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The object of this research is the tiers-lieu, with the aim of grasping it in all its complexity in order to draw out its simplicity. The research treats the tiers-lieu as a concept to be defined. In order to achieve this, it sets out an investigation in three parts. Firstly, the object is approached from the perspective of terminology through a study of current users, professionals and literary writers’ use of the term, following reflections on the ideas of “lieu” and “tiers”. Historic representations of tiers-lieu are then analysed, through the “third places” of Ray Oldenburg and certain social structures of the Habermasian public sphere, particularly the salons and cafés of the 18th century bourgeoisie. This section, through examination, allows the delimitation of the object, clarifying its characteristics and its uses. It also establishes the starting point and the hypothesis of an exploratory enquiry which necessarily required a research approach involving active engagement. This enquiry was conducted between 2010 and 2015 though active involvement in services – coworking spaces, fablabs, hackerspaces, makerspaces, biohackerspaces, etc. in their composition and subsequent re-composition – which are labelled or present themselves explicitly as tiers-lieux. The singularities of tiers-lieux, the way in which they translate their qualitative values into legal values and quantitative values, the exchange relationships and the critical habits of contributing users together with design structures are then analysed. From all this information, a proposed conceptual definition of tiers-lieu is formulated. This envisages the tiers-lieu as a particular social configuration which produces a meeting between individual entities who engage intentionally in the design of a common representation, that is to say a shared responsibility. Patterns are finally set out in order to outline an operating logic for determining the presence of a tiers-lieu configuration. This procedural approach provides a way of intervening in regulations through the design of services. It is this going beyond discursivity that distinguishes tiers-lieux from the public political arena.