At the heart of diverse, thriving inner-city areas are the community gardens, impromptu skate parks and self-managed community centres where residents can build intercultural connections, and achieve a sense of belonging. This thesis defines these as ‘Open Third Places’: public areas whose disorder generates spontaneous encounters and unexpected vibrancy.
Open Third Place can be found in the El Laboratorio squatted social centres of inner-city Madrid. The gentrifying, inner-city neighbourhood of Lavapies has historically hosted a diverse variety of outsiders, ranging from international immigrants to Spanish activist groups. Where their needs were not met by costly governmental regeneration efforts, El Laboratorio group used the act of occupation to explore the creation of low-budget, user-led social centres, free from bureaucratic constraints. These spaces became valuable hubs for coexistence in an otherwise fragmented community, despite financial and legal constraints.
Therefore, this paper examines how El Laboratorio diverged from mainstream building conventions, to demonstrate where such disorder is crucial in the formation of Open Third Places. This analysis is structured by three divisions, or ‘thresholds’, which exist in the formally planned city, but were blurred within El Laboratorio centres: ‘spatial thresholds’, ‘designer-user thresholds’ and ‘temporal thresholds’. Using archival visual and written material from the social centres, the paper suggests a connection between the conviviality of El Laboratorio and their bridging of these thresholds.
In this way, the thesis reveals possibilities for architects to similarly work with these thresholds, when designing for the community of Lavapies. Despite this, it concludes by foreseeing difficulties of translating ideas from the ‘disorder’ of a squat, to the ‘order’ of a more formal design scheme, outlining potential conflicts in the application of these ideas.

This thesis explores the relationship between the creation of escapism in Disneyland’s theme parks and Bill Bensley’s Capella Ubud and JW Marriot Phu Quoc hotels. Hotels are frequently the first place experienced upon arrival in an unfamiliar setting, and due to the transportive, experiential quality of their architecture, they can greatly influence how visitors perceive the traditions and atmosphere of these locations. To generate a sense of place and avoid bland interiors, Bensley creates rich backstories for these hotels which informs their design and enriches the guest experience. In this way, this thesis sees parallels between his hotels and Disneyland. Using analysis of hotel imagery and descriptive texts, this thesis outlines how Bensley has used similar techniques to create this sense of escapism throughout his career.
Disneyland’s visitors are able to substitute real-world experiences with those in the park (e.g. a riverboat safari), as they are perceived to embody the essence of reality, so form hyperreality However, ultimately visitors are always aware that the park is fabricated fantasy. This is where Bensley’s hotels differ from Disneyland. By grounding the hotels in site-specificity and authenticity, many visitors believe his hotels to embody the local vernacular, and to be truthful depictions of history, and thus they are more influential on visitor perceptions. Thus, this thesis uses analysis of guest reviews, travel articles and hotel photographs to demonstrate how his designs can lead to misunderstandings about local culture. Working within the framework of heritage, orientalism, and colonialism discussions, the thesis utilises critical discourse analysis to examine whether the image resulting from Bensley’s design choices perpetuates stereotypes whilst achieving escapism. Bensley’s work is particularly pertinent in this discussion as his maximalist, theatrical approach makes the celebration of surrounding heritage explicit. His work exaggerates the placemaking strategies commonplace throughout South-East Asian hotels, and so it can be used to exemplify more widespread trends in hotel design.