The Strategies for the Reuse of Old Industrial Buildings into Third Places

Abstract

A third place is any form of shared space for multifunctional use that promotes innovation, interaction, and cooperation with surrounding residents or users. Third places have become necessary in today's society due to the close integration between daily human life, work, and technology. The characteristics of third places are the diversification to meet different functional requirements, easily accessible and act as a middle ground for users from different backgrounds. Besides promoting social interaction, third places are also of great value in promoting healthier lifestyles, increasing the real estate value of the surrounding areas, and promoting community resilience during disaster times. This paper shows the transformation of old industrial buildings into third places to fill the gap for different functional needs for third places, promoting sustainable urban development and saving the old industrial buildings which otherwise face the threat of demolition due to continuous deterioration. Industrial buildings possess exceptional structural and architectural characteristics that can support many new third place functions. By searching through related literature related to the reuse of old industrial buildings and third places, different influencing factors are extracted and summarised to classify different space modes of third places into site space, ecological space, activity space, service space, and transitional space. The paper further summarises different strategies for transforming the old industrial buildings` structure, façade, and the different spatial modes of the third places.