Anglophone Western society is dominated by:
Attention-grabbing technology and interruption-tolerant work practices that makes concentration on long-term projects difficult.
Separated living arrangements focused on a single nuclear family or individual, and declining participation in community groups, which can lead to weakening of social bonds.
One way to tackle these might be for more people to live (even temporarily) in monastery or commune-like environments. The idea is to enforce disconnection from typical day-to-day routines in order to create space for deeper project or reflection work, or deeper social bonds.
Some quasi-monastic retreats exist already. They are typically focused on practices such as meditation, mindfulness, and spirituality — rather than also providing space for secular intellectual deep work. Considering medieval monasteries, that mixed religious observance with secular work (e.g. manuscript illumination, Mendel's pea experiments), this seems like a gap. Examples of these incomplete modern monasteries include:
Monasteries of the Future: A Summary
Esalen: Silicon Valley’s Crisis of Conscience
Esalen: Where Silicon Valley Is Going to Get in Touch With Its Soul
Within organisations, there is limited support for short-duration activities like offsite retreats, hackathons, or Bill Gates’ “reading weeks”. But these are often not really very deep or disconnected, and thus not very different to the existing norm.
Bill Gates took solo 'think weeks' in a cabin in the woods-why it's a great strategy
You might argue that some secular research function of the medieval monastery is fulfilled by universities, industrial research labs, and other research institutions. But the business of research is apparently now so bureaucratised and metrics-driven that it does not really seem to provide for the free, unhurried, disconnected enquiry that is the goal here.
Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system
The key aspect is a living arrangement and set of work practices that emphasises deep, craftsman-style work on a narrowly focused mission, rather than an expansive enterprise.
David Dewane’s “Eudaimonia Machine” might be one example of how to architect the monastery’s space to span the gamut of team interaction through to intense individual work. This would be combined with an appropriate daily schedule and rituals.