Reports: Future of P-Leisure
Bompas & Parr’s ongoing investigation into how we spend time together in public
London, 2022-26: Future of P-Leisure is Bompas & Parr’s annual foresight series examining how we spend our time in public, and what forms of shared pleasure might emerge next. Across successive editions, the reports trace a shifting landscape: from the erosion of privacy in a hyper-connected world, to the reinvention of museums, the transformation of public space, the uncertain future of nightlife, and theatre.
At its core, P-Leisure reframes ‘pleasure’ as something increasingly collective. Historically, leisure was the preserve of those with time and resources, offering moments of escape from work and routine. Today, leisure is more visible, more shared, and more entangled with digital life. The question is no longer just how we spend our free time, but how public that time becomes, and what it reveals about wider cultural change.
Explore the trends for each year below and download the full reports to explore each year in more detail.
2027: The Future of Theatre
The latest report turns to theatre, examining how economic pressure, technological change and shifting cultural habits are reshaping how we gather, perform and experience live culture.
At a time when opportunities for physical gathering are increasingly valuable, theatre remains one of the few cultural forms that asks people to come together and experience something collectively. Produced in association with Arup, and drawing on Arup’s work researching the future of the arts and culture sector, the report looks beyond conventional and immersive theatre to ask how the medium can become riskier, more social, more local and more ambitious.
Key Future Dynamics include:
Post-Immersive Pleasures
Immersive techniques move beyond a standalone genre to become part of theatre’s wider language, opening every aspect of the audience experience to creative reinvention.
A New Age of Audacity
Theatre moves beyond the race for relevance, embracing risk, excess and unforgettable experiences as new measures of cultural value.
Hype You Can Believe In
Theatre becomes more identity-led and culturally distinctive, using mystery, myth-building and talkability to attract audiences without over-explaining the experience.
Places Fit for Purpose
Theatre spaces evolve around how people actually live, with new approaches to architecture, hospitality and scheduling making the experience more social, adaptable and welcoming.
Optimised Incubation
Theatre takes a stronger role in developing the next generation, creating spaces for young people and emerging talent to make work, experiment, connect and belong.
Download the full report here.
Watch the livestream here.
Why “Future Dynamics” rather than “Predictions”?
With guidance from Arup’s Foresight team, we have renamed the report’s “Predictions” as “Future Dynamics”. The change reflects the nature of the ideas being explored. Rather than claiming to predict exactly how theatre will develop, the report presents a series of plausible directions, provocations and emerging possibilities. As Arup’s Foresight team advised, these ideas cannot be guaranteed to play out exactly as described, so “Future Dynamics” provides a more accurate framework for thinking about how change may unfold.
The term also better captures the purpose of the report: not to forecast a fixed future, but to identify forces, behaviours and possibilities that could shape what theatre becomes next.
2026: The Future of Nightlife
The fourth instalment looked at nightlife, examining how economic pressures, cultural shifts, and changing habits are reshaping how we gather after dark.
With widespread venue closures and evolving social behaviours, nightlife is positioned as a critical site for rethinking public leisure. The report draws on research, collaboration, and live programming to map possible futures for collective experience at night.
Key predictions include:
Architectures of Vice
Nightlife integrated into urban planning, transforming underused infrastructure into nocturnal cultural spaces.
Aging Disgracefully
Older generations re-engaging with nightlife, creating new cross-generational social environments.
Luxuriating the Night
A move towards slower, more considered nighttime experiences centred on atmosphere and indulgence.
Play on the Astral Plane
Shared dreaming and sleep-based social experiences as emerging forms of connection.
I’m Here for the Queues and the Loos
Peripheral spaces becoming key sites of social interaction and spontaneity.
Rave New World
A resurgence of grassroots nightlife, with local scenes driving cultural and social change.
Download the full report here.
2025: Hyper-Placeshaping
The third instalment explored the future of placemaking, focusing on the blurred boundaries between public and private space.
Presented through a live event at Samsung KX, the report combined research with sensory experience, including experimental food and drink developed by the studio. It examined how changing social behaviours, economic pressures, and cultural desires are reshaping our expectations of place.
Key trends included:
Dusking
A shift towards nighttime leisure, with traditional daytime activities moving into evening hours.
Pointless Places
The rise of flexible, undefined spaces designed for multiple uses rather than fixed functions.
Amorphous Cities
New approaches to architecture and design driven by reuse, adaptability, and experimentation with materials.
The Great Re-Bond
A renewed emphasis on collective experiences that foster connection, from shared meals to festivals.
The Rise of the Introvert
Public environments designed to accommodate quieter, more introspective forms of engagement.
Sub-Lux
Subterranean luxury spaces that merge ideas of security, survival, and high-end design.
Download the full report here.
2024: The Future of the Museum
The second report turned to museums as a key site of public leisure, examining how they are evolving under cultural, social, and political pressure.
Rather than static repositories of objects, museums are repositioned as active, social spaces that shape how we understand both past and future. The report identifies an ongoing transformation driven by decolonisation, audience expectations, and advances in storytelling.
Key trends included:
Polarised Personalisation
A tension between deeply individualised experiences and collective participation, reshaping how audiences engage with culture.
Super-Optimised Spatial Storytelling
Exhibitions designed with narrative intensity, encouraging visitors to move through spaces with the same anticipation as episodic media.
The Anti-Museum
Institutions that question their own structures, embracing intangible collections, alternative formats, and experimental definitions of what a museum can be.
The Ultimate Date Museum
Museums as social infrastructure, fostering connection and addressing loneliness through shared cultural experiences.
Rollercoaster Pedagogy
Faster, more dynamic modes of engagement that respond to reduced attention spans and shifting visitor behaviours.
Endless In-Betweens
A focus on liminal spaces within museums, where atmosphere and ambiguity become central to the visitor experience.
Download the full report here.
2023: Public Leisure as a Pivot Point
The first report introduced P-Leisure as a concept, exploring how digital culture, platform economies, and shifting ideas of privacy are reshaping leisure.
Key predictions included:
Streaming Districts
Cities transformed into immersive extensions of entertainment platforms, where physical environments allow audiences to step inside their favourite films and series.
The Bank of Time
Time becomes the ultimate luxury, with experiences designed to slow, stretch, or reframe it in response to increasingly compressed daily life.
Everlasting Evolution
Creative production becomes decentralised, with audiences actively shaping cultural output rather than passively consuming it.
Underwater Frontiers
As space tourism captures attention, a counter-movement emerges focused on exploring Earth’s oceans as sites of wonder and discovery.
What Does Heaven Look Like Anyway?
Experiences shaped by childlike imagination, offering adults temporary release from responsibility through playful, speculative worlds.
Ultra-Personalised Fun
Hyper-individualised experiences that place the user at the centre, blurring the line between spectator and participant.
Download the full report here.
How Public Life is Changing
Rather than reiterating familiar narratives, Imminent Future of Food & Drink is rooted in Bompas & Parr’s ongoing practice as a multidisciplinary studio. Combining insights from chefs, designers, scientists and strategists, the series moves beyond observation to actively interrogate and shape the future of consumption.