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The Straits Times 1st May, 2002
48-STOREY
LANDMARK FOR DUXTON PLAIN
This is
the future of Singapore's public housing
By Lydia
Lim
HOUSING CORRESPONDENT
OME 2007, seven slim towers, each 48 storeys tall, will soar into the sky
over Duxton Plain, in Tanjong Pagar.
On a site only slightly larger than two football fields will rise homes
for some 1,800 families, part of a long-term plan to quadruple the number
of households living in the city from 30,000 to 120,000.
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The
seven soaring towers are linked by sky gardens featuring jogging
tracks and other sports facilities. --INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURAL
DESIGN
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These blocks will be the tallest public housing here, twice the height
of most Housing Board point blocks, which are just 24 storeys tall.
Together, they will resemble a giant curved screen linked at their 26th
storeys and at roof level by sky gardens featuring jogging tracks and
other sports and recreational facilities.
It also includes a park at ground level that will mark Duxton Plain as
the site of some of the earliest HDB-built public housing. It will feature
a light sculpture, two plaques and two trees planted by Senior Minister
Lee Kuan Yew, who still represents the Tanjong Pagar ward.
The winning design is the work of a Singapore firm of just 10 people -
ARC Studio Architecture and Urbanism, which beat some 200 firms from
around the world to clinch the top prize in Singapore's first
international design competition for public housing.
It impressed an international panel of judges by making good use of the
small 2.5-ha site to provide high-density, yet liveable homes that are
buildable and cost effective.
The judges were pleased that the firm planned the interiors to be
flexible, so that residents can change the room sizes and configuration as
their families grow or shrink.
It was a 'blind' competition, so the six judges, four from Singapore
and two from abroad, learned the names of the competing firms only after
picking the winner.
Mr Edward Wong, the immediate past president of the Singapore Institute
of Architects, who was one of the judges, was delighted that a Singapore
firm had won.
He said the institute has been promoting such competitions as 'a way to
allow young talent to emerge'.
The winning design was the work of Mr Khoo Peng Beng, 34, and his wife
Belinda Huang, 35, who set up their own firm three years ago.
Mayor Teo Ho Pin, who heads the Northwest Community Development
Council, was also a local judge. He said town councils would love the
design as it makes for buildings that are easy to maintain.
The other two local judges are architect Raymond Woo and Urban
Redevelopment Authority (URA) chief planner Koh-Lim Wen Gin.
Construction is expected to start in September next year, and if all
goes as planned, the HDB will invite people to book the flats in 2004.
Two thirds of the flats will be 80 to 100 sq m in size, equivalent to a
four-room flat. The rest will be 101 to 110 sq m, about the area of a
five-room flat.
Details of prices and allocation system won't be known till later, but
former residents of the two Duxton Plain blocks to be demolished will get
priority.
Yesterday evening, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan launched
an exhibition of all 202 design submissions at URA Centre. The URA
organised the design competition. The designs will be on display at the
lobby of the building from tomorrow till May 14.
Construction image 1st August 2008
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