5 REASONS WHY EACH SINGAPORE ESTATE IS UNIQUE

 

Singapore is a country that keeps redeveloping itself generating a series of sucessful of mass housing estates. We list the 5 unique nature that gives each mass housing estate its identity:

1. Most housing estates were located next to existing squatters established from pre-independance days. It is the existing squatter that give feasibility that these people can move this nearby.

2. The current generation in fertility age spell the architecture requirements the estate should have. For example, the housing estate in Tiong Bahru were for middle and upper Middle class people. This is evident in the garage provided for people in 1923. All inhabitants at that time were not British Subjects yet hence, the issue of affordability was not for everyone as most people were migrant workers sending assets to where they came from

3. The geography also help to create the pysche of the place. Before even the British set foot on Singapore, there were communities that settled informally in Singapore by entering the rivers. They occupy these land and made their own farms and businesses. These were known and Kang Chiu (Riverine) districts. People of these district did not depend on a ruling governance to start up. The Original inhabitants of East Coast area were mostly entrepreneur and people who help or worked for them. Their Psyche is therefore different from the Kang Chui (Riverine) Districts.

4. The children of the original fertility generation do populate the place as well. These children have their own behaviors based on the technology and sentiments of formative years. If you looked at Redhill Close, uniquely different for many HDB estate, there is a high proportion of Generation X inhabitants because the original inhabitants were Pre War generation people.

5. Geography + Original Generation + Offspring Generation = Improvised identity. This mix of different  generation is like a finger print or DNA of the people in that place !

 

This diagram shows Redhill Close built in the mid 1950's by the colonial government, Angmokio Developed mainly in the 80's and Seng Kang Developed mainly in the late 90's. Each estate have their own unique profile !

 

Before there was Redhill Close, this place was a hill village called Kampong Selomai according to a 1924 map. It was leveled off to make way linking Tiong Bahru to Queenstown. The dotted blue line is now Bukit Merah Road