CLOSED DOORS
TRENDS - Words by Bilen Zeremariam
London built the private members club, and for a long time it built it for one particular kind of member. Wood panelling, leather chairs, an unspoken dress code and an even more unspoken guest list defined the genre for well over a century, spaces designed to keep the world out rather than draw a wider one in.
What has shifted, particularly over the last decade, is who that world is for. Membership has moved from inherited privilege toward curated community, arts, culture, hospitality and creative industry replacing old money as the entry point, and the interiors have had to catch up. Few practices have shaped that shift as visibly as MAWD, whose portfolio reads like a study in how private space can still feel generous. We have picked four of their projects to look at purely through the interiors.
The Devonshire Club takes a route rooted in history. Originally a City warehouse for silks and fabrics, MAWD turned that past into a fashion led, mid century interior, working with a textiles house to translate vintage fabrics into colour and pattern throughout. A stone wrapped stair and custom handrail lighting anchor the entrance, while Murano glass chandeliers from Seguso, blue resin reception panels by Based Upon and a flamingo shaped floor lamp with a wink of humour carry that Fifties glamour through sixty eight bedrooms, three bars and a private gymnasium.
The Club, a confidential hotel and members concept in the Middle East, works from a more sculptural instinct. Textured panelling and sculptural ceilings run through its restaurant and bar, while statement art and sculpture greet arrivals, all built around a brief for flexibility between private and public space without losing any sense of exclusivity.
Boulud Privé rethinks the concept entirely, folding it into where its members already live. Set on the amenity floor of the Mandarin Oriental Residences on Fifth Avenue, this full floor restaurant by chef Daniel Boulud flows into a residents only lounge, bar and rooftop terrace with uninterrupted views over Central Park. MAWD wrapped the space in leather panelling and ribbed glass, part of a wider material language of stone, bronze and warm wood that runs through the whole building, so the club feels less like a destination and more like an extension of the residence upstairs, membership granted simply by holding the keys.
Then, on Sunset Boulevard, comes something genuinely different. Still confidential and yet to be built, this project fuses a historic art deco building with a new structure to its rear, connected by what MAWD calls an instagrammable stair in warm materials and polished metal. A rooftop deck, arranged like the levels of a yacht, will host a central bar and DJ booth over LA, exclusive apartments wrapping a garden and pool behind. It is a rare and genuine sneak peek at where the members club is heading next.
A private world does not need a velvet rope to feel special, it needs to feel considered, personal, built around the people actually inside it rather than the ones kept outside. Sunset Boulevard's yacht inspired decks and Boulud Privé's residents only dining both point toward the same conclusion from opposite directions, that the next great members club will sell belonging before it sells scarcity, and will feel more like being let into someone's world than being kept out of somebody else's.
