SINGAPORE – Home owners could in the future be able to decide if they want their new Housing Board flat to have a home office or larger but fewer bedrooms, with the Government mulling over allowing people to choose their home layout.
“We’re thinking along the lines of designing HDB flats with more open floor plans so home owners have flexibility to configure the various spaces according to their needs,” Minister for National Development Desmond Lee told The Straits Times.
“Among flat buyers, one household may want to have rooms suitable for teleconferencing and working from home, while another may opt for bigger rooms.”
Observers said the move would likely help home buyers who do major renovations after they receive their flats.
Mr Nicholas Mak, head of research and consultancy at ERA Real Estate, said that if owners can decide at an earlier stage to eliminate certain walls to make a space larger, that would save time, energy and resources. But he noted that such flexibility would likely apply only to larger flats since there is more space to play around with.
Details are still being worked out, Mr Lee said, but the idea is to bring flexibility into the home, similar to the way public spaces are being designed so that they can be used for different purposes and are easily reconfigured.
For example, during the Covid-19 outbreak, schools and community centres were repurposed as vaccination centres, while convention centres such as the Singapore Expo were turned into community care facilities to treat mild Covid-19 infections.
Mr Lee was speaking to ST at the Jurong Town Hall earlier this month, ahead of next month’s opening of an exhibition that will detail how Singapore plans to use its land over the next 50 years.
The exhibition comes after a year-long public consultation exercise, which canvassed views from more than 15,000 people and was carried out as part of Singapore’s long-term plan review, which takes place once every decade.
Singapore, with its small land area, faces evergreen challenges, such as striking a balance between development and the conservation of built and natural heritages, said Mr Lee.
As part of the review, for instance, the National Parks Board has prepared a map that details how Singapore’s green spaces can connect with one another, providing wild animals with passage across the country’s fragmented forest landscape. This islandwide connectivity map, which can guide future development, will be unveiled during the exhibition next month.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority, meanwhile, is mapping Singapore’s heritage assets such as historic sites, heartland heritage and conserved buildings so that these can be woven into the landscape.
The review also has to tackle certain challenges that have become more acute, such as climate change and rising sea levels, which threaten the Republic’s coastlines.
The geopolitical situation around the world is increasingly fraught, and while the public health threat posed by Covid-19 is waning, Singapore should also prepare itself for future outbreaks, Mr Lee said.
“And so you can understand why in this long-term plan review, we focus a lot on how to strengthen resilience, how to build in flexibility and adaptability, and retaining optionality for future generations,” he said.
This concept of optionality – or being far-sighted and setting aside land for future generations – is a principle that has guided land use in Singapore previously, Mr Lee said.
He cited Marina Bay as an example, saying reclamation of the area started in 1971, just a few years after Singapore gained independence in 1965.
At that time, there was still a lot of underdeveloped land in Singapore, Mr Lee said. The fledgling Government also had to grapple with a lack of resources.
“It was a decision… whose benefits would not be reaped in that generation,” he said. “But it safeguarded land for the expansion of our city, and today we reap the fruits.”
The Marina Bay area now not only houses Singapore’s signature skyline of skyscrapers, but also boasts many sustainability initiatives, including an energy-efficient district cooling system and a green lung in Gardens by the Bay.
Going forward, Mr Lee pointed to the redevelopment of the Greater Southern Waterfront as another bold move for the country.
At six times the size of Marina Bay, the redevelopment would require the relocation of two port terminals – in the city and Pasir Panjang – to Tuas, freeing up about 30km of coastline that can provide Singaporeans with waterfront living.
In April, HDB announced that around 6,000 units of public housing will be built on the Keppel Club site in the Greater Southern Waterfront.
Mr Lee also highlighted the Singapore Green Plan 2030 – a blueprint launched in 2021 that charts a more sustainable future for the country, with targets set out to protect its coastlines and food security, and cut reliance on fossil fuels – as another move requiring the work of many generations to achieve.
Singapore needs to take these bold steps, which may stir controversy and discussion, to refresh and rejuvenate the city, Mr Lee said.
“But we also need to be a sentimental society… We need to care for things that are not utilitarian in their own right, but also for more ephemeral things like environmental sustainability, nature, sentimentalism, memories,” he said.
Meeting Singapore’s growing needs and evolving aspirations in a finite city with land constraints will be challenging, which is why the Government consulted extensively in the latest review, Mr Lee said.
“We need to have solidarity and cohesion in order to meet all of Singaporeans’ diverse goals and aspirations within a very finite space.”
“Source: [HDB considering offering open-plan flats to give home buyers flexibility] © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Permission required for reproduction”
