Can immersive design help cure loneliness? American urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s influential concept of ‘third places’ describes informal venues—bars, parks, community centres—where relationships naturally form. These are spaces beyond home (the first place) and work (the second place), where people linger, talk and build the ties that hold communities together. Oldenburg identified eight qualities that define these environments: neutral ground, inclusive ‘levelers’, conversation-centred, accessible and accommodating, sustained by regulars, low profile, playful and ‘a home away from home’.

Any medium can be experienced immersively—both physically and mentally—but to create genuine interaction, the audience must be able to react and make changes to the ‘environment’ itself.

Today, however, third places are in decline in many areas. Rising rents and operating costs are making cafés, independent bookstores and cultural spaces increasingly difficult to sustain.

Furthermore, there seems to be a correlation between this decline and the increase in social isolation. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped daily life, the 2021 Census Bureau’s Time Use Survey¹ showed that Americans were already spending markedly less time with friends. By 2024, the situation had worsened: 17 per cent of Americans reported having no close friends at all—up from just one per cent in 1990, the period when Oldenburg introduced the concept of third places. Meanwhile, nearly 35 per cent of Europeans say² they experience loneliness at least occasionally. As these numbers grow, societies are urgently searching for new ways to restore participation, proximity and everyday social connection.

In parallel, immersive culture—from spatial media to augmented reality and experiential venues —has grown into a global creative force. As communities lose their social infrastructure, the question becomes urgent: Can immersive design help us gather again?

Design is key to making this happen. Any medium can be experienced immersively—both physically and mentally—but to create genuine interaction, the audience must be able to react and make changes to the ‘environment’ itself. This interaction is what differentiates experiences that simply provide entertainment from those that strengthen relationships.

Immersion is rising—but connection is not guaranteed

Across the world, today’s immersive experiences—whether housed in billion-dollar arenas (location-based entertainment) or delivered to headphones on a park bench (immersive everywhere)—are reshaping where and how we gather, yet many celebrated immersive environments fall short as true places for interaction.

Las Vegas’s Sphere or teamLab Borderless in Tokyo generate awe, sensory saturation and spectacle—but they do not function as inclusive social commons:

• They’re not neutral grounds: high costs and travel limit participation.
• Conversation is not the activity: the social script is to watch, not talk.
• Their scale undermines Oldenburg’s low-profile familiarity, even if they inspire repeat visits.

If we measure these experiences against Oldenburg’s eight qualities, we can see which forms of immersion can strengthen relationships and which simply provide entertainment or other purposes, depending on the type of industry. This, I argue, points toward a new, relational paradigm: the ‘fourth space’, to renew social bonds and counter isolation. Therefore, the fourth space is defined by its relational intent, and although some of the examples below still have characteristics of the third spaces, they also have newly added features related to one key aspect: immersion in the service of relationships; not immersion that swallows attention, but immersion that returns the possibility of being with each other.

This gap points to a design opportunity: to shift from immersive environments that captivate individuals to immersive situations that cultivate community.

Enter the fourth space

I contend that fourth spaces are third places that use immersion with relational intent. They are not defined by technology but by what technology—and spatial design—make possible: environments where presence, participation and mutuality are centred.

Two added characteristics shape these spaces:

1. Instant, low-friction gratification: sensory richness, real-time feedback and micro-rewards that lower barriers to participation.

2. Consent-based personalisation: environments that adapt to people through data-as-knowledge—adjusting pace, visibility, difficulty or ambience in real time.

Together, these features support one key objective: keeping people connected with each other.

I contend that fourth spaces are third places that use immersion with relational intent.

Immersive designs pointing toward fourth spaces

Several recent projects show how immersive design can revive communal rhythms—each offering lessons for architects, designers and placemakers, for whom it opens a new frontier: designing immersive environments intentionally to rebuild belonging.

StoryTrails (UK)
A civic-scale immersive heritage activation

A nationwide initiative that uses AR, archival film and public libraries to activate town centres. By anchoring the experience in accessible civic spaces, it brought together families, teens and older adults in shared discovery.

Darkfield Radio
Collective ritual from home

A series of synchronised binaural audio experiences that created communal rituals at home—participants across cities listening simultaneously in the dark. Geography dissolved; connectedness remained.

Pokémon Go
AR as social glue

Research consistently shows that AR games like Pokémon Go increase users’ connection to their neighbourhoods and to people around them, transforming casual encounters into repeated social micro-interactions.

Ghosts of Solid Air (Anagram, in development)
Cocreation + civic reenchantment

Ghosts of Solid Air is an AR experience that invites participants to animate, disrupt and reimagine the statues embedded in public squares. Co-created with non-professional community producers, it transforms monuments—traditionally passive symbols—into participatory civic canvases. By turning pavements into sites of shared play, the project reveals how AR can catalyse conversation and collaboration in urban space.

The Waiting Room (Edinburgh)
Personali sed narrative + shared ritual

The Waiting Room, created by writer and director Natalia Yandyganova and developer David Gaynor, pioneers a new genre of adaptive theatre. Audience members enter a physical set but receive personalised scenes generated in real time using AI. This makes each participant the protagonist of their own unfolding narrative, while still enmeshing them in a collective emotional environment. By blending theatrical design with generative technology, The Waiting Room demonstrates how fourth spaces can be both intimate and communal—a place where people gather around stories designed uniquely for them.

Design principles for architects & spatial creators

To move from promise to practice, architects and designers can use relational design principles that translate Oldenburg’s traits into immersive-era counterparts:

These principles offer a roadmap for spatial practitioners: design for connection first, immersion second.

Immersion already shapes how we gather. The real question is whether we will shape it intentionally—to help us belong.

A new role for architects and designers

If third places defined community life in the 20th century, fourth spaces may become the programmable social layer of the 21st.

Architects, experience designers, technologists and cultural institutions share an extraordinary opportunity:

• To embed meetups around spectacle.
• To prioritise accessible, civic venues such as libraries and plazas.
• To design the emotional and relational infrastructure, not just the sensory one.
• Awareness of the social environment and shared history.
• Aim is not just enchanting the senses, but deepening relationships.

The main difference between immersive experiences, that are not fourth spaces and those which are, does not come from their commercial provenance, or mass appeal approach, but by the socially aware environment, taking the experience to a pre-existing setting with a shared history, rather than placing it in a bespoke backbox, so the audience can react and edit that environment.

Immersion already shapes how we gather. The real question is whether we will shape it intentionally—to help us belong. As Niantic’s John Hanke, the developer of Pokémon GO, says: “Stand up, walk outside and connect with people and the world around us.” Fourth spaces can make that invitation feel achievable, meaningful and shared.

References

^1.https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/the-state-of-american-friendship-change-challenges-and-loss/
^2.https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/projects-and-activities/survey-methods-and-analysis-centre/loneliness/loneliness-prevalence-eu_en

This article builds on a piece originally published on IE University’s Insights knowledge hub, offering an expanded narrative by Cristina Mateo.