The HDB apartment blocks has become an icon of Singapore. It's the result and testament to one of the most successful public housing policies in the world. The void deck is its most distinctive feature.
In the past, HDB apartments are made of bricks - red bricks, laid one over another - but now, prefabricated walls come from factories. Many like to compare the new apartments to the old ones. Explaining that the old types give its inhabitants a sturdier feel - especially if one didn't watch cranes hoist concrete slabs to be joined together like lego toy bricks in the estate facing your windows.
Oh but isn't it a marvel of human engineering? It resolves problems like land shortage and rising labour costs with new technology.
Good design solves problems.
And which design rules did it break?
1. I think all over the world, except in Singapore, and some mega cities, highrise buildings were not usually associated with cheap, public housing, as they tend to be more expensive to build.
2. The Void Deck - why did who decide that the first level of all the apartment blocks be left empty. It seems intuitively not right to balance a tall and heavy building on just a bunch of sticks - other than if one refers to the kampong houses that were built on stilts.
