This thesis investigates two aspects of community shopping centres. The first aspect deals with the particular role any shopping place plays within the community structure. This examination begins in Section One and Two, establishing an understanding of the type of human situation for which any shopping centre should be designed. Section Three examines the character of shopping and gathering spaces of past cultures as well as those of the suburban community, showing the effect that the character of these spaces has, on the type of human contact possible in that space. In Section Four, a detailed examination of the spaces of the planned shopping centre defines to what extent they allow the type of human contact considered most desirable in Sections One and Two. The first stage of the actual design process is examined in Section Five, to understand factors affecting the designer's decision as to what character of shopping space is most appropriate for a shopping centre. At this stage in the thesis, the spatial character most appropriate for a shopping centre has been defined, and the shortcomings of the spaces of existing centres are understood. The second aspect of the shopping centre is now examined - the problem of designing for the retailing function. This problem is defined in Sections Six, Seven and Eight with reference both to the actual retailing function itself, and the process and scheduling of design decisions from exploratory to construction stage.In Section Nine, illustrations show how the problems of the community and the problems of the retailer have been resolved in existing centres. In Section Ten, a design for a community shopping centre is prepared illustrating how these two sets of problems can be resolved without conflict. Although the example design is for a very complex community function, the basic principles of retailing design developed here, could be applied to any centre of smaller scale that is to be developed as a community gathering centre as well as a shopping centre.