If there is such a thing as a constrained spaces archetype, the coffee shop may be the last free one left. All other buildings seem so definitively based on function and purpose…the coffee shops seem to be the last of the buildings that remain mutable through use, in terms of architecture, purpose, energy, ambiance, experience… Perhaps it’s the only place that remains so wholly dependent on individuals and group expression to make it what it is. A micro cosm of human interaction almost entirely free of constraint.

I guess, on a cheaper intellectual note, it could be looked at as “What your coffee shop says about you” and vice versa. (*shudders* though that’s vile).

*grins* Congratulations on finding the perfect workspace and hideout.

Also… er… this may be a bit more self-revealing than is strictly ideal: although the place has become quite busy… er… in terms of people I recognise, the folks who come here tend to be people I… er… like… It’s also (and… er… I swear this is completely and utterly unrelated to the last sentence…) not much of a faculty hangout, in spite of being literally on campus, so I’m unlikely to be seen here by people hunting me down, trying to give me things to do. That’s the main reason I come here to work – it’s a safe place to get things done, without losing half the day acquiring new things to do…

But of course that could be true in any number of coffee shops – I come to this specific one, because it is the expression of one particular personality, and I sort of like being in a space into which someone has put this sort of strange energy…

Why *that* coffee shop?

Having worked in, and been a social fixture of, coffee shops, I’m curious.

Without that coffee shop, there is no philosophy.