SINGAPORE
Record construction by Housing and Development Board
De- HE Singapore Housing & THE
velopment Board completed 12,098 units of flats and shops in 1967 bringing the total since the Board replaced the Singapore Im- provement Trust in 1960 to 79,187 units.
Some 18,309 housing units were being built at the end of the year the highest number yet recorded for flats under construction at any one. time.
The most interesting developments of the year 1967, according to the Board's recently published annual re- port, were the implementation of the new policy to incorporate provisions for hawkers' centres and flatted fac- tories in the Board's estate layouts. and the proposal to build a large sports complex at Queenstown. These developments, says the report, reflect the Board's intention to provide more and better facilities in its estates and in its housing and development work generally.
Of special interest during the year's resettlement activities were the clear- ance of the "Golden Mile" and other designated areas for the sale of Urban Renewal sites to private developers,
the clearance of further areas in Precincts N1 and S1 for new Urban Renewal projects in these localities. the rehousing of tenants in the old Singapore Improvement Trust "arti- sans' quarters" under the various es- tate redevelopment schemes, and the clearance of squatters and settlers in connection with the continued pro- gress of projects and developments at Toa Payoh, the "cut site" at Siglap Plain for the East Coast Foreshore Reclamation, Kallang Basin Reclama- tion and the development of the ad- ditional Neighbourhoods 6 and 7 at Queenstown.
Development and Surveys
New designs for the construction of multi-use buildings under the Ur- ban Renewal Programme were intro- duced during the year. These designs are the result of the Urban Renewal Department having recourse to “strata zoning" instead of traditional zoning concepts which have influenced local planners in their work up to now.
The use of "strata zoning" is a major innovation not only for urban renewal but for urban planning and development in Singapore as a whole.
In the wider context of the Board's activities as a housing and develop- ment authority, the most important event was the signing of a "plan of operation" under which the United Nations. at a cost of over $$15 mil- lion, will help to plan and co-ordinate the development of Singapore over the next 20 years.
As part of the plan, a S$3.4 million contract was awarded by the United Nations to an Australian firm to form. with local officers as counterparts, the "State and City Planning Project" under the control of the Ministry of National Development.
This project is to produce by 1970 a comprehensive urban renewal and development planning programme, a traffic and transportation plan, a set of guiding principles for urban rene- wal and development planning, a comprehensive data bank with ma- chinery for up-dating and collection of data through sample surveys to permit up-to-date projection of the future trends for planning purposes, and to train local staff who will con- tinue with the work of city planning and development control for the fu-
ture.
Y-shaped 19-storey flats at Neighbourhood II, Toa Payoh
12-storey slab block at Kampong Tiong Bahru estate
Far East BUILDER, August 1968.
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