Land Scarce Singapore's Vertical Village in the Sky

Singapore's peak housing body has unveiled an unusual project - a vertical 'kampung' or village in the sky.

The integrated complex, which begins construction next year, is scheduled for completion in 2017.

Apart from multi-retail outlets and a food hawker complex, there'll also be a medical centre and childcare facilities.

Dr Cheong Koon Hean is the head of Singapore's Housing and Development Board, which provides housing for 80 percent of Singaporeans.

Sen Lam from Radio Australia talks to him about this.

“Basically, we're the public housing authority and the unusual part about HDB is that we house 83 percent of the population of Singapore. And we house them in about a million flats in about 23 towns. So the HDB is not just the master planner and developer of public housing. We also plan comprehensively for a town, and we provide commercial, social and recreational facilities as well. And we really want to provide well-designed, sustainable and community-centric towns.”

“And this project is unusual because it's a joint project undertaken by not just the HDB, but with many of my agency colleagues, like the Ministry of Health, to provide a very convenient, one-stop hub, that provides a very wide range of services to local residents at their door steps.”

Kampongs by their very nature are intimate, community-conscious, neighbourly communities. How does a high-rise development achieve those qualities?

“I think it's the spirit behind it. So the idea of a village in the old days when people used not to live in high rise, it's about many houses together, and within this village, you have all sorts of facilities. People share, they mix, they mingle, they bond - there's a lot of community spirit. So I think that's what we're trying to capture - not so much the physical design of a kampong, but the idea of this spirit of togetherness, community spirit and bonding, sharing and interaction, even if it's high-rise.”

Integration and a sense of community are key selling points - everything under one roof. In what way does the kampong-in-the-sky concept differ from your average HDB estate?

“In the average HDB estate, usually you would design the housing on its own, and then on separate pieces of land, you might carve out a piece of land for say, a small community hospital or a child care centre, or a hawker centre, which is really almost like a food court.”

“But here, what we're trying to do is to put all these things together, so that interesting thing about this project is that it houses elderly housing, you've got two blocks of elderly housing. It has commercial and retail outlets, shops and a supermarket. It has dining options, which is a favourite pastime of Singaporeans. It also has social and healthcare facilities, like child care centres and senior activity centres. And in the senior care centre, we provide services like physio-therapy and occupational therapy services and nursing care services. And on top of that, layering the development with community spaces, which enable people to use these spaces jointly, to have events and activities. We think there could be alot of social inter-mingling.”

Because it's a high-rise development, how do you foster that sense of intimacy and that sense of 'kampong-ness' if you like, in this development?

“So for example, you have a people's plaza on the ground level, so the community can organise activities, even having huge dinners together and celebrations and festivals. Because it's high-rise, we will have roof deck gardens and on the roof deck gardens, you'll do community farms and herb gardens. And in fact, many Singaporeans form these groups, what we call 'The Community in Bloom' groups. And they farm together on many of these skyrise gardens.”

“And you'll find for example, the elderly housing actually quite near the childcare centre, so it would great if the elderly were helping in the childcare centre, and they read to the children. We've always designed many of the facilities to be inter-generational - so you might find a playground next to an exercise area, so the old and the young can mix together. And if you just come to Singapore and walk around, you'll see what I mean.”