Starting from this year, homeowners who are moving into their new Housing and Development Board (HDB) properties can expect to see more plants and trees around their homes.
This is because all public housing projects that were introduced in 2016 will have to follow HDB’s new effort to push for a greener environment in order to create a liveable and sustainable place for residents.
More than 80 new housing projects will be designed by keeping greener furnishing in mind. Some of those that will be ready this year include Tampines GreenView, Bedok North Woods, West Plains@Bukit Batok, Anchorvale Pplains and Tampines GreenBloom as well as Tampines GreenFlora.
Other new estates in Tampines, Bidadari, Tengah and Punggol Northshore will join the list next year.
In a media statement released on Sunday (12 January), HDB said that these flats will be progressively ready from 2020.
In order to try and create the type, location and density of the green space in each project, HDB has introduced new greenery provision guidelines.
From 2016, all new HDB projects will have to meet the minimum green plot of 4.5. This basically means that the total green space has to cover at least 4.5 times the size of the housing estate.
Speaking of green area, it does not solely include the number of plants, but also the trees’ canopy sizes, how leafy they are and how closely they are planted. In addition, it also includes vertical landscaping where the sides of an HDB block could be covered with a green wall.
On top of that, new housing estates will also have roughly about 45 to 60 percent of green cover, which include trees that provide canopy shade to bring down the temperature of the estates and their residents.
These green features have been tested in Dawson in Queenstown and Keat Hong in Choa Chu Kang, although these projects were designed before 2016.
HDB said that it wants to implement these added greenery features to all public housing projects that were built from 2016 onward.
Dawson estate, deemed as “Housing in a Park”, has more than 4,300 new trees planted from about 70 species. In fact, half of these trees have been planted in the four completed housing developments like SkyTerrace@Dawson, SkyVille@Dawson, Dawson Vista and Forfar Heights.
Additionally, mature trees such as Angsana trees are also added to the estate to enhance vegetation.
Upon completion this year, the Dawson estate will see a park-like environment with all seven housing developments connected in a combination of green spaces and pathways.
As for Keat Hong estate, six of its new housing projects have been completed since 2016 and they are integrated with roof garden spaces with facilities like fitness corners and playgrounds that can be transformed into community gardens and farms.
It also has a series of ramps and link bridges that connect residential blocks to the roof garden and the adjourning neighbourhood park. Existing mature trees in the neighbourhood are also retained.
Looking at all the green spaces, the estate meets the minimum 4.5 green plot ratio and has an average of 55 percent green cover.
