 2002, later being used as a hostel and illegal lodging. Local creators joined forces to transform it into a lifestyle cultural space combining culture and arts, making it a notable destination not only in Malaysia but internationally. BookXcess, in particular, presents a unique attempt combining a bookstore with the theater. The former audience seating area was filled with tiered bookshelves and passages, interestingly designed like a maze. Visitors wander through the bookshelf maze while simultaneously experiencing the old theater's structure and traces with their bodies. Rather than renovating the broken tiles, they left them as they were, with different corners on each floor, hidden passages and small stages, and cafes and shops appearing intermittently, all intertwined to make it feel not like 'a place to buy books' but a place to enjoy exploration. Since the entire space functions like a large story board, this place also captures people's attention as 'a place to experience imagination' rather than just a simple store.
What's interesting are the books sold in the bookstore. While books are typically displayed and sold normally, here they're packaged so you can't tell what book it is, with only intriguing labels like 'Blind Date with a Book - Sweet' or 'Reality Date with a Book - Reality Check' to spark curiosity. When I unwrapped the book I bought, it turned out to be Charles Dickens's 'A Christmas Carol' (famous for the miserly Scrooge), which gave me a purely joyful and happy feeling.
Additionally, half the bookstore was sectioned off, with the other half hosting various cultural performances and exhibitions simultaneously. Thanks to this, the place transformed into a space where people love to visit and relax year-round. By making the space a place where diverse content lives and breathes, always full of things to enjoy whenever you visit, the abandoned theater became a landmark representing the region.
I've shown you some examples, and their common points are clear. Flashy appearances aren't what matters.
1. Content stands as the protagonist of the space,
2. They leave room for visitors' imagination to intervene,
3. They're designed so multiple stories can flow simultaneously within one space.
Ultimately, spaces that people keep visiting aren't places with lots of 'things to see,' but rather 'places where you want to come back and experience different stories.' And such spaces always start from content!
Did you find the secret of spaces that attract people interesting?
Realworld researches the secrets of spaces that attract people and works to transform our daily lives into exciting theme parks. If you have any questions or collaboration opportunities, please contact us anytime!
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