Evolution and Development of HDB flat design

The Evolution and Development

There are five generations of layout designs for the building layout design.  It is on the changes based on the design philosophies, the policies and then the strategies.

The first generation of the layout design is the basic design (1960 to 1966). It is being built with simple slab blocks with exterior access of corridors with only one layer of flats lined along; each flat is being designed in a way which allows cross-ventilation. Some of the early developments in the towns are Queenstown, Kampong Tiong bahru Estate.

 A HDB flat at Queenstown

          One of the old flats at Tiong Bahru

The second generation of the layout design is the introduction of built form variety from 1967 to 1976.

During the 1967, the population in Singapore is very limited. The Design and Research Unit was set up within the HDB in 1969 to standardise the building layout design in the year of 1973. The population declined and thus the development of the HDB flats was relaxed and more open space was provided.

In the 1968, the Queenstown neighbourhood 4 is introduced due to the demand for greater privacy. However on each floor, there are only four units each clustering around the lift core which made living uneasy.

Examples of 4 flats in a HDB building

During the same period of time, different height variations of buildings were introduced in order to provide space for the ground level.  Buildings were constructed in many different levels like 20 storeys high to 24 storeys high. The different forms of buildings in the town helps create the town’s identity and enhance the look of the town. 

Built form as means for holistic urban design during the 1977 to 1981 is the third generation evolution of the HDB buildings. 

This generation was by building the HDBs through the introduction of concept. The buildings focuses on a certain activity centre like for example, children’s playground, basketball courts and even exercising area. All these building are built in different heights and by having a variety of high and low buildings; it allows different spacing between the buildings and it also creates a variety of very interesting spaces.

Asia Insurance building

Interesting spaces and heights

 The fourth generation is the first intensification of land use during the 1982 to 1990.

Comparing with those in the previous generation, the layout plans in this generation seems to be more rigid and orthogonal; some examples are the Yishun and Hougang buildings. These buildings have rather rigid layouts and that the buildings are closer and the spacing is tightened together and thus making the space of the flats bigger and hence portraying a concept of cells being branched out in different directions.

Branching out in different ways; all the spaces are tighter together like a cell.

There are three categories of the architecture design. The first category consists of special designs where the building to face the seas or natural vegetation or places of beautiful scenery. The second category consists of buildings with protruding or distinctive forms to give the building identity along the perimeters of the roads or distinctive forms and located along the perimeters of expressways, major roads and vista points. The third category consists of buildings which has basic prototype designs through models in different scales than finally building them to the real scale building.

During the fifth generation, there is a diversification of design and designers. In this generation, the Design-and-Built Scheme is introduced in 1991 and the Design Plus scheme in 1995. The HDBs have a larger range of varieties where not only the exteriors are built; the interior space is also designed for the buyers thus giving a larger and wider range of varieties. One-third of all public housing would be Design-and-Build flats, another one-third would be Design Plus flats, and the rest would be standard HDB flats. This helps to make the choices of HDBs a much wider choices and also feed in to the buyer’s needs. Each of the blocks would be grouped into small estates and each bock will normally have an integrated car park.

Current HDB flats

 In conclusion, through the years, the HDB flats became more spacious and lifts are also built in almost every floor for the buildings. The people also have better living standards after the years pass by and that most of the flats are either 4 or 5 room flats. The flats are also build taller therefore saving the spaces and more apartments for people to live in.

A typical HDB building's FLOOR PLAN:

Construction techniques

During the 1980s, HDB adopted Pre-fabrication technologies. This reduced construction time and manual labor. Partition walls, windows, doors and other fittings were mass produced in factories and transported to site to be assembled together. And the structural elements were cast on site. The depth of a building is about 2 times the height of the height of the building itself in order to support the whole building preventing it from collapsing.

Construction site

Functional designs:

The HDB uses a Utilitarian and efficient method of design. This makes the building of the flats to be fast, affordable and compact. Early flats were 1, 2 and 3-room types. Individual units are linked by common corridors and are vertically connected by staircases and elevators. Each unit is wired with telecommunications network and allocated mail boxes. They are also equipped with basic amenities such as electricity, water kitchen and sanitation. The first level of the block is usually a void deck for communal activities and interaction.

Living Room

Kitchen functions