This thesis examines how spatial design influences whether people choose to stay in or pass through a public square. The study is guided by the central research question: why do people spend time at Kultorvet and Cvjetni trg, and how does the spatial design of these squares influence people's experiences and way of living? Two centrally located public squares serve as case studies — Kultorvet in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Cvjetni trg in Zagreb, Croatia. Selected for their comparable urban positions but differing climates, planning traditions, and cultural contexts, the two squares offer a productive basis for comparative analysis.The study employs a mixed-methods approach combining systematic behavioural observation and movement mapping, a spatial quality assessment checklist developed from Roe and McCay's (2019) restorative urbanism framework, and semi-structured qualitative interviews with twelve participants — six at each square — each including a walk-around of the space and a mental mapping exercise. The analytical framework draws on Henri Lefebvre's spatial triad of perceived and lived space, Jan Gehl's theory of public life, Ray Oldenburg's concept of third places, Kevin Lynch's framework of urban imageability, James Gibson's affordance theory, Bryan Lawson's language of space, and the restorative urbanism frameworks of Roe and McCay (2019) and Bornioli and Subiza-Pérez (2023).The findings reveal a fundamental difference between the two squares. At Kultorvet, all six participants described the square primarily as a transit space — a place crossed rather than inhabited. At Cvjetni trg, five of the six participants described it as a destination they actively chose, returned to, and connected to personal memory and cultural identity. This difference is traced to specific spatial conditions: the quality of enclosure, the character of edges, the presence of human-scaled sensory elements, the affordances communicated by the central spatial element, and the degree to which the square has accumulated social and cultural meaning over time. The study argues that the success of a public square lies not in its physical form alone but in the relationship between spatial design and the lived human experience it produces — and that this relationship can be studied, understood, and improved.