Oldenburg and Third Space

Victor Gruen is most famous for his 20th century invention of the now well-known “shopping mall”. He was inspired by Ray Oldenburg’s convention of a third space, “a public place on neutral ground where people can gather and interact”. This third space defines the place where people spend the majority of their time, after the primary space of the home and the secondary space of the workplace. Often third spaces fulfill social needs of the people in it and encourage easy interaction and conversation. Gruen identified that people were lacking a third place, specifically in suburbia, to be more casual but still social and thus he created the shopping mall to not only fulfill this need but also to bolster the local economy.

Now this convention may not be as apparent on a college campus. Of course, students all have their various outlets and groups with whom they “play” but these groups are often exclusive by either audition or interest. Otherwise the common places on campus are often associated with work such as the library or gym. Despite these hindrances, I still believe that third spaces exist on college campuses, including Dartmouth’s campus. In order to further this investigation, it is necessary to quantify the major criteria of a third space.

Oldenburg’s Criteria for Third Space

1. Free or inexpensive

2.Food in close proximity

3. Highly accessible

4. People can congregate there

5. Neutral ground

6. Low profile

7. Playful mood

8. Conversation is the main activity

In order to evaluate whether or not an area is a third space, one could use this list of criteria and see if the space fulfills all of them.