The HDB Gallery is the visitor centre of the Housing Development Board, also known as HDB, Singapore's public housing authority. The gallery showcases the transformation in living conditions in Singapore. From overcrowded slums and kampongs in the 1960s to the vibrant towns today, the HDB Gallery enables visitors to witness the change the city undergo through multi-sensory and self-exploratory exhibits. The future of housing in Singapore will try to provide space for greenery, support active citizenry, create opportunities for citizens to mingle and bond, and retain social memories while sharpening the character of each HDB town.
Contents
- Aim
- Singapore An Urban Laboratory
- Gallery
- Entry Foyer
- Our Reflections
- Our Home
- Our Heartlands
- Our Aspirations
- Our Future
- HDB My Nice Home
- References
HDB is a government statutory board under the Ministry of National Development (MND). It was first set up during a period of major housing shortage in 1960.
Aim
HDB provides Singaporeans with quality homes and living environments through extensive planning and developing of public housing towns. Multi-sensory and self-exploratory exhibits are showcased to provide better understanding for the visitors.
Singapore - An Urban Laboratory
The city of Singapore is at the forefront of finding innovative solutions of modern-day urbanisation. Urban Designer for the Department of City Planning in New York, Alexandros Washburn, said Singapore's urban design scale experiments are made possible within a measurable timeframe with "great combination of creativity, resources and unified action". Galleries like HDB Gallery aim to show visitors how a city with little land "experiments but makes no mistakes". Other galleries include the Singapore City Gallery, Land Transport Gallery and Sustainable Singapore Gallery.aspx Marina Barrage's Sustainable Singapore Gallery.
Gallery
The HDB Gallery is located in the vicinity of the HDB Hub in Toa Payoh. The gallery is open to public for free on Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 5pm and on Saturday from 8.30am to 12.30pm. They are closed on Sunday and public holiday.
Entry Foyer
Visitors are welcomed by colourful multimedia showcase displaying the essence of our heartlands.
Our Reflections
This zone showcases the transition and growth that Singapore's public housing has gone through over 50 years. Starting from the kampong days, right up to the current modern towns they have today. The timeline exhibition displays videos, life-sized artefacts and an interactive digital album
Our Home
This exhibit showcases a 360° panoramic theatre that allows visitors to take a look at a typical Singaporean lifestyle living in Singapore's public housing environment.
Our Heartlands
The successful strategies that help HDB to provide quality homes and communities are showcased in this zone. A life-sized hologram, among many other things in this zone, allows visitors to learn and understand the schemes and subsidies that help Singaporeans own a comfortable home in the country.
Our Aspirations
This zone provides visitors with a better understanding of sustainable developments in an urbanised environment. An indoor landscaping (microclimate) and an LED digital wall poll are some of the things that are being showcased here.
Our Future
This zone showcases the future plans to keep on par with the needs of an ever-changing community in Singapore. The exhibits explain the plans have been executed and how some other are taking a longer time to surface. Visitors can witness the drastic transformation done to Punggol and also take a peek at the future living environment in the next 50 years.
HDB My Nice Home
Formerly known as the HDB Habitat Forum, My Nice Home is a newly launched exhibition located at the third level of the HDB Hub. The gallery houses the displays of renovated home units to give ideas and aspirations to potential HDB home buyer. Visitors can get an idea of how to design and furnish their future homes through interactive displays where they can choose colour schemes and furniture items to arrange on virtual 3D models. The revamped and newly launched My Nice Home gallery is part of HDB's effort to move forward as standards of HDB interiors continue to climb.