http://www.straitstimes.com/Singapor...ry_691800.html

Jul 18, 2011

From spartan units to designer features

'Majulah! The Singapore Spirit' is the theme of this year's National Day Parade. In the second of a four-part series, The Straits Times is featuring one of four Singapore icons which embody this onward, progressive spirit

By Cheryl Ong


WHEN Mr Louis Yeo visits his 88-year-old mother in Queenstown, he is often reminded of the humble beginnings of one of Singapore's oldest HDB estates.

The 63-year-old businessman is the third of 10 children born to Madam Lim Bee Geok and the late Mr Yeo Boon Seng, who moved into the area in 1961 after the Bukit Ho Swee fire which killed four people and left thousands homeless.

Then, the estate - named in honour of Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953 - was nothing like it is today. Where Queensway Road and Alexandra Road now stand, the then-swampy valley was flanked by hills occupied by a rubber plantation and a cemetery.

'Our surroundings were just mud and construction sites. The flyover at Commonwealth wasn't around yet. It was quite empty,' said Mr Yeo. Indeed, when he looks back on his days in Queenstown, he is reminded of how much HDB flats have changed over the years.

When he later moved into his four- room Bedok flat in 1978, it came with minimal furnishings in the kitchen.

Still, it was a marked improvement from the spartan three-room flat in Tanglin Halt Road in Queenstown. The flat came bare, without tiles or even windows in the kitchen. The Yeos had to put up bamboo blinds to keep the rain out. He now lives in a terrace house in Changi.

The contrast is even greater when Mr Yeo considers that his eldest son will next year move into The Peak in Toa Payoh, a new development under the HDB's Design, Build and Sell Scheme. His home will come complete with balconies, air-conditioners and built-in cabinets.

Yet Mr Yeo and his siblings can still remember how excited the family was to move into Queenstown.

Like many of the earliest residents in the then-new town, the Yeos saw the new, tidy-looking public housing flats as a welcome change. They were also looking for a safe, permanent home to live in, at a time when most Singaporeans lived in slums, kampungs, or rented beds in crowded apartments.

Madam Lim still remembers the makeshift home her family lived in. 'We lived in an attap house in Bukit Ho Swee. It was part of a big, messy neighbourhood. Houses there were catching fire and people were dying. My husband and I were afraid for our children, so we moved out as quickly as we could,' she said in Mandarin.

Before 1960, the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) was the statutory board formed by the British colonial government in 1927 to oversee public housing. It was eventually replaced by the HDB in 1960 after Singapore achieved self-governance. Queenstown was one of the first estates to feature HDB-built flats.

It was a logical move as the estate had already been built up by the SIT in the 1950s. It was the first satellite town of its kind in the country, equipped with amenities such as wet markets, shopping emporiums and a town centre.

An HDB spokesman said the statutory board's raison d'etre - to meet the growing housing needs of Singaporeans - remains the same today as it was in 1960.

'Other than providing affordable and quality homes for Singaporeans, HDB is also creating vibrant and sustainable towns and promoting the building of cohesive communities,' she said.

In recent years, HDB flats have won accolades such as the World's Best Housing Development at the 2010 World Architecture Festival Awards, awarded to the Pinnacle@Duxton. Last year, the HDB was also given the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award, the most prestigious human settlements award in the world.

Today, about 84 per cent of Singaporeans live in HDB flats.

Reflecting on how things were before, and how they are now, Mr Yeo and his siblings agree that the facilities and design of HDB flats are definitely better now, but this comes at a price. He said: 'I think the flats are better now, but the prices are also a lot higher.'

The Yeo siblings have tried asking their elderly mother to move in with them, but she has stubbornly refused. Mr Yeo's younger brother, Larry, 55, said: 'The flat holds a lot of memories for my mother and it's why she has never wanted to move out to live anywhere else.'

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