Skip to content

The Twilight Zone

 

DSC_0081
Picture capturing more seating in addition to the KAF window and sign.

Baker Lobby is not what one would describe as a third space. A third space is a space other than work or home, where both social interactions as well as things such as purchasing goods take place, as described by Victor Gruen, one of the pioneers of the third space concept. This comes about when discussing that "If home is the primary place, and work is a second place, then a third place anywhere else one goes to be around other people—to build community, to hang out, to feel connected. Gruen wanted to give the American suburbs that third place" (99% invisible). Gruen's third space was a mall, a space dedicated purely to shopping and socializing for most who were there (if you don't consider the situation for the employees of the shops in the mall). He placed these malls in between different communities, forcing people to drive out to the location and be far from their home and work lives.

DSC_0087
This picture shows a different angle of the Lobby from behind an entrance column, also displaying the different types of seating in the space for studying and socializing.

 

 

 

 

I think Baker lobby would not be considered a third space, because it is it is an intermediary where students can go to buy coffee and socialize with other students, but also work at the same time, something like the twilight zone of places. It is not purely a social space, as Gruen intended them to be. However, since we are at college, work takes place almost everywhere. This includes in the typical home spaces like a dorm room, so sometimes on college campuses, the first defined space doesn't actually exist. Twilight spaces like Baker Lobby exist instead: areas that compromises and are in between work and social. Students go to Baker Lobby to do work, but also to casually socialize. Due to this fact, it is not a pure social space that has the sole purpose of creating a new type of community like a third space, but it is a space that exists in between these defined types.