Study On The Design Of Urban Youth Hostel Under The Concept Of The Third Place

In China,the development of youth hostels has been more than ten years,and now youth hostel has become a first choice of accommodations for many young travelers.The original intention of the establishment of youth hostels was to promote cultural exchange,social responsibility,environment protection,as well as a simple and high-quality lifestyle.However,many young hostels in big cities of China are outdated,provide merely a bed with little private and storage space for its tenants.Activities provided by some youth hostels lack of high quality and varieti es.As such,it has lost the original intention of the establishment of youth hostels.At the same time,in recent years,youth hostels have seen tenant groups changing from short-term travel groups to mixed groups with different needs,such as work,study and travel.These groups come to hostels not only for accommodation,but also for seeking a multi-functional place for recreation,work,and study,or even as a long-term residence.However the current target group of most urban youth hostels is still only travelers.Most academic researches on youth hostels only focus on how to serve the tourist groups but rarely address the question of how youth hostels serve youth groups and community residents in large cities.In modern society,urban youth groups and community residents often need places to be social equal and to relax.This kind of places is different from home and office.The American sociologist Ray Oldenburg called them as ?the third place?.In the process of urbanization and according to the living needs of urban youth groups,this paper proposes a hostel renewal model suitable for urban youth and community life under the background of ?the third place?.Through the introduction of excellent cases,the new ideas of youth hostel renewal are discuss ed,and the strategies of youth hostel renewal design are summarized.