Melbourne needs more “third places”. After 6pm, the library should say “laptops away” and turn the space from study zone into a place for booze-free conversation.
I recently read an article about the concept of third places — OK fine, I watched a TikTok about it. Home is your first place, work is your second place and sociologists advise that people need a so-called third place. Somewhere you can relax and build relationships without the pressures of consumerism. Your community’s living room, if you will, where conversation is the main purpose and there’s somewhere convenient to pee., churches and temples are less frequented.
As my friends move further away due to soaring rents and property prices, I find myself valuing my local community more. The chats with other parents when I drop my son off at daycare become a much-needed place of connection. But the school gate is not quite a third place. The conversations tend to be limited to topics such as nappy rash and papier-mache. True leisure time requires dialogue about broader subjects than flour-based art.
As a teen, my third place was Northland Shopping Centre – or its scientific name “Norfies”. You could spend hours there without spending a dollar. Most of that time was building up your courage to speak to the other teens and maybe ask for someone’s number. This was an ideal third place because it was safe, sheltered, had seating and toilets, and was also neutral territory for public and private school kids. It didn’t matter how much money your family had.
So I’m turning to our city libraries for salvation. The State Library of Victoria is excellent at so many things: events, preserving history, offering a quiet place to study, allowing a deranged Communist to rant on the front lawn. It even creates a third place for kids and their parents in their children’s section.
Challenges aside, the State Library is central, welcoming and contains enough history and exhibitions to generate endless great conversation. The staff put so much work into these shows, I’m sure they’d be delighted that more people can see them after work and hang around the library to chat about it all. Keeping the doors open longer so people can socialise would also create a positive association with the space for those who haven’t used it for study or research.
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