Collaboration and community are the buzzwords of a generation. But we’re not talking about hipsters they’ve grown up and turned into ‘yuccies’ (Young Urban Creatives). From socialising to work and now holidaying, it seems the YUCs (who, us?) just can’t get enough of each other.
It all started with members’ bars – you know: Soho House, The Hospital Club, and now Lights of Soho. Exclusive but casual hang outs ‘where everybody knows your name’ and professional connections are made with gimlets in hand.
Then, work, with creative, shared offices or ‘co-working spaces’. Second Home in Shoreditch has all the traits of a members’ club: architecturally cutting-edge, a restaurant and bar downstairs, and a lengthy application process. Over at Netil360, the rooftop bar has just launched its co-working cabins. £50 a week, with all the office essentials: wifi, printers, plug sockets and… picnic space.
And now? The ‘co-working space’ has gone on holiday. Vila Lena in Tuscany may look like a traditional Tuscan retreat – 500 hectares of woodlands, rolling hills, olive groves and vineyards – but it’s really an artists’ residency (which reads like a Le Baron guest list), complete with a Brooklyn chef in the kitchen. Silencio has taken over Maison de l’Aiguebrun, a bohemian sprawling guest house in Avignon, for a summer to create a ‘community-orientated space that fosters creativity’, with, of course, its own culture program: think DJs, concerts and theatre. To book a room, you must apply. Finally, The Wapping Project may have lost its London home, but it has decamped to Berlin, offering residencies to artists. The aim? To provide 10 weeks of rest, recreation and reflection for artists mid-career. Easy as Y.U.C.
