Suburbia

The term “third place” was initially coined by American sociologist Ray Oldenburg in his book The Great Good Place. Third places are defined as “informal gathering places when considering our homes to be the first, and our work places the second.” The Great Good Place was published in 1989. Since then, third places’ are deeply affected by technological innovations rendering physical proximity antiquated. While this artificial hyper-connection grew, fundamental stratification of demographics deepened. Demographics diversified through physical ability, financial status, culture, and age all serve different self-interest in what urban planning should prioritise. Even to just compromise, this is an astonishingly complex feat today.

Our group developed a metaphorical rendition of third place issues as a board game: a social, low-cost, inclusive entertainment just as how third places should operate.

Key features of the game include:

• Players represent simplified spectrum of real-world demographics, including affluent, the underprivileged, youth, and the elderly.

• The game mechanics simulate the accessibility and challenges these groups face in the third place through obstacles across the board.

• Key themes include fairness, distribution balance, and how resource limitations affect different players.

• Naturally leads to discussions about changing layouts to accommodate fairness across all four players.

Albeit a simplified version compared to the real-life discourse surrounding third place issues, we believe that education and accessibility to this discussion should be as inclusive and accessible as possible.