The In-Between, Upgraded: The third space is losing the roof and gaining attention

The modern third space, the place between home and work or class where people gather, linger, and feel connected, is having a moment. It’s often found in unplanned spaces people discover on their own; think more patio than programming. Increasingly, the outdoor table is where lunch turns into conversation, conversation turns into connection, and someone eventually says, “I should probably get back,” while making absolutely no movement to do so. For campus and corporate dining, that evolution matters because food is no longer just a supporting element. It’s revealing where people actually want to gather.

• The Cafeteria Has Left the Building – Outdoor dining is quietly becoming the warm-weather place to linger, connect, and pretend not to check email while eating fries. Today’s employees and students increasingly value environments that feel flexible, social, and human rather than rigidly institutional.¹ ² Translation: they may still use the cafeteria, but they do not want it to feel like a DMV with sandwiches. As workdays, class schedules, and campus routines continue reshaping how people use shared spaces, the experience of being there matters more than ever.² ³

• The Accidental Commons – The old dining model was simple: enter, eat, leave, move on to whatever is next. The new model is less compartmentalized and much more human. Outdoor dining areas now double as lunch spots, study zones, and casual places to share ideas, updates, and mild procrastination.² A picnic table with Wi-Fi, shade, and decent coffee can do more for campus or workplace energy than another carefully branded engagement campaign. Not every organization can build a gleaming new commons, but many can turn underused outdoor space into somewhere people actually want to be.⁴

• Here Today, Craved Tomorrow - Then there is scarcity and novelty: the simple magic of making something feel special because it won’t be there forever. Rotating food trucks, pop-up menus, and limited-time outdoor concepts create anticipation and curiosity.⁵ It’s why a taco truck that appears twice a month can generate more buzz than the perfectly respectable grill station that has been holding the line since dial-up internet was cutting edge. Outdoor and mobile dining work because they make food feel dynamic, discoverable, and just unpredictable enough to be interesting.

  If your outdoor dining area has the personality of a loading dock with umbrellas, we should talk. Click below to connect with our team to help turn your “meh” into “meet me there.”

1.  Deloitte. (2025). 2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey. Deloitte Global.

2. Lomas, C., & Oblinger, D. G. (2006). Student practices and their impact on learning spaces. In D. G. Oblinger (Ed.), Learning spaces. EDUCAUSE.

3. Wigert, B., Barry, K., & Pendell, R. (2024, April 23). Hybrid work needs a workplace value proposition. Gallup.

4. Project for Public Spaces. (n.d.). What makes a successful place?

5. Hamilton, R., Thompson, D., Bone, S., Chaplin, L. N., Griskevicius, V., Goldsmith, K., Hill, R., John, D. R., Mittal, C., O’Guinn, T., Piff, P. K., Roux, C., Shah, A. K., & Zhu, M. (2019). The effects of scarcity on consumer decision journeys. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(3), 532–550. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-018-0604-7