How can a global concept of Third Place Thinking™ be applied locally to our sport and community facilities, to better reconnect our communities?

Over the last year, connecting communities, families and friends has never been more important, and we have seen just how vital our industry is in making this happen. A critical role of design is to imagine and create alternative worlds that respond to current issues and improve the quality of life for everyone.

Designers – architects, planners, urban and landscape creators – are rapidly reimagining our built and social environments. From speculative structures to breakthrough approaches, Third Place Thinking™ explores a new wave of design-thinking. How do we as designers achieve this? We shape communities through social, cultural, environmental, and economic values.

Where we seek better social outcomes on a more intimate level, has our approach to design changed as a result of the events of the past two years? What are the connections we need to be making, and conversations we need to be having right now?

A “Third Place” does not belong to one person – in advancing Third Place Thinking™ we are interested in exploring: “could our community and sporting infrastructure be the new Third Place to reconnect our communities, in tomorrow’s alternative world?”