Shopping malls in Seoul become important urban public space where teens and youths as well as the elderly come easily and enjoy thorned environment. This study examines design motifs, structures and effects of theme design of three shopping malls-Lotte World, Coex Mall, and Central City-in Seoul, Korea. The study quotes Lynch`s five image elements-paths, nodes, landmarks, districts, and edges in the shopping malls in order to analyze internal structure of the shopping malls and theme design elements. The theme design of the shopping malls was often used the images of "city parks", "future city", "foreign tourist places", "carnival and festival", and "old towns" to evoke nostalgia of the past and fantasy of the future. The study finds that theme design was emphasized at the area of corridors-path, plazas-nodes and special districts such as movie theater and food courts. The study concludes that theme design in the three shopping malls should consider local(Korean) motifs in design properly and consider educative effects of the design on teens and youths. Thus, theme design of the shopping malls should meet multi-functional roles of the spaces aesthetically and socially, The data and analysis of this study can contribute to improve theme design of shopping malls in Seoul, Korea.ve theme design of shopping malls in Seoul, Korea.