Date of Award
Spring 6-2-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master in Interior Architecture [Adaptive Reuse]
Department
Interior Architecture
First Advisor
Markus Berger
Second Advisor
Stefano Corbo
Third Advisor
Jongwan Kwon
Abstract
The term Third Places describes a space located outside work and home where individuals can socialize with their friends or those in their community, and talking more about their personal interests and or current news. Amending urban idle spaces into the setting for engineered, social interactions between city dwellers will bring more connection and a new sense of social interaction throughout cities.
What sets third places apart from most public spaces, such as coffee shops or restaurants, is that there is no associated cost. Third places help eliminate the specific demographic inclination based in socioeconomics to the other public spaces which can make it easier to categorize it’s users based on a price tag association to the place. In addition, these are spaces that encourage true social interaction, rather than separate experiences -- collective activities are the norm. Third places are meant to be spaces dedicated to focusing on the present and becoming more involved with what is happening outside of an individual’s personal life. These spots are proposed in pockets of space that currently sit as unused spaces in cities, such as alleyways.
Many cities could will benefit from utilizing these little pockets of free space. Providence, Rhode Island, is peculiar in the sense that there is a broad social divide between neighborhoods despite the small geographical range of the city. With these third places implemented throughout idle areas of cities, like Providence in idle areas, these new interventions will offer insight on how vacant spaces can be repurposed into vital pieces of social connectivity weaving together the urban fabric of each city they occupy. In Providence, the interventions will illuminate social and urban design issues that lie within each of the three neighborhoods of focus: Federal Hill, College Hill and Downtown.These spaces will allow any inhabitant of Providence to engage without having a price tag or being associated with a certain social demographic. This is not only an urban project amending idle spaces, but also an attempt to make an improved social order through the third place.
Recommended Citation
Davidson, Paige, "Amending the idle : an analysis of urban idle spaces + third places" (2018). Masters Theses. 226.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/226
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