Evaluation of Third Place Functions of Cafes for the Youth in Enghelab and Valiasr Street

Cafes and coffee shops as representatives of social exchanges in city places are relatively new in the showcase of cities and towns, which are suitable places for relaxing and talking with different people, especially for the youth. According to Oldenburg, some of these spaces are known as “third places”. Oldenburg identifies third place as the public and interesting space for people, which gives meaning to the informal public lives of citizens. They provide urban spaces that are the context of these places with survival and dynamism. According to the characteristics of third places and the needs of the youth, who are a huge segment of population, the third place is a good place to meet some of the needs of youth and to allow them to communicate with their urban space. Of course, as Zukin and Oldenburg believes, third places as public space institutions play some major roles in constructing public culture and urban everyday life. According to Lefebvre’s theory of urban space production, everyday life is embodied and repressed by power, and also is linked to underground side of social life, such as art which may come eventually to be defined less as a code of space. This applied research is based on qualitative approach and has evaluated these third places by content analysis method. This research is trying to examine third places in two main unique streets, Enghelab Street and Valiasr Street– between Vanak square and Melat Park. Its purpose, at first, is to examine of the features of the third places in cafes and café shops, which are interesting for young people as the users according to third place codes which are extracted from theories especially Oldenburg’s views. Then, it aims to clarify their roles on producing urban space based on the functional differences of cafes and coffee shops in everyday life of two main streets, Enghelab as a cultural street and Valiasr as a recreational-commercial street. And to know what is impacts for youth as a target social group in third places. The findings of the research show that cafes as third places are more attractive for young people in these two main streets. It also indicates that although these places have similar basic functions, they are different in form, which causes different function and meaning based on the context of exposure and influence of the characteristics of social groups, and accordingly, this makes the cafes and coffee shops different third places. The locations of these places are affected by other interesting land uses and unique features of each street that are found in third place. So third places in Enghelab Street have cultural aspects like book café, while third places in Valiasr Street have recreational-commercial aspect. The youth who come to these places are often the users of the first group in Valiasr Street, while the users of the second group come to Enghelab Street, and they have their own cultures and habits, which belong to different types of social groups.