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

[Blooie 0]

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...)

I had viewed and considered getting a 5-room at Jalan Batu in this same exact config and even dimensions in the floorplan cos it was huge at 134sqm if I'm not wrong but the layout just didn't work. Wonder if it's the same one..

[dinobros 1]

Wow! The common bedroom is bigger (a lot bigger!) than the master bedroom. That's pretty strange.

All these units seem like after thought.

These block should have corridor units across all the floors, then all of a sudden, they decide to have only corridor on 6 and 10 floor only.

Since that is the case they decide to extend the length of the living room and 2nd bedroom. Resulting in such a layout

[cleong 1]

One problem that affects many flat designs is that the MBR has relatively less windows to other bedrooms because wall space has been devoted to the en suite bathroom.

[PublicLife 0]

A 2-room HDB flat:

Interestingly, there are a number of 2-room HDB flat types still available if you look around hard enough for one.

These are right above Tanjong Pagar Plaza:

And these are, of course, in Tiong Bahru:

[PublicLife 0]

However, a flat type that I've always found secretly delightful is the adjoined flat. Not only are they large (obviously since they are two flats combined into one), they have so much potential and are so well-equipped. Imagine... two kitchens (link one to your master bedroom and create your own master suite!) and up to four toilets (no need to fight over who gets to use the loo first!).

Courtesy of Restoration/renovation For Jumbo Unit

[PublicLife 0]

One problem that affects many flat designs is that the MBR has relatively less windows to other bedrooms because wall space has been devoted to the en suite bathroom.

Yup. And the problem for a lot of newer flats is that the kitchen seems to be plagued by the same problem - i.e. wall space is devoted to access to the service yard, so there are very few windows and the kitchen suffers from poor ventilation.

For example, the only windows in the kitchens in these 5-room flats face the service yard, which would mean that anytime you cook, your clothes would smell ... of ... whatever ... you ... have ... cooked. Oh yummy.

And this flat isn't much better. There's only one small set of casement windows, with the rest of the wall space devoted to access to the service yard.

Courtesy of Our First Nest In The East

Edited September 13, 2011 by PublicLife

[PublicLife 0]

Was reading old RT blogs again, when I found myself oddly fascinated with this floorplan:

Courtesy of First Home In Compassvale, Near Buangkok Mrt

Although this is clearly a fairly new flat (it has a household shelter, air-con ledge and external rubbish chute, after all), it also has bathrooms that are spaced very far apart. Almost on opposite ends of the flat in fact! Now, that's unusual for a new flat! (Although, I do very much like this design, however. Putting the common bathroom between the 2 common bedrooms is a sound and logical place to put it. )

Most newer flats, however, tend to look like this, with their bathrooms back-to-back:

Courtesy of Ea In The Far East Of Bukit Batok

Or, at least, adjacent to one another:

Courtesy of Hdb's Sers

(I suppose this makes building the flats easier, since piping for the toilets is all in one place.)

Older flats, however, sometimes have their toilets very well spread out, like this one:

Courtesy of Our Ea Reno At Pasir Ris

[Ms Polar 1]

Hi hi! Its really insightful to see so many unusual flat designs..

Talking about the lack of windows, I have one to share nevertheless. Imo, the placement of windows are quite odd in this flat design, especially in the MBR. This floor plan is from a 20+ years old EM in Hougang, there's an air well that extends all the way from the living room to the upper level. The circular area is actually not part of the balcony, but more of an extended living room area. Such living room extension should be quite common for EA or EMs in the Kovan area. However on the upper level, you can't make use of this extension but you have an odd angle window that is within the unit to get partial sight of the living room. I seriously do not understand the purpose of this airwell , wondering if there are any EMs with such airwell design in other parts of Singapore.

Airwell Top View (upper level)

Airwell View from MBR (upper level)

[cleong 1]

Rock climbing enthusiasts would love this design as it gives them a lot of wall space to play with!

[stardust205 0]

Wow.. It is so interesting to note there are so many weird HDB layouts out there !!

I was a part-time ppty agent, been to hundreds of houses but the collection here is still an eye-opener.

Yea.. you can start a book already.

[PublicLife 0]

Rock climbing enthusiasts would love this design as it gives them a lot of wall space to play with!

Hmm... This would give the expression "climbing into bed" a whole new meaning!

[steelze 0]

Airwell View from MBR (upper level)

i wonder how many air-con units i need to install in mbr itself make the room cold, especially with such a big lobang for the cold air to escape...

[strikingreality 0]

i wonder how many air-con units i need to install in mbr itself make the room cold, especially with such a big lobang for the cold air to escape...

Can seal up with a window? I would imagine that cleaning the airwell and the windows would be a big challenge!

[Ms Polar 1]

I'm still in the midst of my reno and so the casement window is still not up.

And in fact, I thought of blocking the window with a WIW in the beginning, but put off the idea subsequently as it would further cramped up the not so spacious room.

So after much consideration, i just let it be in the end as it's actually quite rare to have so many windows (around 5m) in the MBR to curtain up, not to mention the cost though.. LOL

Can seal up with a window? I would imagine that cleaning the airwell and the windows would be a big challenge!

[mrdisco 0]

What I really like about EMs is the huge potential to have a right sized open kitchen and an extremely generous living area. Since 2001, new flat sizes have shrunk dramatically. I don't even care if there's "lost" space with a staircase. You can never ever buy space with new flats. And that's a real shame...