Earliest Point Blocks

Before point blocks were built in HDB Estates, all residential blocks conformed to a standard slab design where as many as more than 10 units were served by a common corridor. The point blocks first started in 1970 when two blocks of 20-storey flats were built in Mei Ling Street at Queenstown with a mixture of 3-room and 4-room units. However, these blocks were designed with an eye to reduce homogeneity in public housing which accommodated four units on every floor so as to provide more privacy for the residents compared to slab blocks. Following the success of the pilot project at Mei Ling Street, the HDB went on to build more similar high-rise point blocks at Kallang Basin and also across the country with more 4-room and 5-room units being built over the next decade.
The first point blocks at Mei Ling Street under construction, 1969
Bendemeer Road point blocks similar to the ones at Mei Ling Street, 1970
20-storey point blocks at Moulemin Road, 1972
New point block at Tew Chew Street, 1972
25-storey 4-room point blocks at Bukit Merah View, 1973
The first Toa Payoh point blocks, 1973
Whampoa Drive point blocks, 1973

For more information on 5-room point blocks, click on the following link below:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Outram Park Complex

Image
Outram Park Complex used to be the site of Outram Prison for more than a century before it was demolished in 1966 to make way for this housing project as part of the Urban Renewal Scheme. It was one of the first complex to have a mixture of residential units and commercial shops in the Central Business District Area. A total of 12 16-storey blocks were all connected to form a shopping complex with 2 multi-storey carparks located at each end of the estate. They were completed between 1968 and 1970 before the-then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew officiated its opening. However, in the late 1990s, the complex was selected under the SERS en-bloc scheme and the residents were being relocated to new flats at Cantonment Towers in Tanjong Pagar. These blocks were painted in shades of rainbow before its demolition in 2003 and the land has been kept vacant since. Outram Prison, 1963 Demolition of Outram Prison and Outram Park Complex flats under construction, 1967 Newly-completed 16-st
Read more

Toa Payoh in the 1960s

Image
During the 2nd Five-Year Plan between 1965 and 1970, about 95,000 of Singapore's population moved into the new flats at Toa Payoh with a total of around 18,000 units. It is the first HDB Estate to introduce the Improved flats for 3 room units where each flat has an extension of the kitchen and balcony together with a separate bathroom and toilet. Such flats in those days cost $7500. New 16-storey flats at Lorong 3 and low-rise flats with a wet market at Lorong 4 Toa Payoh, 1967 2-room flats at Blk 120 Lorong 2 Toa Payoh, 1967 The newly constructed Food Centre at Lorong 5 Toa Payoh, 1967 10-storey flats at Toa Payoh Rise, 1968 One of the tallest flats in Lorong 2 Toa Payoh, 1968 New flats at Lorong 1 Toa Payoh in the vicinity of Braddell MRT station, 1968 An aerial view of Lorong 1 Toa Payoh from Kampong San Theng, 1968 Newly built 5 Food Centres near Blk 127 Market in Lorong 1 Toa Payoh, 1969 The iconic dragon statue in front of Block 91, 1969 New
Read more

5-room flats in the 1970s

Image
HDB introduced the design of 5-room point block flats in 1971 as a bold and imaginative move which would eventually help to bring down the cost of middle-class housing as the economy was improving at that time. Therefore, applicants whose income ranged from $1200 to $1500 per month would be eligible for registration to apply for 5-room flats. Each level of a 5-room point block served 4 units for privacy purposes. Most of these blocks stood at 25 storeys high. 5-room standard point block floor plan 5-room Improved point block floor plan 5-room slab block floor plan A typical 5-room Standard flat consist of 3 bedrooms, a living room, a dining room and 2 bathrooms cum toilets located in the kitchen and master bedroom of the flat. An Improved flat has an additional storeroom and extension of the master bedroom. When the first batch of 5-room point block units were completed in 1973 in the Farrer Road, Zion Road and Kallang Basin area, these flats cost $27500 in a new town
Read more