And at Belvedere Gardens, the latest phase of Southbank Place, flexibility of design is the key to attracting flighty-minded millennials. Interior designer Martin Goddard of Goddard Littlefair has come up with an “interchangeable gym space” that can be open plan or boxed off, sweltering for hotbox yoga or chilled for spinning, all designed to suit ever-shifting fitness fads.
Southbank Place Swimming Pool
“The social aspect is a big part of designing for the millennial generation and a large social space is at the heart of the design,” says Goddard. “There will be scope for many different user missions beyond fitness, including health and well-being, beauty treatments and relaxed socialising. Beauty treatments focus on «maintenance beauty» – very much the norm for this generation – from a top-up blow dry to waxing or threading. There is also a couple’s treatment room, which is possibly unique in the London development market and again responds to millennial trends.”
Finally, in east London’s Haggerston, a new boutique development on the canal has gone down the CODA route and made a promotional video. Two young bloggers are shown commuting to work in the City: one by Boris bike along the towpath, the other by kayak borrowed from the boat club opposite.
The development’s name, The Overdraught, may not resonate with a crowd whose bank accounts are always bountifully in the black (it’s actually named after the pub that once stood on the site and refers to part of the brewing process). But the carefree, city-centre lifestyle certainly will – and that’s what being a millionaire millennial is all about.