Cutting-edge HDB designs on display

Cutting-edge HDB designs on display

Ideas include ‘granny flats’, pick-your-own unit facades and ’sky villages’
By Tan Hui Yee, Housing Correspondent
EXTENDED families could live side by side, in separate but specially designed flats, while other home buyers could pick the specific facade they want for their unit.
These are some of the new faces of public housing and will soon be found first in Queenstown and then across the country.

These cutting-edge proposals were on show last night at the HDB Hub as part of a Housing Board exhibition. If the public backs them, work will start in three to four years.

Dawson Estate, highlighted by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National Day Rally speech last month, will be the testbed for such ideas.

Residents will eventually have their pick of more than 3,000 homes in three developments designed by award-winning Singapore architecture firms - Surbana International Consultants, Woha Architects and SCDA Architects.

The companies were told to design estates with spaces for neighbours to linger and chat while retaining the area’s heritage.

‘They have more than fulfilled this brief,’ said National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan last night as he opened the exhibition, which also showcased plans for Punggol and Yishun.

SCDA’s housing blocks, for example, will be more than 40 storeys high, comprising flats with lofts that could be joined to smaller adjacent units if extended families choose to live together.

If built, they will mark a return of the HDB’s multi-generation flats, or ‘granny flats’, which were introduced in 1987 for extended families.

They comprised a four- or five-room flat with an adjoining studio apartment with a separate entrance. A total of 367 units were built before they were scrapped due to poor demand.

Another idea, put forward by Woha, allows buyers to pick from a range of facades for their flats - which include balconies, monsoon windows, planter boxes and bay windows.

Woha also mooted the idea of ’sky villages’ - common high-rise spaces shared by every 10 floors - to encourage interaction.

There are also plans to retain the now defunct market along Commonwealth Avenue and integrate it with new developments, which would include a new plaza for community events.

Longtime Queenstown resident Hu Nguk Mee, 57, looks forward to the return of the district’s former bustle. It was one of the first new towns to be built by the HDB and used to teem with banks, eateries and entertainment outlets.

‘The new designs look really beautiful,’ said Madam Hu.

Singapore Institute of Architects president Tai Lee Siang said giving residents more flexibility in flat design and configuration will allow them to stay longer even as their household needs change over time. This will help foster a stronger sense of community spirit.

Source : Straits Times - 01 sept 2007