MoveCity Unveils Flexible Digital Arena

In late August 2026, MoveCity opened in Affoltern am Albis as Switzerland’s largest multisport venue for freestyle and action sports.

The first project of its kind in Europe operates on a shop-in-shop model and leans on high-end technology. As part of the complex, the ASB GlassFloor is available for public booking for the first time, with programmable LED technology turning large areas into adaptable experience spaces that extend far beyond sport.

Large venues need new answers. Traditional retail and event locations are seeking fresh reasons to draw visitors and ways to use space more flexibly. Spanning almost 13,000 square metres, MoveCity combines physical activities with workshops, creative studios, meeting rooms, event zones, hospitality and places simply to spend time together—becoming an experience-led meeting point rather than a conventional sports hall.

The opening aligns with a broader shift. CBRE’s European Retail Outlook 2026 highlights experience-centred retail as a key trend, while the EHI Retail Institute reports that 20 per cent of surveyed shopping centres plan to reduce retail space in favour of other uses. Leisure facilities already feature among non-retail offerings in 39 per cent of centres.

MoveCity sits at this crossroads, aiming to make malls, commercial districts and town centres more attractive by creating new reasons to visit. Its model spans activity zones alongside workshop, meeting and creative spaces, event areas and food-and-beverage options to bring together people of different ages and interests.

At the heart of the site is the Arena by ASB GlassFloor, a collaboration between Michael Jacobsen and ASB Arena and Event Services AG. The 28 × 15 metre digital glass floor, equivalent to a standard multisport hall, is not tied to a fixed layout or use. Managed via the GlassCourt OS software platform, it can be reconfigured rapidly to change both appearance and function.

Court markings can be overlaid with animations, graphics, logos, sponsorship content and live data, turning the surface into a visual medium, wayfinding tool and digital stage. Rather than relying on additional screens around the venue, content becomes part of the architecture itself.

GlassCourt OS enables operators to manage and adapt floor designs, swap sponsor logos in real time, and position or scale content directly on the surface. By integrating external data, statistics and other information can also be visualised.

The space can be made interactive, too. A tracking system records participants’ movements and feeds them into digital applications, creating games that merge virtual content with real-world motion—controlled not by a handset, but by people’s bodies. Beyond sport, this supports interactive brand activations, gamified learning, events and immersive visitor experiences.

With the Arena by ASB GlassFloor, a technology previously seen mainly in professional venues and at major sporting events is now publicly bookable. Groups, sports clubs, schools, companies, event organisers and content creators can harness the digital space for varied formats.

This accessibility makes MoveCity a key reference: space is no longer built for a single purpose—it is programmed. Companies gain options for product launches, workshops and team-building; event organisers get a stage that can change its look without structural works; brands can integrate content directly into the setting; and creative and educational uses turn the floor into an interactive surface for play, learning and presentations.

What starts at MoveCity as an arena for activity and experiences can extend elsewhere. In shopping centres and mixed-use properties, digital surfaces can provide constantly changing reasons to visit; showrooms can bring products and brand worlds to life; hotels and corporate headquarters can adapt reception, conference and event spaces to different audiences; and museums, cultural institutions, exhibition halls and public buildings can add new layers of information, wayfinding and interaction. ASB GlassFloor's digital glass floors and walls supply the technology to realise these concepts.

asbglassfloor.com