Home, Truly

A look inside public housing in Singapore reveals the ingenuity of homeowners on the sunny island.

- Nadya WaNg

When Tamae Iwasaki and Eitaro Ogawa had to move out of their spacious Seletar home nearly a decade ago, they were reluctant to consider a Housing Development Board (HDB) flat, which appeared cookie-cutter and unimaginatve. But that changed when they visited a friend’s personalised home, one of 118 featured in the book ‘HDB Homes of Singapore’.

At close to 700 pages, the tome is a collaborative labour of love. A meeting with Tomohisa Miyauchi, a senior lecturer at the National University of Singapore’s department of architecture in 2013 led to the project that has spanned 4 years. This has included efforts to raise funds to print the book, such as a campaign on crowd funding website Indiegogo, and from the National Heritage Board.

Underscoring the significance of these housing units to the cityscape and to the community, works by Singapore artists featuring HDB flats appear at the beginning of the book. In ‘The Path Out’, Yeo Tze Yang paints his path from his HDB flat to the outside world. Lim Shu Ning’s embroidered soft sculptures ‘Same Same But Different’ looks at HDB flats as literal building blocks of the nation. Other artists are ampulets, Chang Shian Wei, Hong Sek Chern, Hu Qiren, Lim Shu Ning, HEY KUMO, and Samantha Agung Tio.