The need for such a society can hardly be said to have disappeared. While vibrant third places have become rare, it is possible to identify factors that help them survive and thrive. Atmosphere matters, and so does location and outlook. French culture, for example, has preserved a man-made environment that is both aesthetically pleasant and built to human scale. Throughout modern times, the desire to retain the life of the street has prevailed. Even in Paris, where cars are everywhere, the life of the street and that of the bistro persist side by side.
Another example is the Viennese coffee house, a model of the third place. Save for the dark period under the Nazis (who favoured beer halls but feared coffee houses), the cafés of Vienna have never really waned in vitality or popularity. This description from a 1931 guidebook The Vienna that’s not in the Baedeker by T. W. MacCallum could be a model for the kind of coffee shop we need today:
“The place for them all, a meeting place for lovers, a club for people of common tastes or interests, an office for the occasional businessman, a resting place for the dreamer, and a home for many a lonely soul.”
The meteoric growth of chain-owned and branded coffee houses that began in the early 1990s was in part based on the idea of a friendly, life-infusing third-place experience. Mobile technology as well as the pandemic have, however, dramatically changed the business model. Some 80 per cent of chain coffee house businesses are now offering drive-through and mobile orders. Claims that they can make a mobile app into a virtual third place have been met with considerable scepticism. This opens new possibilities for locally owned coffee shops, as well as other businesses with third-place potential.
It’s time to reinvigorate the third place for discussion, debate, camaraderie and laughter. We need to see our friends and neighbours and to be around people we don’t know. The third place is at the centre of our search for a better way to live.
