Hong Kong Institute of Planners
Seminar on The evolution of Singaporean HDB design:
An on-going experiment in high-density tropical housing
Guest Speaker
Mr. LEUNG, Kam-shing, MHKIP, AICP
Ph.D Candidate of the Department of Architecture at the University of
Cambridge
Date: 15 December 2009 (Tuesday)
Time: 6:45 pm – 8:15 pm
Place: Hong Kong Institute of Planners Premises (Rm 804, Stanhope
Hse, 734 King's Rd, Quarry Bay)
Introduction
Since the CE delivered his policy address, discussions on the escalating
housing price have been reverberating in the city, with housing affordability
for commoners being the main concern. Proposals for securing housing
affordability are competing for space in newspapers, among which the
re-introduction of the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) has aroused much
debate. While HOS housing are often regarded as a tool to serve those
being left out by both the market and the rental system, experiences from the
past and abroad show that public housing is not only built to fulfill basic
human needs, but also to offer many people a sense of security, affection,
self-actualisation, and facilitate guided urban development.
In fact, in town planners’ mind, the environmental quality and social
implications of public housing is as important as its affordability. Maybe
we can take this opportunity to step back from the current debate and revisit
broader issues behind the development of owner-occupied public
housing? In particular, can we learn something from our close counterpart,
Singapore, which currently runs the largest public housing scheme in the
world in relation to its size?
We are therefore delighted to have Kam-shing, a Hong Kong-born planner
and scholar who had taken a close look at Singaporean public housing
design in the past two years through his PhD study at the University of
Cambridge, to share with us his observations on Singaporean public
housing.
Outline of the Seminar
Kam-shing will trace the evolution of Singapore’s Housing and
Development Board's (HDB) housing design from 1960 to now, and probe
into the various forces that shape the residential skyline of Singapore. HDB
flats currently house some 80% of the whole population and are
predominantly owner-occupied. Non-standard design flourishes with the
privatisation of design since 1991. HDB housing now provides a rich
inventory of built forms for the study of high-density tropical housing.
The presentation aims to portray the social, economic and environmental
considerations behind the six “generations” of HDB development. In
particular, it reveals the Singaporean responses to some common issues in
public housing development. For example, how do they strike the balance
between design quality and affordability? How do they introduce design
diversity to low-cost construction? How do they attempt to avoid the social
problems of high-rise public housing as seen in the European context?
The presentation concludes by exploring the potential social and
environmental significance of government housing, which gives it meaning
beyond subsidised shelters in cities with severe land constraints.
About the Speaker
Kam is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Architecture at the
University of Cambridge, specialising on climate-responsive urban
morphology for high-density tropical cities. He previously worked as a
town planner in private consultancies and the Mass Transit Railway
Corporation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in architectural studies from the
University of Hong Kong and master’s degrees in urban planning and civil
engineering (transportation) from the University of California at
Berkeley. His current research is sponsored by the Sir Edward Youde
Memorial Fellowship, the Cambridge Overseas Research Studentship and
the Cambridge Overseas Trust Fund (honorary).