Francesca Specter is a London-based author, podcaster, and freelance journalist, specialising in writing about solitude, loneliness, and interior design through a psychological lens. Her debut non-fiction book, 

Alonement: How to be Alone & Absolutely Own It

 (Quercus, 2021), is a personal development guide inspired by the experts she’s hosted on her award-nominated podcast, also called 

, and elsewhere, and has appeared as a commentator on BBC Woman’s Hour, Sky News, and Times Radio.

People are redefining status for themselves using a broad range of factors beyond solely economic ones. This new iteration of status is often based around increasingly niche and local signifiers, and status is becoming a mode of belonging and connection with like-minded people.

Insider Status

As the new post-pandemic normal settles in and people adapt to a context of uncertainty, constant adversities, and pessimism, we are moving away from a moment in which consumers expected brands to rise up to society's challenges and into one when they’re demanding genuine allyship from businesses.

Shared Values

Since White’s, the first private members’ club, opened in what became known as London’s ‘clubland’ in the late seventeenth century, these spaces have been known for their controlled access – selective entry, polished interiors and a space that was a cut above the ordinary. 

The Week

 But the codes of membership are shifting. Rather than signalling distance through formality, a new generation of members-only spaces is borrowing from the language of home – deep sofas, bookshelves, plants, layered lighting and rituals of everyday comfort. These spaces still sell access, but increasingly brand that access as an emotional experience of ease, familiarity and belonging. As architect Hana Kassem puts it, “We’re seeing a huge influx…of hospitality-infused spaces [across] pretty much every typology”, as offices, clubs, hotels and cultural venues borrow from one another. 

Interview with Hana Kassem conducted by the author

The appeal is not simply aesthetic. As work and leisure time begin to merge, people are seeking spaces that can offer benefits across more than one area of life – somewhere to be productive, decompress and experience low-pressure social contact without having to make separate plans. In the UK, only 

 worked from home pre-pandemic; now 14% work exclusively from home and a further 28% work in a hybrid way. 

Office for National Statistics

 But remote work has only one driver. Professor of Ethics, Richard Kyte, argues that screen-heavy lives can make people feel as though they have “less discretionary time than previous generations”, making spaces that combine work and social interaction especially appealing. 

Interview with Richard Kyte conducted by the author

 Loneliness, the decline of everyday third places and the desire for low-pressure social contact are also pushing people towards environments where they can work, rest, meet others or simply be ‘alone together’. Kyte describes this as “a period of…social experimentation with ways of connecting with one another”, with these spaces providing “a kind of structure for social connection”. 

This is creating a belonging economy in which community, comfort and identity are packaged as part of the membership offer. For brands, the opportunity is to make paid access feel less like a status symbol and more like professional and social infrastructure – a reliable place to return to, a weekly routine and a sense of being part of something larger. Yet this coincides with the decline of public and informal third places. Commercial spaces are stepping into the gap, but only for those who can afford the subscription fee. The challenge for members-only brands is to create spaces that feel open, useful and emotionally resonant without making belonging feel over-designed, performative or exclusionary, especially when the promise of community remains, by definition, gated. So how can members-only brands sell access to community without making belonging itself feel like just another premium product?

Members-only spaces are becoming hybrid homes away from home

As hybrid work makes the 9-to-5 office less of a norm, members-only spaces are positioning themselves as more flexible than either a workplace or a leisure venue. They offer a place to open a laptop, take a meeting, have coffee, attend an event, exercise or meet a friend, all within the same branded environment. A membership to 

, a workspace and cultural venue with locations in London and Lisbon, costs around £3,000 a year, while 

 membership ranges from £1,950 to £4,500, placing these hybrid homes away from home firmly in the premium lifestyle category.

The design language of these spaces helps them occupy this in-between role. Rather than looking purely professional or overtly luxurious, they increasingly draw on residential cues such as low lighting, textured fabrics, soft seating, plants and bookshelves. In a workplace survey of nearly 17,000 office workers across 15 countries, it was found that just 14% of the global workforce now say they want a traditional corporate workplace experience at all, with residential environments ranking among the most desired alternatives 

Gensler

 For Kassem, this is part of a post-pandemic reversal: “Just in the same way that we extended the workplace into the home by working remotely, now is the reverse trend of bringing…the comforts of working at home back into the office.” 

But the rise of these spaces also reflects a wider middle-class search for routine, atmosphere and connection outside the home. For Kyte, part of the appeal is efficiency – even though people may have more control over their time than in the past, so much of that time is taken up by screens that they “feel like [they] have less discretionary time than previous generations”. Hybrid members’ spaces respond by allowing people to combine social interaction with the time they are already spending at work. 

 Hybrid working is unevenly distributed – degree-educated workers are far more likely to do hybrid work than people with no qualifications, and the likelihood of hybrid work increases with income. 

 This points to a high-earning demographic able to pay for attractive third spaces that turn fragmented routines into something more curated. At the same time, pressure on older members’ club models is evident – Soho House’s share price dropped from above $14 in August 2021 to $7.64 in 2025, suggesting prestige alone may no longer be enough. 

The Guardian

If older members’ clubs signalled status through heritage, rules and visible exclusivity, newer spaces are using the unifying power of shared taste instead. Their appeal often lies in the feeling that everyone has chosen the same kind of world: one of art books, warm lamps, houseplants, seasonal menus, wellness programming and casually curated culture. 

 in New York makes this explicit in its promise of “a second home for the creative and curious”, while 

 describes its membership as a “hand-selected community” for independent thinkers and cultural innovators. In this context, interiors are not just decoration; they become a form of social shorthand, helping members feel they are already among people who share their references, routines and aspirations. Kyte argues that third places have traditionally worked because “they give us a community to belong to,” while regular membership helps people develop “the habits of meeting…the same people on a regular basis”. 

This is why the ‘home’ aesthetic has become so valuable. 

 describes itself as a place where Lisbon’s creative community comes to work and is known for its dense greenery, ‘urban jungle’ atmosphere, cultural events and wellness programming. Coverage of Second Home’s design highlights its deliberate use of biophilia, domesticity and serendipity, with 

 and a rejection of conventional office trappings. For Kassem, this cultivated informality is central to the sense of belonging – spaces increasingly want to feel “natural and sort of effortless…carefully curated, but not ostentatious”, with eclectic materials, tones and fabrics creating “a little bit of everything for everyone”. She argues that the best environments leave room for people to feel, “I can get in here. This is my place. I can adjust it. It’s about me as well.” 

The commercial logic is clear: shared taste can make belonging feel practical as well as atmospheric. The iSeatz membership report found that 35% of members rank interacting with people who share their interests among the top three aspects of membership they value most. 

Associations Now

, which blends workspaces, lounges, restaurants, roof terraces, wellness events and panel discussions for a self-selecting community of creatives and professionals, and 

, an ex-private members’ club turned community space which hosts live performances, talks, workshops and ‘campfire’ events that are positioned as an antidote to loneliness and disconnection in London. 

Luxury London

 also positions co-working as a hybrid social experience, combining open workspaces, meeting rooms, private offices and a café in a former Royal Bank of Canada building that is open to both guests and members. For members-only spaces, the opportunity is to use taste to create repeated reasons to return and recognise others, without allowing cultural codes to become a subtler form of exclusion. As Kassem puts it, the most effective third places allow people to “meet with others or sit by yourself, but still be in community, alone and together”. 

The rise of members-only third spaces reflects a wider unease about disconnection. Almost a quarter of UK adults say they feel lonely often, always or some of the time, rising to more than a quarter among under-50s. 

 The recent conversation around loneliness influencers reinforces this sense of lack – a cultural awareness that social connection is becoming harder to find, and a nostalgia for forms of community that once felt more embedded in daily life. As Kyte puts it, “We’re kind of biologically wired to desire some forms of regular person-to-person interaction,” and are now “looking for ways of finding that again”. 

At the same time, the everyday places that once offered casual belonging are under pressure. The UK is losing an average of 40 libraries annually, while more than 400 pubs in England and Wales closed during 2024. 

 Members-only brands are stepping into this gap by selling what might once have been ambient or unpaid: routine, recognition, shared rituals and the chance to become a regular somewhere. In Kyte’s terms, successful third places provide “a kind of structure for social connection”, helping people develop “the habits of meeting…the same people on a regular basis”. He adds that these spaces can simply feel good because they provide “daily structure” to the lives of people. 

This is the belonging economy – now anyone can have a second home, provided they can afford the monthly fee. Clubs, co-working spaces, apartment-hotels and cultural spaces are packaging communities as part of the product, often through names, slogans and interiors that make paid membership feel emotionally familiar. But the promise is complicated. Kyte argues that “There’s a deep human need for being part of a community,” yet warns that the future may split between people with the means to curate rich social networks and those left in a more fragmented world of hyper-individualism. 

, the women’s co-working network that classed itself as a “women’s utopia”, raised $117 million and grew to 12,000 members before collapsing in 2022. This came about after staff and members accused the members' club of selling an intersectional sisterhood it didn't actually practice, prioritising women with privilege and money, while staff described racism and mistreatment. A digital walkout and staff protests eventually forced the founder, Audrey Gelman, to 

 in 2020; the brand never recovered after the scandal. For members-only spaces, the opportunity is to answer a real need for connection while recognising the risk that social infrastructure becomes another premium lifestyle add-on.

Brands can use resimercial design to make paid membership feel less like entering a prestigious space and more like being invited home. Rather than relying on luxury alone, members-only spaces can create belonging through tactile, adjustable details: cushions instead of fixed upholstery, moveable chairs, warm lighting, plants, rugs and spaces that invite members to leave a trace. For Kassem, these micro-adjustments matter because “someone’s feeling of being able to make these micro adjustments to their own personal comfort physically…translates into care.” She also argues that hospitality-led design begins with accommodation: “What are your personal, physical, cognitive needs, and even emotional needs, social needs?” 

 The opportunity for brands is to treat interiors as emotional infrastructure, not decorative styling, using neuroaesthetic and human-centric design principles to create spaces that feel coherent, fascinating and homely enough for members to inhabit as their own.

As members-only spaces span work, leisure, wellness and hospitality, brands can justify membership by being useful in more moments of the week. The most compelling spaces are deliberately hard to categorise: part co-working, part club, part hotel lobby, part gym and part cultural venue. This flexibility reflects what Kassem describes as a move towards environments that accommodate “a huge variety of needs and desires within this space”, where someone might work quietly, meet others, eat, exercise or simply be in public without pressure to perform socially. 

, which brings together hotels, clubs, co-working and wellness across European locations from Milan to Mallorca, shows how hospitality brands can turn blurred typology into a membership proposition. The opportunity is to design membership around rhythm rather than category, giving people one trusted place that can flex between productivity, restoration and connection.

Members-only brands have an opportunity to position themselves not just as places to access, but as emotional infrastructure for people who feel under-connected. This means designing rituals, events and routines that help members become regulars, not just visitors. Kyte argues that social connection depends on repeated, face-to-face contact, noting that people are seeking ways of finding that again in a world where daily interaction is no longer built in. 

 But commercial belonging must be handled carefully. Around 86% of people globally say comfort is highly important to them, but only 66% experience it often at home, suggesting that these spaces have an opportunity to offer the experience we lack in our actual homes: relaxation. 

IKEA

 The opportunity for brands is to offer comfort, continuity and community without making loneliness feel like a lifestyle problem solved only through subscription.

) of UK adults say they feel lonely often, always, or some of the time in early 2026, rising to 

 of US employees work remotely at least part of the time, representing over 

 of members rank interacting with people who share their interests as one of the top three aspects of membership they value most

The members’ club space is shifting from formal exclusivity to a welcoming atmosphere where membership comes in exchange for community

As home, work and leisure blur, members-only spaces are becoming hybrid environments where members enjoy working, socialising, wellness and cultural programmes

Brands are using interior design and hospitality cues to answer collective emotional needs, such as loneliness and a desire for belonging

Hana Kasseem is a principal at New York-based architecture firm, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. She specialises in human-centric and sustainable design, and has almost three decades of experience in the field.

Richard Kyte, PhD, is the director of the D. B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership and endowed professor of Ethics at Viterbo University, Wisconsin, US. He is the author of 

Gen Z (born 1997-2010)

Gen Y (born 1982-1996)

United Kingdom

United States

Luxury

Bars, pubs, and clubs

Work

These days, anyone can have a second home – for a monthly subscription fee. Members-only spaces were once designed around luxury, but today, urban professionals are increasingly seeking cosy third places that resemble their living room. What’s behind the rise of the ‘resimercial’ aesthetic?

Analysis

Francesca Specter

Hana Kassem

Richard Kyte

Related Macro Behaviours

Insider Status

Shared Values