Competitive Socialising

Where play meets place.

We design the venues that define the category. Swingers, Pop Golf, Funderdome, Topgolf concepts. Award-winning environments built on a single commercial truth: people pay to play together.

Start a conversation → Read the article series →
Reel

Studio showreel · 2:14

Seventeen years of designing places people choose, again and again.

17+

Years in the category

40+

Venues delivered

12

Countries on four continents

23

International design awards

Recognised by

  • The Times
  • FT How to Spend It
  • Blooloop
  • International Property Awards
  • FRAME Awards
  • FAB Awards
Pop Golf Funderdome Topgolf Mr Mulligans Platform Canary Wharf Swingers NoMad ICS Swingers Las Vegas

Why this category, why now

It isn't a trend. It's nightlife's new era.

People stopped paying for things and started paying for the night out itself. Competitive socialising is what happens when hospitality, gaming, and theatre are built as one venue rather than three separate commissions. The economics are better than any of them alone.

01

Footfall that compounds

A guest experience worth re-telling fills the booking grid six nights a week and de-risks weekday occupancy.

02

Spend per head, doubled

Game and F&B together extend dwell time beyond what traditional hospitality formats can reach, at a margin they can't match.

03

IP that travels

A well-designed concept ports across cities and continents. Swingers Crazy Golf proved the playbook. The next ten brands will too.

A venue is a system. Strategy shapes narrative. Narrative shapes space. Space shapes behaviour. Behaviour drives revenue. Break the chain anywhere and the venue underperforms.

— Zachary Pulman, Founder
Start a conversation →

How we work · The Sweet Spot Method

Product, Service, Culture. The three things a venue has to get right.

A venue is more than its interior. It's the thing guests pay for (Product), the way they're treated while they're there (Service), and the rituals and atmosphere that make them want to come back (Culture). When the three are designed as one, the venue compounds. When they aren't, no amount of design will save it.

01 · Product

The game, the format, the offer.

What guests are actually buying when they book.

02 · Service

The choreography of staff, flow, and pace.

The difference between a venue that works on Tuesday and one that doesn't.

03 · Culture

The rituals, language, and atmosphere.

The reason guests come back without being asked.

Read the full method →

Lead magnet · Six-part series

The Operator's Guide to Competitive Socialising.

Six pieces on why the category exists, what makes a venue work, and the unit economics of designing for play. A new piece is published each month. The full guide is available now as a single PDF for operators, investors and creative directors who want the whole argument in one read.

Written by the studio behind Swingers, Pop Golf, Funderdome, and Topgolf concepts. Unsubscribe any time.

Also publishing on

  • LinkedIn
  • Hospitality Insights
  • Property Week
  • F&B Awards
  • Retail Design Blog
  1. 01 Series opener Why Competitive Socialising is the most resilient leisure category of the decade 8 min
  2. 02 Design Designing for play: how spatial choreography drives spend per head Coming soon
  3. 03 Strategy From Swingers to Funderdome — what every operator gets wrong about IP Coming soon
  4. 04 Operations Hospitality + Game: the unit economics of the hybrid venue Coming soon
  5. 05 Design Theatre, not theme: why immersion beats decoration every time Coming soon
  6. 06 Future The next ten years: predictions, pitfalls, places Coming soon

Frequently asked

What operators, investors and creative directors usually ask first.

What size venue do you work with?

We work across formats, from 3,000 sq ft urban concepts to 40,000 sq ft flagships. The economics change at each scale, so the design approach does too. The studio's range covers single-site operators testing a concept and multi-site groups rolling out a tenth venue.

Do you take on international projects?

Yes. The studio has delivered venues across four continents and twelve countries, including Swingers Las Vegas, Swingers Dupont Circle in Washington D.C., and Funderdome in Australia. International projects are run from London with on-the-ground partners in market.

How early do you get involved in a project?

Earlier than most studios. The strongest results come from being involved before the lease is signed, at the point where category positioning, IP and unit economics are still open questions. We also take on later-stage projects where the brief is clearer, but the leverage is highest at the start.

What's the difference between a hospitality design studio and an interior designer?

An interior designer specifies finishes. A hospitality design studio designs the commercial system the finishes sit inside, including the format, the flow, the operating model, the guest journey and the brand. ZPDS works at the system level. Interiors are an output, not the starting point.

How much does it cost to design a competitive socialising venue?

Fees scale with venue size, format complexity, and how early the studio is engaged. As a rough frame: a 5,000–10,000 sq ft urban concept sits in a different bracket to a 40,000 sq ft flagship with multiple game formats and proprietary IP. The first conversation establishes scope before any number is committed.

Who designs venues like Swingers and Topgolf?

ZPDS does. The studio has designed Swingers venues in NoMad, Dupont Circle, and Las Vegas, and has worked on concepts for Topgolf, Pop Golf, Funderdome, Mr Mulligans and Platform Canary Wharf. Seventeen years in the category, forty-plus venues delivered.

Have a different question? Start a conversation →