This house is our creative space: Case Study of “La Ruche à Projets”, a repurposed residence and its relationship with third places and citizen empowerment.

This exploratory qualitative research underlines architectural properties of a residential house that was repurposed as a temporary creative space. Findings were compared against existing theory on third places (particularly creative spaces) and their relationship with citizen participation, empowerment, and social change. Overall, the “homey” character creates a sense of belonging and occupants seem ea- ger to decorate and furnish with personal effects. Findings reveal tensions between large open and smaller closed spaces to reflect on how flow, accessibility, occupancy, and intimacy are affected. Occupant behaviors lead to wonder about the tensions between community, codesign, empowerment, and ownership. Findings help ques- tion how temporary third places could play a role in the design of new creative spaces. Further insights could lead to explore beyond interior architectural properties and consider how the outer shell and location of a building influence community par- ticipation, or how successful recruitment is impacted by the community’s personal social networks.