Third-Space unbound
On malleable urban spaces
Here is a neighborhood with inactivity — with hardly any activity for the larger societal good. Its stagnant. Its polarized. And its politically distanced. So, when did we arrive at this? How did this happen?
I remember a time when investing ourselves into societal activities was a thing. The smell, the noise and the mess, that once bred into this neighborhood, is but a memory now. Those celebrations, those festivities, those gossips and those endless sporty evenings are just gone. Poof!
Though it doesn’t arrive as a bold disagreement, we have gradually turned outward. Elsewhere! but not in the neighborhood. For the needs that this neighborhood space once fulfilled, we go out now. Out elsewhere, to a place at the other end of the city — a monocultural, rigid and a defined space.
Then, the lockdown happened. And suddenly, we could no longer travel to that other end of the city. The pandemic has highlighted the vulnerability of such space-types. Maybe this model of a monocultural construct is itself a fragile one.
Can we design spaces with a pluralist construct? Can we reconfigure our urban spaces?
Perhaps this model of a monocultural construct is itself a fragile one. Can we design with a pluralist construct? Can we reconfigure our urban spaces?
Can we make them more accessible? Can we situate such spaces within our neighborhoods?
Can we envision a space-type that is appropriate for the layered context of our society?
Can we pitch in a ‘third-space’ in the blacks and whites of our city?
The ‘third’? What does it mean? A place that is neither a workplace nor a residence, but quite simply a ‘third place’. A ‘go-to’ space in the neighborhood. A friendly space. A malleable space where one can — connect, contemplate, articulate and communicate. It can be anything — a garden or a gymnasium or a maker’s space or a sports club.
As it suggests, the ‘third space’ falls out of the rigid categories of urban design. Hence, It can be translated into anything deemed necessary for the neighborhood. The streets, the terraces, the open spaces, or the ‘in-between’ urban fabric — can be a site for such a development. We often see that such spaces are conceived as the ‘remainder’ of a neighborhood layout, but that shouldn’t be the case. In fact, a third-space could be incorporated as a design element right from the planning stage.
We don’t need a concrete form or a rigid shape for it. Not all urban issues need a permanent solution. It need not necessarily be fixed or permanent. One can suggest, that the third space can even be programmed to a Spatio-temporal frame. Maybe it can evolve and change its form and character. It can be temporal.
Why does that sound familiar? Well. Maybe its because of our collective memories. Festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi or Durga Mata bring along such temporary transformations in the spaces of neighborhoods. This tells us that spaces of neighborhood can get a new look and feel with different activities at play. But, these things are slowly fading away. When was the last time you experienced that space?
We are slowly loosing lost them. We are loosing them, to the time and to the rigid definitions that we come up with. With all the concretization and the exaggeration of western models, we have lost the ‘desi’ essence from our spaces. To bring them back, we have to develop a vocabulary of our own and then deploy it for layered contexts of the society at large.
“Its as if there were famine and in order to feed .. millions, architects .. ran around writing cookbooks. If people are starving it is not because they don’t know how to cook, it is because they do not possess the ingredients! “ (p48, Correa, 1989).
Will we see such ‘third spaces’ in the future? We don’t know. But what we know is that, if we don’t act now, we might loose them. The next Sachin Tendulkar might not have a street to teach him the straight drive. Because, in a city without third spaces, the only space dedicated to play cricket is in the stadium or a sports complex. That is what rigid definitions would mean. If we don't reconsider such spaces and their positions, these rigid definitions will materialize and it would be increasingly hard to reconfigure.
The question we should be asking ourselves is — what can we do? How can we contribute? The government and all other bodies are busy in their status driven projects. Its almost as if, we can’t expect such help from the top. But we can help ourselves. And we can help each other. Like any other construction of the ‘cultural-other’, it depends on whether we are observant of the patterns of our life and have the political will to enact.
Like any other construction of the ‘cultural-other’, it depends on whether or not we are observant of the patterns of our life and have the political will to enact.
