How Third Places Bring Back the Joy of Being

Earlier last month, on a whim to break from my usual Saturday routines, I drove out west to visit a friend. We met in the small Ontario city where we both used to go to university. The week had been sweltering. In a few days, the heat would ignite fires that would blanket Manhattan, 800 kilometers away, with ash. On this Saturday, we caught a break. The air was refreshing and cool, while the summery sky stayed cloudless and bright, making us keen to take a long walk around town and revisit all the old sights, three years older. Despite our familiarity, it wasn’t hard to discover novelty. Construction rose up over previously vacant spaces. Light rail, still being laid down while we studied here, now roped and zipped around the city. Bike lanes and stoplight cameras, once mundane and rendered invisible in the busy background of our routines, caught our attention for the first time. Time and distance away forced us to see the things we were accustomed to, anew. Outside a police station, we spotted a large offbeat sculpture. Two massive concrete loops weaved together to form an abstract shape. We wondered what unexpected motive would tempt anyone to put strange art in front of a functional-looking structure. Then, we had that same conversation that everyone does about not ‘really getting’ abstract art. <a href="https://medium.com/@mouhamadmmbacke/reimagining-spaces-how-third-places-bring-back-the-joy-of-being-2b23777e1550">Read More</a>