Politics

HDB unveils roadmap that aims to enhance residents' health and well-being


Thu, Oct 15, 2020 – 4:05 PM

THE Singapore Housing and Development Board (HDB) on Thursday unveiled a roadmap that centres on planning and designing HDB towns that will contribute to the overall health and well-being of its residents.

Launched by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on Oct 15 at a HDB webinar, the roadmap, named “Designing for Life”, is supported by three pillars: live well, live smart and live connected.

It focuses on planning and designing around residents’ physical, mental and social needs, to create homes that contribute to their physical health, promote positive behaviours, and encourage social connections.

HDB’s chief executive Cheong Koon Hean said that the board will “further improve and enhance the living environment in our towns” over the next 10 to 15 years, on top of advancing sustainability and leveraging technology “to help residents live more comfortably, with greater convenience”.

The “live well” pillar adopts a people-centric perspective where support for residents’ physical, mental and social well-being will be strengthened.

This includes enhancing safety features within homes and neighbourhoods, improving the design of neighbourhood facilities for active living, implementing biophilic strategies that harness the intrinsic benefits of nature, and providing more diverse communal spaces for interaction.

To do so, HDB will explore more collaborations and research opportunities with agencies and institutes of higher learning.

Under the “live smart” pillar, HDB will make use of information and communication technologies to develop smart HDB towns, so as to “make daily living more convenient and comfortable for residents, provide them with seamless and reliable estate services, and advance sustainability”.

For the final pillar, “live connected”, HDB will increase its engagement with residents to formulate “rejuvenation plans” for certain towns, provide more support for residents to initiate ground-up community projects and set aside common spaces in new HDB developments for the community to come together.

HDB will also carry out behavioural studies to better understand residents’ needs.

One such district that will benefit from this new roadmap is Tengah.

Park District – one of five housing districts in Tengah – will be designed with landscape features such as exploratory trails and pocket gardens to promote wellness, community spaces that encourage physical activity and social interaction, as well as smart and sustainable solutions that can help improve residents’ daily living and quality of life.

Beyond new housing projects, the urban design strategies and policies mapped out under the roadmap will also be applied to existing towns through various upgrading and rejuvenation programmes.





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