Features of Singapore’s public housing scheme

Low cost to build and maintain, designed to be accessible for the maintenance crew. Easy for landscaping, watering of plants, easy access to the pipes and wires for the next 30 years. A good design will be inexpensive to maintain as low income families do not have a lot of money for expensive renovations.

Fast to build, with limited height. A practical point to consider is the capability of the local fire services or bomba. Can the fire engine spray water up to the highest floor? If the developer does not want to invest in water tanks with water sprinkler systems for fire safety, the height should be limited.

Limiting the height may also make it cheaper to build and fast to build, making it easy for the developer to replicate the project across different sites and different states.

Location must be close to jobs, otherwise the developer would have to spend as much money building the homes as they have to spend on roads and transportation infrastructure. The public bus service may not serve remote areas that are only populated with residences and no offices or commercial and retail components, as there would be low demand during non-peak hours and weekends.

Adequate support infrastructure including electricity, water, roads, telecommunications and amenities such as clinics, schools, shops, market, childcare centres and others. The amenities must meet the needs of the constituents’ age profile for example, young families with children would require childcare centres, paediatricians and sports facilities for the youth.

In the early days, HDB flats were simple and square with boring layouts that were fast and easy to build, and had solid and stable structures. Ventilation was an important aspect as air-conditioning was a luxury item in the past. The flats were also designed to encourage community interaction while safety was vital when it came to designing lifts and stairs. Waste and hygiene management was also important to ensure health standards.

Over time, HDB flats evolved from flat, plain blocks to homes with more flavour in terms of design and multi-storey parking began replacing on ground parking, as land became scarce and expensive while density grew. In areas where flooding is a problem, the structures were raised by 2m from street level.

More recently, the design of HDB flats have included aspects of environmental friendliness with greenery on the rooftops to absorb heat and solar panels to reduce the cost of operations and maintenance.