Published 21 / 06 / 2023 Reading time: 7 min
The term "third place" was coined in 1989 by an American sociologist who defined it as a space between home and work, which brings people together. Since 2018, this phenomenon has accelerated. To date, we have around 3 in France compared to 500 in 1. This expansion is due to the profound transformation of our society: the increase in telework, the preservation of resources and the ecological transition. Le Roannais has six third places that meet the different needs of locals.
What is a third place?
Third-places are spaces for working together: coworking, shared workshop, fablab, solidarity garage, public service center, etc.
Third-places are the new places of social ties, emancipation and collective initiatives. They have developed throughout the territory thanks to the use of digital technology.
Each place has its particularities, its functioning, its mode of financing, its community. But they all allow for informal encounters and social interactions, encouraging creativity and collaborative projects.
Meeting with Emmanuelle Barbelin, co-manager of the Ammelo nursery
The Ammelo incubator, located in Saint-Just-en-Chevalet, opened its doors in June 2022. It offers professional office-type premises, 6 in total, and a meeting room. Project leaders can rent the premises in a traditional way with a lease or on an ad hoc basis for half a day, a day or a week. To date, after one year of operation, Ammelo has 25 professional regular users.
How do you define your third place?
With us, it is a place where project leaders meet users to share ideas, practices, points of view and above all a good time of social bond and conviviality! Bring together the needs and the actors who will be able to work to ensure that these actions expected by the public are carried out.
It is a place where we dare, we try, we try and we see if it is possible.
This place thus makes it possible to germinate ideas and projects in the service of the public and project leaders. It is a place of exchanges all over the place or on the contrary very structured and even professional. An association allows the administration of this place with regard to collective activities (chess games, drawing lessons, tutoring, self-massage, etc.). As for the use of shared premises or not (6 offices and a meeting/training room), this is a private project led by 2 dynamic and voluntary young women for a vision of teamwork and collaborative facilitating the taking of initiatives by the various project leaders.
What are the advantages of such a structure?
The benefits are many. Mutualization allows use according to use and time of use. Only the times of making appointments are to be paid in terms of rent. Thus the project leader becomes a user/payer. The times of non-use are therefore not invoiced. Project leaders are more numerous to meet and can exchange. Synergy is favoured, breaking the isolation of each of them stimulates and is a factor favoring security, assurance and complementarity.
The social link is essential for each of us and in the professional and associative world it is essential. The kitchen is a place very frequented by all and allows creativity, the expression of the pleasure of meeting, of encouraging each other, of sharing difficulties and successes. A refurbished place with spaces that allow access for people with reduced mobility. A la carte and personalized use by the owners allows adaptability for all users. Rents are very affordable.
Meeting with the impasse du bout du monde team
Marius Dissat, from Haute-Savoie and Lavinia Gavrilovici, from Austria opened the Impasse du bout du monde in April 2022 in Saint-Jean-Saint-Maurice-sur-Loire. They live on site and make up, to date, a team of 6 people. Their wish: to set up a collegial vision of decision-making. Since the opening, around forty artists have benefited from the performances of the third place. They organize events like concerts, festivals…
What do you offer within your structure?
We offer gastronomic and cultural activities around the Vert de Coeur distillery and our cultural center L'Impasse. Within our structure, we organize short or long-term residencies for all types of artists, but more specifically musicians. We have a stage, a rehearsal room and soon a recording studio, but also accommodation and a tattoo parlor that works in residence. We have also opened up to privatization for other associations and businesses in the region.
Who is your structure for?
We make sure that our events are accessible to the vast majority of people aged 9 to 99.
What future for your third place?
We want to make our place as a creative space for all artists. Whether it's musicians, painters, or chefs. We also have the ambition to propose our structure for internationals. Not being from the region, our contacts come from all over the planet and bring cultural renewal to the region.
Meeting with Clara Sicard from Sténopé Aquatique
Opened in 2022 in Saint-Just-en-Chevalet, the third place of Sténopé Aquatique consists of an associative café, artistic residencies, a future associative lodge, a mini-media library and outdoor spaces turned towards nature. It operates with two founding members as a collegiate group and with a collective of 16 people.
Their wish : Bring this associative café to life like a 3e place, outside of home and work, dedicated to social relationships. And what's better than pure coffee? People come there to quench their thirst, read the newspaper, shelter from the rain, wait between two meetings, but beyond this prosaic reality, bars are very important places for sociability.
What do you offer within your structure?
We offer events: shows, cinema, conferences, training, activities: creative workshops and others, exhibitions... We also offer time without activities, necessary free time which leaves room for meetings and informal discussions which form the life of a café... and a third place! The program is visible on our website.
Who is your structure aimed at?
To everybody ! The goal is to encourage intergenerational and social diversity. Everything is done so that people from different backgrounds come together: a varied program, the mix of people who come for the lodging and others for the coffee, locals, artists and people passing through.
What future for your third place?
Our Third Place evolves according to the projects and the people who invest in it. The building itself is under constant renovation, it is gradually transformed and expanded. Each piece refers to a film, which leads to puzzle games. We hope to continue this dynamic and offer new shows and activities: circus, street arts, zététique, cooking workshops... Continue to work collectively for access to culture and social connections.
The six third places of Roannais
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The Ammelo Nursery
The Impasse at the End of the World
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