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

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Why is the kitchen sink in the dining area?

Ha! Ha! Ha! I find it truly hilarious that the HDB decided to plonk the kitchen sink in the dining room of this poor flat... On the plus side though, I'm sure that this has certainly made it easier to wash the dishes after meals! Just turn around and put the dirty plates in the sink - you don't even have to get up from the dining table!

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As always, I love trawling though old RT t-blogs to see what sort of flats Renotalkers have had to deal with over the years. Here's an interesting one that's almost perfect except...

Courtesy of The Green House

for the fact that the whole top edge of the flat is quite sharply slanted. Most peculiar!

Other than that, it's really pretty well-designed overall. The master bedroom comes with a niche that's just perfect for the wardrobe and bath 2 faces the common bedrooms (as it should be).

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Here's another interesting one that on first glance seems to be a 3-room flat (after all, it only has 2 bedrooms).

But looking at it closely, my guess is that it's probably a 4- or 5-room flat (the common bedroom is labelled "Bedroom 3", which suggests that there was a "Bedroom 2" as well at some point...) and that the previous owner must have knocked down the walls to one of the bedrooms in order to expand the living area.

Courtesy of Our New Home

However, I've never seen a 4- or 5-room flat quite like this before. Interesting...

[beluga 1]

Here's another interesting one that on first glance seems to be a 3-room flat (after all, it only has 2 bedrooms).

But looking at it closely, my guess is that it's probably a 4- or 5-room flat (the common bedroom is labelled "Bedroom 3", which suggests that there was a "Bedroom 2" as well at some point...) and that the previous owner must have knocked down the walls to one of the bedrooms in order to expand the living area.

Courtesy of Our New Home

However, I've never seen a 4- or 5-room flat quite like this before. Interesting...

It should be a modern 110sqm 5-room but I'm surprise that there is no bomb shelter. I thought ALL BTO unit nowaday comes with it?

[sleek 2]

Woah... Really have to wonder what JTC was thinking at that point in time...

"Hey, boss, I think we should put the entrance to the shower in the balcony!"

"Yah. Good idea! People definitely want to walk through the balcony wrapped in nothing but a bath towel!"

"And we should also put the rubbish chute in the balcony so that people can...um...throw away rubbish on their way to the toilet!"

"Wah! Super great idea!"

actually, i dont know why they called that a balcony, cos it is actually the service yard and faces the 'balcony' of the flat next to it (4 per floor). besides having the unique single toilet-shower it also has 2 doors into the house like mae29's place.

[mae29 2]

actually, i dont know why they called that a balcony, cos it is actually the service yard and faces the 'balcony' of the flat next to it (4 per floor). besides having the unique single toilet-shower it also has 2 doors into the house like mae29's place.

These blocks in Boon Lay (built in 1976) are much older than the flats in Pandan Gardens (built in 1979) But I like the older flats built by JTC, in terms of floor layout (toilets are located in the back or hidden in a corner, unlike newer flats with toilets in the centre of house!!).

[PublicLife 0]

These blocks in Boon Lay (built in 1976) are much older than the flats in Pandan Gardens (built in 1979) But I like the older flats built by JTC, in terms of floor layout (toilets are located in the back or hidden in a corner, unlike newer flats with toilets in the centre of house!!).

Actually that's why I like the old Tiong Bahru flats as well... Toilets nicely tucked by the side or back of the flat.

[kaylinpickles 1]

Not 100% sure if this is from the Ang Mo Kio round block, but it must be from some round block somewhere in Singapore:

Frankly, I'm not too sure that I'd enjoy living in a flat shaped like a slice of pizza, not matter how 'unique' it was or how great a view it had.

this is most definitely sembawang!

[edenstrauss 3]

There r flats in pasir Ris which r wrapped around the lift where it's a staircase in one of the floor plans uploaded here.

It is bad fengshui.

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Was nosing around some older t-blogs (my favourite pastime!) when I came across these interesting floorplans. I've honestly never seen any flats quite like them before!

Courtesy of My Dream Hse At Woodlands 4rm (104sqm)

The elongated storeroom near the front entrance is particularly unique. With its fascinating pair of slatted wooden doors (see some of the pics on the above t-blog), it seems almost custom-made to become a shoe cupboard! A most practical addition to an Asian home! Finally, a rare example of HDB planners designing an appropriate layout for local use!

Bathroom 2 is a little strangely configured though, with its kinked shower area... But I suppose it was the only way they could put a window in that toilet (i.e. facing the service balcony).

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I also found this layout fascinating:

Courtesy of Our New Place @ Clementi

In contrast to some flat layouts, which leave the dining area dark and dingy, this layout provides the dining area with its own windows (and light and fresh air!).

There is also an interesting niche in front of the bathroom in the master bedroom that is almost screaming to be turned into a walk-in wardrobe. Lovely!

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The thing about reading old t-blogs (some of which feature much older flats) is that you can really see the evolution in HDB's thinking and how they've determined what the typical flat owner needs in terms of storage space.

Take the above 'HDB house' and the flat below, for example:

Courtesy of Mun & Rebecca & Enen's New Home

They have a space called "Cupboard", which was obviously superseded by the ubiquitous "Store" and then later, the much maligned "Household shelter" that we've all seen in modern HDB floorplans.

But it's interesting how the SIT terrace house above has 3 cupboards: 1 in the living room (obviously meant to be a store room / pantry cupboard) and 1 in each of the bedrooms (obviously meant to be a wardrobe / clothes cupboard).

But in the 4-room standard HDB flat below, there is now only 1 cupboard, in the living room (obviously meant to be a store room / pantry cupboard). Clearly, by this point in time, homeowners were expected to build their own wardrobes in their bedrooms.

[PublicLife 0]

Courtesy of Minimalist Home @ Farrer Gardens

This flat below is a particularly interesting contrast to the one above:

Courtesy of Our Resale 3rm Flat @ Redhill Close

They have more or less the same layout, except that the one below has one less bedroom. And the entrances to the toilet and bath face in the opposite directions! One enters the toilet from the yard and the bath from just outside the kitchen. Bizarre!

[PublicLife 0]

Noticed a lot of new t-blogs featuring HDB's latest innovation: loft units. A very pleasant development on the HDB's part.

Courtesy of A New Beginning At Treelodge@punggol

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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...

Although most of us are familiar with the above layout for 5-room point block flats, this variation is also very nice:

Courtesy of Somewhere in Bishan

The bedrooms are all lined up in a row, and the dining room + living room + balcony space is huge! And the kitchen wall can easily be demolished and a lovely island counter put in its place, and the kitchen itself is big enough that you could even split it into 2 and create a wet kitchen and a dry kitchen (if you really wanted to!).