HDB’s new ‘white flats’: How to make open-concept living work for you

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Open layouts offer flexibility and creativity to configure homes to suit different needs.

In this five-room BTO in Sumang Walk, Punggol, light wood tones and fluted glass doors come together to form a space that looks and feels ample, breezy and meditative.

Soon, some BTO home owners will be able to do away with most of the partitions in their home altogether, even before they have moved in.at a site near Lavender MRT station. Buyers can opt in for the white flat layout when they are invited to book their unit. Mr Amoz Boon, assistant director at architectural practice Ehka Studio, highlights that pre-existing “cookie-cutter” layouts of a kitchen and bedrooms – with columns and beams within the interior spaces of the home – can be functionally and creatively limiting, especially since a household’s needs will evolve over different stages of life.

These white flats are also likely to be a positive step in reducing construction waste. Statistics published by the National Environment Agency showed that construction and demolition was the third-largest type of waste generated in Singapore in 2022. In comparison, the conversion of a flat with existing partitions to one with an open-concept floor plan will cost at least $100,000 for a 950 sq ft three-room flat and from $120,000 for a 1,500 sq ft five-room flat from the 1990s.

Architect Amoz Boon uses day curtains and aluminium-framed glass doors, instead of a wall, to separate his living room from his study. PHOTO: AMOZ BOON These were the considerations of the couple who own this five-room, 1,200 sq ft flat in Holland Drive. “The plan merged the children’s bedroom with the study room, which doubles as a guest room. The partition can be folded up during the day for a larger play or study area. But it can also be used if a more permanent separation is needed, such as when there are guests staying over, or in a few years if the two children need their own private bedrooms,” says Mr Boon.years old at the time, as the previous owners had purchased it under the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme.

“The clients required a big open space, including a dry kitchen area where they could sit down and enjoy a cup of tea. They were also looking to convert one of the bedrooms into a study room, with the possibility of turning it into a home-based pottery workshop for the wife,” says Mr Lim.

Source: Real Estate Daily Report (realestatedailyreport.net)

 

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