Student: Logan Caruso
Advisor: Scott Shall
Content Experts: Anirban Adhya, Masataka Yoshikawa
In response to rising social isolation and the decline of shared civic life, this thesis advances the concept of the fourth place as a critical architectural condition for everyday encounter. Building upon critiques of the third place, once informal and accessible sites of social gathering, this investigation addresses the erosion of low-commitment social environments resulting from increased privatization and commercialization (Finlay et al., 2019; Oldenburg, 1989). Within this body of research, informal social interaction has been observed to persist within fourth places, understood as overlooked liminal spatial conditions characterized by in-betweenness and low social obligation (Aelbrecht, 2016). Most commonly occurring within paths, edges, thresholds, and props, these conditions have largely emerged organically, without intentional design. This thesis explores how architecture, historically responsible for shaping first, second, and third places, can engage fourth places without introducing programmatic control or commodification.
While fourth-place discourse has traditionally focused on horizontal conditions, this thesis argues that vertical circulation represents an underexamined site of informal social possibility. Horizontal conditions, such as sidewalks and parking lots, may host informal interaction, yet they are not designed for social gathering, often exposing users to environmental risks (e.g. rain, wind, and snow) or infrastructural risks (e.g. traffic and vehicles). In contrast, fire stairs exist within architecture as code-driven, unprogrammed spaces often embedded in daily routines. This thesis examines the fire stair as a fourth place typology, evaluating its capacity to function simultaneously as infrastructure for both life safety and social interaction. Through an itemized analysis of egress code provisions related to stair design, the investigation iteratively manipulates individual spatial conditions in relation to their capacity to support informal social interaction. Success is evaluated through the extent to which these interventions reinforce established fourth place conditions. The findings demonstrate how code, when engaged as a spatial framework, can generate opportunities for social interaction, reframing the fire stair as vertical social infrastructure embedded within everyday life.
