PublicLife

Woah! It even comes with a space that's denoted as "family"! So that's where you can hide the kids, if they get too naughty... But the problem with this place is that almost all the walls are solid black lines which should indicate that they can't been knocked down! So, spaces can't be opened up or walls removed. You're just stuck with this layout... forever!

Is it just my imagination, or does this very ... ahem ... unique-looking 3-room flat have two main entrances? Courtesy of Sanpok Chubby @ 3rm Bukit Batok Unless I'm reading this wrong, there appears to be one entrance from the access corridor (or "Accsee", as it has been mysteriously spelt - I think they forgot to run 'spell check' before submitting the layout to the master database!) and one from the balcony. Hmmm... interesting...

You're right! Very nice! This is also pretty great too... The study can already function as a bedroom (it's nicely walled off) and the flat has a great balcony at the entrance (makes a great foyer for the taking off and putting on of shoes - very important in the Asian context, which always makes me wonder why all HDB flats don't have it... hmmm...). Courtesy of My 5 Room Bukit Merah Flat T-Blog

Found someone who's got exactly the same layout as a jumbo plan that I found earlier. Interesting use of the balcony though... Courtesy of À La Maison

Yeah. It's hilarious how bathrooms 1 and 2 are together about the same size as bathroom 3. So, there's one hugeass bathroom and two teeny tiny ones... *shakes head*

When HDB decided to 'upsize' their flats, they came up with this (cue Händel's Messiah, the Hallelujah Chorus, playing in the background as you take in its utter awesomeness): (And, in case you can't do the math, I'll let you in on my calculations. It's approximately 174 sq m in size!)

What about this one then... Courtesy of Kitty's Cattery At the centre of the home is a... household shelter! HDB's message to all home owners: Run and hide!

Just for you, adidaem! Found an EA with three toilets!

Was trawling through the forum (as usual) when I realised that there are at least two Renotalkers living at the City View @ Boon Keng (a DBSS, which gives it the 'quality finishings' of a condo and the rigid rules of a HDB flat... oh what joy... ). Anyway, I don't know what anyone else thinks about this, but when I saw their floorplans, I realised that their master bathrooms have long bay windows, which could leave the occupants of these bathrooms ... ahem ... rather over-exposed, so to speak. Wasn't aware that Singaporeans were being encouraged to be quite so adventurous... Courtesy of Our 1st Home... Courtesy of The Manhattan Chic

Wow! The winner in the 'Longest Living Room in Singapore' awards has to be this guy: Courtesy of Cb's Reno Blog Even with furniture in it, he could play badminton in his living room! Or he could use it to do laps! The kitchen, however, is alarmingly small by contrast! At just 2.5m across, it's only big enough to boil water in... okay, maybe you might also have enough space to make instant noodles as well. And the poor neglected study is tucked away in a corner behind the household shelter... Makes for a perfect 'man cave' though... You could tell your wife that you're in there answering important emails from the office, while you are actually playing Football Manager! She won't be any the wiser...

Found this layout rather interesting: Courtesy of Cave Although this is obviously not a recently-built flat (it has no service yard or household shelter, and the rubbish chute is in the kitchen), this flat has (rather intelligently, I feel) a common bathroom which faces the living / dining areas and is easily accessible from the common bedrooms (like new flats - see above). Why the HDB could not have continued designing apartments like this is a great mystery to me...

An interesting variation on the typical EM model: Courtesy of Little Monkey's Tree House The 'study' is actually larger than the 'dining' area (they expect people to study a lot in Bukit Panjang, apparently... ), there is both a balcony and service balcony (Yay! Somewhere to hang clothes and somewhere to chill out outdoors!), and bedroom 3 actually juts out over the access corridor below (hmmm... no comment!). A very interesting design!

We've seen a lot of arrow-shaped flats pointing to the right, so just for fun, here's one pointing to the left: Courtesy of Chip & Dale

This is from the first DBSS in Bishan: Courtesy of Our 2nd Home In Bishan I'm not sure about you but I find this just a tad bit disappointing... This is supposed to be a 'designer' flat (i.e. some thought is supposed to have been put into its design) but with bedrooms that appear to have had their corners nicked off, I'm not sure that this is a vast improvement over 'regular' HDB flats. And the shape of the master bedroom is downright bizarre!

Yeah, it's weird. I'm certainly not a structural engineer, but logic would suggest that it would be easier (and cheaper!) to build blocks of flats that are squarish, rather than curved or triangular (I'm guessing that irregularly-shaped blocks probably required greater care, structurally-speaking, when they were being built). And if it is easier to build squarish flats, they could build them faster, right? And if they are cheaper to build, surely they could sell them to us cheaper too, right? And it would be a whole lot easier to furnish squarish flats too! I guess that's why most new HDB flats (since the early 2000s) have been of this standard configuration (more or less): Courtesy of How Small Is 92sqm? Courtesy of My New House @ 28b Dover Crescent In every case, the kitchen is immediately to the left or right of the entrance, and the service yard is just behind it. The living / dining areas are just a short distance in front. At the side of the living areas is a short passageway that leads to the bedrooms, which are neatly lined up in a row. The common bathroom faces the common bedrooms, while the master bathroom is just tucked at the side of the entranceway to the master bedroom. Everything is very sensibly arranged. Not exciting... but undeniably sensible.

Yeah, that can be a problem... I can imagine that, no matter how well the lift shaft is insulated, some sound leakage must occur. And the inevitable whine and hum of the lift mechanism might drive some people to distraction... One of the very first units I viewed while home-hunting was this one: The price was very reasonable, the interior wasn't half bad, and the block's location was great. The only problem was that the unit was wrapped around the block's central stairwell. So, every time anyone took the stairs, you could hear their echoing footsteps reverberating throughout the flat. It was very eerie... and irritating.

Rats! You guys should have gone for it! True, the living spaces are a little bit oddly shaped (just a little) but, as strikingreality points out, they can be opened up beautifully (think a loft, with a high-ceilinged entrance foyer, open plan kitchen, and built-in seating where the 'study' now is!) and the bedrooms aren't too bad (at least they aren't triangular! ).

Pointy flat alert! Anyone else noticed that the flat below is basically identical to the flat above, expect for the fact that the one below has oddly sloping window walls, making the balcony and common bedrooms irregular in shape. But why on earth did HDB bother? Strange... Courtesy of A.m.e Journey

In case anyone thinks that designing flats shaped like giant arrows is a new phenomenon on the part of the HDB, here's proof that it isn't: Courtesy of Lifestyle Blessed House

Thanks, MeRf! This is great. Yup. You've got the classic fan-shaped flat - the inevitable result of living in a curved or round block. Another strange quirk of the HDB... I mean round blocks... seriously! Got another one like it here: Courtesy of Our Haven @ The Roundabout And, of course, the extreme version of these are the 'slice of pizza' flats (like the ones mentioned above). Freaky!

Amazing! Found another 'slice of pizza' dweller! And these are the pics that really say it all... The 'top' of the pizza slice (I see where the estate gets its name from. It is indeed very... blue.): The 'bottom' of the pizza slice: Just looking at it gives me a slightly squashed, 'Alice-in-Wonderland-where-she-goes-into-the-rabbit-hole-and-gets-smaller-and-smaller' sort of feeling... Courtesy of A Unique Love Nest By The Blue Riverview

In addition to the HDB's continuing interest in flats with odd pointed bits sticking out of them, they have (over the years) shown an inordinate interest in curved walls and circles as well. Here's a prime example: Courtesy of City Living

I just love HDB flats with balconies attached to the master bedroom... It just seems so unexpectedly luxurious of the HDB to offer a place for homeowners to stretch out and enjoy the fresh air (I'm assuming here that the flat is situated somewhere fairly salubrious...) just a few steps out of bed. So, despite the somewhat crooked configuration of this flat (yeah, it looks as though the architect had one too many to drink when he came up with this one ), I can't fault his decision to give the master bedroom its own little balcony. Although, I probably wouldn't have made it such a peculiar shape... Courtesy of 128 Huat Ah!

Found more examples of flats with oddly pointed bits (seems to be a continuing obsession by the HDB): I really don't get it. What is that odd triangular bit next to the kitchen supposed to be for, anyway? What purpose is it meant to serve? You can't really put anything there (unless it happens to be triangular in shape, like a giant Toblerone, maybe?) and it's too small to serve any really useful function (like a triangular study, perhaps?). Oh well, another great mystery courtesy of the HDB... Courtesy of Our 1st Home @n-e And then there's this one... Now, not only do you have a mysterious triangular space in the master bedroom, it has a window in it! What a stroke of genius this clearly was! Now, not only is it just plain weird to have this odd pointed bit, it also can't be hidden or made part of your wardrobe, because, if you did, you would have also shut off the bedroom's only source of... natural... light... and... gasp... air. Yippee. Courtesy of Setting Up Our Own Home.. But, of course, this one really takes the cake... Here, both the living room and one of the common bedrooms have pointed ends. And Bedroom 2 is essentially triangular in shape! Sigh... Courtesy of Hi Everybody. Newbie Here. My 4a @cck

This flat just makes me cringe... Seriously! It looks as though some genius at HDB said, "You know what, guys. Just for laughs, why don't we take a perfectly normal-looking 3-room flat layout and tip it on its side and see what we get? Wouldn't that be fun?!" Sigh...