Hdb Floorplans: The Best (And Worst) Layouts In Public Housing

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Been a silent stalker of RT for a while, and love reading some of the older RT blogs especially. Noticed along the way that many of the RT posts feature very 'interesting' floorplans! So, I decided to start a t-blog thread featuring the most unusual, interesting, creative and simply head-scratching HDB floorplans that RT has accumulated along the way.

Enjoy!

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A personal fave:

This 4NG flat is a staggering 134 sq m in size! Wow! The newer EAs aren't even that big!

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Another all-time fave:

The 3-room 'self-contained' flats of Tiong Bahru. Love the verandahs!

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From one of my fave, much older RT blogs:

Our Resting Place... Resale maisonette in Potong Pasir

This place has a huge floor area and amazingly high ceilings. Just read his t-blog to find out more!

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In the past, HDB blocks sometimes had 5-room flats along the corridors and 3- or 4-room flats at the ends (I guess this was one of the few ways they could get people to chose corridor units over end ones), and it sometimes resulted in configurations like this:

Where the flat ended up being wrapped around the block's central staircase. Must be a bit scary hearing people walking up and down the stairs at night while you are sleeping in your bedroom right next to the stairwell...

Edited September 11, 2011 by PublicLife

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Just love EAs!

This one not only has a utility room large enough to be a 4th bedroom, but has a kitchen that is simply crying out to be turned into an open-concept island!

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In the past, HDB blocks sometimes had 5-room flats along the corridors and 4-room flats at the ends (I guess this was one of the few ways they could get people to chose corridor units over end ones), and it sometimes resulted in configurations like this:

Where the flat ended up being wrapped around the block's central staircase. Must be a bit scary hearing people walking up and down the stairs at night while you are sleeping in your bedroom right next to the stairwell...

Woah I wonder who came up with this layout! Yes, it will be very errie at night.

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From one of my fave, much older RT blogs:

Our Resting Place... Resale maisonette in Potong Pasir

This place has a huge floor area and amazingly high ceilings. Just read his t-blog to find out more!

I also like my high ceiling too, at least they dont make u feel too "squeezy"

[PublicLife 0]

I also like my high ceiling too, at least they dont make u feel too "squeezy"

Yup. It sure is lovely! Was admiring it some time back, and was hoping to get a top-floor unit some day too but the prices now are unbelievable...

And, for all those who may be interested, Berry Surprise has a HDB 'penthouse' of this configuration:

[PublicLife 0]

In the past, HDB blocks sometimes had 5-room flats along the corridors and 4-room flats at the ends (I guess this was one of the few ways they could get people to chose corridor units over end ones), and it sometimes resulted in configurations where the 5-room flat ended up being wrapped around the block's central staircase.

In a continuation of this pattern, the HDB also created EA / 5-room blocks, where the EAs were along the corridors and the 5-rooms were at the corners, like this:

So, if you wanted a really big EA, you had no choice but to pick a corridor unit...

But if you wanted 'privacy', you had no choice but to pick a rather oddly configured corner 5-room.

(I can't help but wonder why on earth one of the common bedrooms is sandwiched between the living room and dining room...)

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An all-time popular choice:

The point-block 5-room flat.

One of HDB's earliest (and most rational designs), this layout sensibly puts the storeroom near the front entrance (making it useful as either a pantry or shoe cupboard), has a kitchen that's large enough to actually do cooking in (something that cannot always be said for newer HDB designs), has lots of windows (let's hear it for good ventilation!), and groups the bedrooms together near the dining / family area (as it should be!).

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Unfortunately, the trend of putting the common bedrooms in sometimes rather unlikely (and distant!) locations continued throughout much of the late 1980s / early 1990s... as in the layout below, which strangely enough puts the common bedrooms at the opposite end of the flat from the common toilet (that would surely make things rather difficult if one needs to use the toilet in a hurry in the middle of the night!).

Edited September 11, 2011 by PublicLife

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Of course though, this is the classic 5-room flat design of the 1980s and early 1990s (by the mid 1990s, everything had changed - in came service balconies, external rubbish chutes, then air-con ledges, and finally the infamous bombshelters, of course):

The balcony served as an excellent foyer (finally, a sensible area to deposit one's shoes before going into the flat itself!), and the flat itself was essentially one giant square (more or less), making the placing of furniture pleasingly uncomplicated.

[PublicLife 0]

An all-time popular choice: The point-block 5-room flat.

One of HDB's earliest (and most rational designs), this layout sensibly puts the storeroom near the front entrance (making it useful as either a pantry or shoe cupboard), has a kitchen that's large enough to actually do cooking in (something that cannot always be said for newer HDB designs), has lots of windows (let's hear it for good ventilation!), and groups the bedrooms together near the dining / family area (as it should be!).

What a lot of people don't realise though is that HDB even built 4-room point block flats (there's one at Spottiswoode Park )!

The catch of course is that it only has one bathroom in reality (split into two - a W.C. and shower area - good for people who like to keep their 'business' separate ).

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What a lot of people don't realise though is that HDB even built 4-room point block flats (there's one at Spottiswoode Park )!

What's even rarer though are... 3-room point blocks!

Again though, they suffer from the 'one toilet' syndrome... And the bathroom does seem to suffer from some serious ventilation issues (any 'big business' in your toilet is quite likely to stink out your bedrooms, kitchen and possibly the dining room as well!).