
Articles

Third Places Are 3-Dimensional / Learnings From Ebertplatz
Spaces have inner and outer lives that inevitably make for a multi-dimensional experience. We just need to observe, listen and map all their layers with dimensions and care. This is especially true in a place like Ebertplatz – a complex square and transport hub in Cologne whose future has been in the spotlight of a polarizing public debate for years.

Third Places Can Be Extra-Long / Learnings from Langer Tisch
The Langer Tisch is an art installation by Uschi Huber and Boris Sieverts in Cologne, Germany: a long wooden table placed on a very long strip of grass. It embodies everything a successful public artwork should be—practical and inclusive, yet also utopian and provocative. Like a lot of public art, it strives for survival. The six GDI students who worked on this site (Samuel, Nathan, Roy, Ninji, Satoka, Lucy) grasped these qualities and expanded upon them, building on the idea of length as the central motif.

Third Places are Circular / Learnings from NeuLand
NeuLand is a community garden in Cologne: a successful urban farming project in need of attracting a larger community, especially since its recent re-location to a new site. The six GDI students (Jonas, Kryzsztof, Vanessa, Stanley, Momodo, Beilei) who worked on NeuLand paid a lot of attention to the idea of circularity at every level of their engagement.

Le projet Troisième Lieu : les lieux de convivialité comme patrimoine de nos villes ?
urbz Paris a lancé une enquête participative et créative, visant à découvrir et raconter les espaces spontanés de sociabilité dans nos quartiers à travers le regard de leurs habitués.

The Third Place Project: spaces of conviviality as a form of urban heritage?
urbz Paris has started a creative participatory inquiry, aimed at discovering and narrating spontaneous spaces of sociability in neighborhoods through the eyes of their users.

Visual Narratives for Participatory Urbanism: Documentation as Intervention
urbz has started initiatives in Europe, that combine ethnographic participation with visual storytelling to accompany, facilitate, or initiate urban planning, heritage, and transformation projects.

The Golden Thread
One among the many ways of watching Nishtha Jain’s exquisite documentary, ‘The Golden Thread’ (2022), is by following the imagination of urbanist Patrick Geddes.
Works

The Shapes of Third Places
In The Shapes of Third Places series, we delve into the work of the three student groups of GDI 2025, exploring how their creative and insightful approaches have helped us gain new perspectives on Third Places.

Third Places in Cologne: Designing Transformations for Convivial Encounters
A collaboration with Köln International School of Design, (KISD) and urbz as part of the Global Design Initiative (GDI) 10th anniversary event.

Les futurs de l’Hôtel-Dieu
Respiration, Hôtel-Dieu, Nantes. Automne 2024.

The Third Place Project
Recognizing and narrating our cities’ ordinary places of sociability, friendship, and community life.