Lifestyle
Why we all need to find our Third Space
Coffee culture gripped Cape Town about 15 years ago. Today, life in the Mother City is unthinkable without the trendy locals trying their utmost to be first to the best new brew on the block. But there is more to coffee shops than meets the eye. Together with other ubiquitous public places – cafés, bookstores, hair and beauty salons, small eateries, delis, restaurants, etc. – they are part of the glue that holds modern city life together, and help to make up what’s called the Third Space.
The Third Space is somewhere outside home (the First Space) and work (the Second Space) where you to feel at ease. It’s a concept that has been around for about 20 years but it keeps increasing in prominence as the lines between home and work continue to blur and our ways of living, working and doing business become more fluid.
The idea was taken from a 1999 book called The Great Good Place by Ray Oldenburg. It says these are the “many public places where people can gather, put aside the concerns of home and work (their first and second places), and hang out simply for the pleasures of good company and lively conversation”.
It has also been gaining fresh traction with more and more of us opting for smaller living spaces that cost less to run, are easier to maintain, and simpler to operate in the sense that they give us the freedom of a lock-up-and-go lifestyle.
Mixed-use precincts are great examples of Third Space living, combining residential property, commercial office space, retail outlets and increasingly nowadays also hospitality (hotels). Living and working in a mixed-use precinct essentially amounts to Third Space living.
It’s a way of life that’s been shown to have many benefits – on a personal level, but also more broadly for our communities. One if its strongest characteristics is how it helps to create a sense of community because it’s so good at bringing people together.
General benefits
- Building a sense of community
- Creating a sense of self
- Encouraging creativity
- Stimulating the free exchange of ideas
Personal benefits
Whether you’re going out to work out at one of the many outdoor gyms around Cape Town, visiting the Neighbourgoods Market on a Saturday, taking your laptop to a street café in the CBD or doing Park Run on the weekend, finding your Third Space will provide you with a healthy and stimulating change of scenery, give you opportunities to socialise, interact and meet new people, and enable you to engage and become more involved in your community. Finding this Third Space expands our sense, not only of where we live, but also who we are.
The Amdec Group’s Harbour Arch development will bring the very best of Third Space living to Cape Town. Please contact Ilze Müssmann on 087 809 0000 or ilzem@amdec.co.za to discuss opportunities to live, work or invest at Harbour Arch, or any other of the Amdec Group’s developments.