ABSTRACT
Third stream learning spaces can be loosely, but usefully, divided between those that occupy the borderland between the workplace and formalized education and those that exploit the andragogic potential of existing cultural spaces. Here innovation is found in – sometimes radically – reallocated function rather than modified space. For the most part the forms remain limited but the uses change – classrooms become meeting rooms, library spaces become community hubs, entire colleges are given over to industry for the acquisition and accreditation of professional and vocational qualifications. Some are new spaces – or new as learning spaces: Tent City, coffee shops, village and community halls, retirement communities, extended roles for museums and galleries. What they have in common is their emergence in response to society’s increasing hunger for learning at all stages and in all areas of modern life.
