What is recreation worth?

This edition of the periodical Oris is dedicated to architecture in service of leisure. Many things can be listed in this category: we see buildings dedicated to cultural contents, architecture for public areas and for private shelters. Important activities belonging to leisure time are by all means sports and shopping. Furthermore, we can see that even the realm of work is more and more impregnated with comforts, which aims to make business pure pleasure. The proportion of free time during the average human life in Europe is growing. But is all this happening only because of some sublime social motifs? Or maybe the economic effects of humans’ pleasure aspirations present a real engine of an entertainment industry that is becoming heavily dominant in all areas?