Spent a few days in Singapore, not as a tourist, though, I kind of realizing that visiting Singapore is just like visiting another same state of Malaysia for me, it is a 5 hours journey down from KL, just the same duration as opposite direction to Penang. I don’t find the excitement or surprise to visit Singapore, well perhaps because I visited Singapore in average once a year, and things like mobile prepaid link card are at my fingertips and perhaps even I am more familiar with the walking directions in down town compared to locals. Anyways so I spent one day walking around.. And if you give me two weeks time in Singapore, I believe I could have documented the whole island in a way. (well that’s what I believe i love to do)
Anyways Singapore, as we know, is a small island with the high demand of lands for any usage ( blog about it before at HERE) , here about is residential. Talking about Urban Fabrics of residential design, one could realize the difference betweenMalaysian and Singaporean Residential houses. What I really love about Singapore is that because that land is limited, thus designs really push spaces to the maximum, unlike bungalows in Bangsar or SS3, or some mansions in Penang where land size can be 8 times bigger than the house itself. Thus things like roof top gardens or balconies is no stranger to the Singapore context. And also we see a lot of mid density lots, or town houses, with 10-15 households bind together to an enclosed security area. ( well i will look more into documenting those places).
But i would like to visit Sentosa Cove next time, where high end Semi Ds will be. Basically in Singapore you don’t see any land public housing development anymore, things like the houses you find in Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya.. simply because the solution is HDB. Housing Development Board where flats are built with a particular guideline too (more at HERE) But the price of HDB is nevertheless doesn’t mean it’s cheaper compared to private properties.. some area or districts of the island can be so expensive. But i believe the picture below will illustrate better.
Well true! Imagine the price of their HDB is able to invest into a condo within KL center as well. The condos in singapore actually attracts me in a way that i think it’s a great testimony that the building and construction industry of singapore has to work well in terms of finance, particularly the developer. In condominium design , architects are always encouraged to provide varieties.. one of the piece that admire is Duxton, or the Pinnacle. I visited it last year, able to accomodate 2000 households with 20+ varieties of design. And floating gardens.. i think it’s one of the great example to Singapore city scape in times to come.
And also i hit around Newton area, where famously known to have Newton Suites with it’s distinctive floating garden too at 5 floors gap each. But Newton isn’t just about that single building, it’s an upcoming area of good high end condominiums with a lot similar to what i see at Newton Suites. What I mean is that the language of Floating garden, or common spaces in condominiums, or varieties in the design or construction industry here is well understood. In Malaysia I still see pretty much lego blocks, condominiums with repetitive designs stacking up against each other. Nope, no one is to be blamed, as perhaps our Architects are good enough but developers are playing safe with their money, they have nothing to lose so far because the benchmark of design in Malaysia is still yet to be like Singapore.
So really it does not come easy to improve the construction or building industry.
Architect may not be the key driver as most people assume that they are always the leader in projects, but the people should be the key of these answers”
For more Pictures of random Condominium shots in singapore, I am more than Glad to share with you at HERE. There are certainly more interesting comparison to be made in analyzing HDB flats design guidelines and our Malaysia conventional terrace houses guidelines and the effect of security and social, I shall find time for that.
