Public housing precincts in Singapore

Public housing precincts in Singapore are clusters of public housing blocks arranged as a single unit. Comprising an average of 10 blocks per precinct, they are collectively grouped into up to nine neighbourhoods per new town.

History

The Housing and Development Board, currently the sole public housing planner, designer and builder in the city-state, adopted the precinct concept in 1978, based on its understanding that social interaction and community bonding can be optimised in a smaller planning unit compared to a full neighbourhood. In addition, precincts are expected to evoke a stronger sense of security, although they are not physically fenced, and do not restrict movements for residents or outsiders in any physical way.

Tampines New Town thus became the first new town to be planned according to this model in 1980. This concept persisted in subsequent application of the model in other towns through to the present, although some modifications are noted, particularly in terms of precinct size and physical configuration. The increased usage of multi-storey carparks also allow flexibility in the provision of open spaces for each precinct, and the configuration of blocks to separate human and vehicular traffic.

While older new towns were not built according to the precinct concept, they were, nonetheless, often planned and built in batches otherwise similar to precincts. Major town redevelopment and upgrading plans such as the Main Upgrading Programme and the Interim Upgrading Programme in older estates such as in Queenstown, Toa Payoh, and Bukit Merah from the 1990s has involved the enhancement of the precinct concept, including the physical upgrading to collective groups of blocks, re-configuration of public spaces around them, and often includes the christening of names to these estates. In other cases, old groups of blocks are completely demolished and rebuilt under the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme, accelerating the evolution of these towns towards the precinct concept.

ocial impact

Lists of precincts

*Precincts in Ang Mo Kio New Town
*Precincts in Bedok New Town
*Precincts in Bishan New Town
*Precincts in Bukit Batok New Town
*Precincts in Bukit Merah
*Precincts in Bukit Panjang New Town
*Precincts in Choa Chu Kang New Town
*Precincts in Clementi New Town
*Precincts in Geylang
*Precincts in Hougang New Town
*Precincts in Jurong East New Town
*Precincts in Jurong West New Town
*Precincts in Kallang/Whampoa
*Precincts in Pasir Ris New Town
*Precincts in Punggol New Town
*Precincts in Queenstown
*Precincts in Sembawang New Town
*Precincts in Serangoon New Town
*Precincts in Sengkang New Town
*Precincts in Simei New Town
*Precincts in Tampines New Town
*Precincts in Toa Payoh New Town
*Precincts in Woodlands New Town
*Precincts in Yishun New Town

External links

* [http://www.enhr2004.org/files/papers/Lay%20&%20Zhang%20-%20Landscape%20forSustainble%20Housing.pdf Landscape for Sustainable Housing: A Critical Review of Landscape Design and Open Space Planning of High-rise, High-density Built Environment in Public Housing, the Case of Singapore]
* [http://library.thinkquest.org/C006891/passingprint.html 40 years at a glance]