60 years of Our Singapore Housing

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 a...

Mei Ling Street Estate was the sixth neighborhood built in Queenstown in the late 1960s. The site of land at Mei Ling and Stirling Road used to be a Chinese cemetery until the graves were exhumed to make way for new flats. Unlike the 3-room standard flats built in other districts of Queenstown, the newer Improved flats with a kitchen extension and a separate bathroom and toilet were the second batch of flats built after Toa Payoh. By 1970, public facilities like the Swimming Complex, Japanese Garden and Stadium were built for the convenience of residents who can do their healthy exercises and breathe in fresh air. There used to be one-room flats in Mei Ling Street which they have been demolished in the 1990s to make way for newer and bigger executive flats. Today, the executive flats are worth at least $1 million. Newly constructed 16-storey 3-room flats, 1968  When lifts used to stop at alternate floors of the block Newly completed 2-room flats, 1968 The 1-room ...