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Synopsis :

Synopsis:

Produced by Cathay Film Services Ltd for the Housing and Development Board (HDB) around 1976, this documentary traces Singapore's public housing and town planning journey from 1959 to the 1970s. It covers topics such as:

- The attempts by the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) to solve the housing problem in the early years before independence.
- How the current government made housing its top priority, set up the HDB, and approved the first Five Year Building Plan for 50,000 new homes.
- The principles that governed the building of the first HDB flats in the 1960s, e.g. the need for uniformity as they had to be quickly and cheaply built; building in clusters so the blocks could tap into nearby infrastructural networks of water, sewers, electricity, and roads; town planning using the neighbourhood principle so that essential services (like markets, shopping areas, clinics, daycares, and hawker stalls) were brought to the people instead of requiring them to travel to the city centre.
- The neighbourhood principle as applied to the satellite town of Queenstown, which has seven neighbourhoods with a population of 150,000.
- As Queenstown was judged a success, another satellite town was launched in Toa Payoh, with a greater focus on blocks of flats in varying shapes and heights, more greenery, etc.
- As Singapore pays great attention to the education of children (who formed more than half of the population in the 1970s), new schools were built nearer to the housing estates, with safe pedestrian crossings, underpasses, or bridges. 60% of the 300,000 school-going children at that time attended nearby schools.
- Following the economic boom of the early 70s, workshops were relocated away from the city centre to factories near where workers lived in new housing estates, making it convenient for them to get to work.
- Urban renewal schemes in the dilapidated city centres leading to the goal of streamlined structures in a gracious city centre for residents and business.
- The port remains Singapore’s chief source of wealth but has now been modernised to receive the largest container ships.
- The need to provide more skilled jobs for the increasingly well-educated school leavers. Foreign investment was encouraged and resulted in the building of factories for clean, labour-intensive industries. As a result, industry came to the housing estates and provided work for both men and women, increasing their income and upgrading their technical skills.
- The reclamation of land from the sea to create more living space for Singaporeans, the most ambitious of which has been the reclamation of the East Coast, which over 10 years has resulted in a series of bay beaches and a large park suitable for recreation (the future East Coast Park), and a coastal expressway linking the area to the city (the future East Coast Parkway or ECP).
- The extra care taken to avoid turning Singapore into a concrete jungle, but making it a “Garden City” instead, with open spaces and greenery. The belief that if a resident is unable to have space for his own garden, then the town planners have a duty to provide a green place for them.
- A look into the HDB’s own nurseries, where shrubs and trees are propagated. Fruit trees have been introduced into the housing estates, bringing back the birds and insects that fled when the estates were being built.
- The provision of public parks and gardens such as the Toa Payoh Town Gardens, all in easy reach of the housing estates.
- The building of adventure playgrounds to keep children busy, as well as sports and leisure facilities such as swimming complexes to keep the predominantly young population fit and healthy.
- A look into HDB flats: a three-room flat (the most popular but predicted to be overtaken in popularity by four-room flats in the future), a rental one-room unit, and new five-room flats which can be purchased by instalment. Despite the differences, each flat has identical basics: access by central lift and communal balcony (common corridor); kitchen area with refuse chute, piped water, gas and electricity; lavatory and sewage systems.
- The HDB’s Essential Maintenance Service Centre, which works round-the-clock in contact with a fleet of repair vehicles. The maintenance men are deployed to solve emergencies such as blocked drains, leaking pipes, and jammed elevators.
- The HDB’s Home Ownership for the People Scheme, which was launched in 1964 and has been a big success. The ability for Singaporeans to use their Central Provident Fund (CPF) to help pay for their flats.
- How cultural and religious practices continue in Singapore despite the “onslaught of modern life”.

Shot breakdown:

1) reflection of high-rise in water, then high-rise itself;
2) sub-title reads: Housing Development Board of Singapore;
3) group of students in uniform waiting for bus, when bus rolls up, they board;
4) several blocks of high-rise from various angles, various types;
5) people - walking along road, on stairs; buses on roads;
6) children in pool;
7) statue of Stamford Raffles;
8) houses (long shot), rooftops;
9) port section - river, sea - bumboats carrying goods, tourists; sea-going ships - docked; lorry - unloading huge baskets filled with goods;
10) old Singapore:
a) old buildings; aerial shot of stalls on road - very close together; close up - people buying; students crossing road; bumboats;
b) street with clothes hanging out to dry; things spill on to roads;
c) girl washing, boy bathing by pouring water in bucket on himself;
d) old 4-storey flats (type built by SIT);
e) street scene - crowded with people; hawkers selling food; cars moving slowly with people walking on sides of road;
f) old buildings again;
g) children playing or standing in back lane of old flat;
11) early 1960s - first HDB building programme, uniform blocks of flat - exterior views from various angles; wet market with people buying; shops selling different items; day care centre with women and children; children in pool; hawker centre with food stalls open, tables full of people eating or waiting for food;
12) Queenstown neighbourhood - flats; school children in field doing PE; people walking; town centre - bank, supermarket, emporium, cinemas, library, children playing;
13) flats again, pedestrians, shopping precinct;
14) 2 boys in school uniform walking along flat corridor, boy also in uniform comes out from flat, all three walk on, come out from life and board bus;
15) several school children crossing road with warden's help; pedestrians crossing road and on overhead bridge;
16) girls and boys in various uniforms leave school, walk on;
17) buses - adult passengers boarding, likely going to work; in background - roads, vehicles, buildings;
18) old style workshop - ironmongers, spill on to pavement; big logs of wood; machines running, with one or two men keeping an eye;
19) urban renewal in city centre:
a) demolition of old buildings; exterior views of several new buildings from various angles; high rise and sea front in foreground;
b) port - sea-going ships, moving; containers on ground; unloading mechanically; men at work; trailer moving out;
20) inside factory - young men and women at work, sitting in front of various equipment and machines from various angles;
21) several men, women with some in unfiorm, walking out of building, some towards buildings, some on roads;
22) old scene - crowded street; aerial view huge umbrellas of stalls selling various goods; close up - crowds of people buying or selling;
23) reclamation:
a) tractor pushing earth in front of it;
b) spreader - its long arm tossing earth brought to site by conveyor belt running across land some distance away;
c) bucket wheel excavators dig steel spurs into hill side to dislodge earth;
24) new HDB buildings - from various angles;
25) garden city:
a) people walking along paths lined with trees and plants on both sides;
b) highways - also lined with trees and shrub on both sides;
c) green plants, flowering plants in open space;
26) HDB nursery:
a) pots of shrubs, trees, plants;
b) watering plants;
c) people doing various chores;
27) public parks and garden -
a) various views;
b) men, women and children moving around, looking;
c) adventure playground - children playing on various facilities - slides, circular structure with children standing on it, and a few pushing it round;
d) sports facilities - high jump by teenagers; pool full of chilren and young people;
28) birds in cages - several hanging from big tree; people sitting at tables nearby, some looking at birds;
29) children playing tug-of-war; sprint race at stadium;
30) plans of buildings; exterior of buildings, people walking along road;
31) inside new flats:
a) 3-room flats - furnished; lift; common corridor; inside kitchen, woman going about her chores; modern toilet and sewage system; lighting; sitting room area;
b) one-room unit - with girl playing; another writing with adult beside her;
c) 5-room flat - bedroom; kitchen fitted with modern kitchen cabinets; sitting room with couple and 2 children; dining area - same family of four and older woman;
32) HDB maintenance service centre - girl operators answering phone and responding; Marine Parade area office - repair vans parked, one moving away, 2 maintenance men arrive at block of flats, talking into 2-way radio, attend to lift, task completed, go off;
33) panning across several areas of several high rise;
34) men and women at work - some men at drawing boards working with drawing compasses; others doing other work; women keying into machines, typing; printer printing out; 'server' room with a woman changing spool; spool room;
35) construction site - piling going on;
36) panning across buildings; construction work on site; tractor levelling land; lorries loaded with earth moving out;
37) different racial cultures:
a) mosque, minaret; Malay men in full Malay costume;
b) Chinese temple, people praying; Chinese opera stage with actors and in front the audience;
c) dragon dance in action, crowds of people watching; group of grils doing a dance; men on stilts, doing various stunts;
d) Malay wedding group;
e) floats on wheels;
38) people walking across grass patch; young girls sitting on the grass;
39) sea-going ships on sea.

Video courtesy of the Housing & Development Board