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Kampung Houses Are Not Time Capsules – This Is Your Life Now

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Bukit Ho Swee Video   Walking Through the Memory of Bukit Ho Swee edited

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Ways public housing estates have adapted to address the needs of the evolving population.

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Ways public housing estates have adapted to address the needs of the evolving population.

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Seven New MOE Kindergartens Opening in 2024 and 2025

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1. MOE will be opening a total of seven new MOE Kindergartens (MKs) across Singapore in 2024 and 2025, to provide parents with more choices for quality and affordable pre-school places. With the opening of these seven MKs, we will have 571 MKs by 2025, providing a total of about 7,900 Kindergarten One (K1) places in 2025.

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Community Living for Persons with Disabilities

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Community Living for Persons with Disabilities

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Ministry of Social and Family Development

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The Enabling Masterplan 2030 (EMP2030) sets out the vision for Singapore as an inclusive society in 2030.

It was developed by, for, and with persons with disabilities and their caregivers. Their words and thoughts are reflected throughout the report.

EMP2030 contains 29 recommendations along three strategic themes, to guide our efforts in shaping the future disability landscape untill 2030.

EMP2030 includes quantitive indicators and targets, which we will use to measure our progress towards achieving tangible change in 2030 and beyond.

Join us in the next step of our journey to build a more inclusive Singapore.

Read the full Enabling Masterplan Report here

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From Villages to Flats (Part 1) – The Kampong Days

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The rapid urbanisation of Singapore in the past four decades has seen hundreds of villages demolished and the lands freed up for redevelopment. The life of many Singaporeans of the last generation …

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Before high-rise HDB flats, Singapore's housing landscape was dominated by rural and urban villages called kampongs.

Rural kampongs were early fishing villages that were located along the coasts and river as well as some that developed inland and involved the cultivation of coconuts or fruits. There were Malay-style and Chinese-style kampongs, the former concentrated in the eastern and western parts of Singapore.

The image above captures a rural Chinese kampong house with plank walls and attap roofs in Tanjong Katong Village, taken in the 1920s. Source: National Archives of Singapore, Media Image No: 19980005882 - 0102

Urban kampongs were newer to Singapore's urban landscape, having flourished in the post-WWII period due to war-time displacement, accelerated immigration rates, and a "baby-boom". Also known as city-fringe squatter settlements, urban kampongs consisted of unauthorised squatter huts and shacks. They were located on the edges of the Central Area in: Siglap, Lorong Tai Seng area, Sims Avenue and Paya Lebar, Kallang Basin, Toa Payoh, Kampong Chai Heng, Farrer Road area, Tiong Bahru, Pasir Panjang and Telok Blangah areas.

Most of the huts in these settlements had cement or wooden floors, wood-plank walls, and an attap or corrugated zinc roof. The huts were often tightly-sandwiched to one another, with each hut being further subdivided into cubicles.

The image above is of the interior of an urban kampong (slums) within Bukit Ho Swee, taken in 1947. Source: National Archives of Singapore, Media Image No: 19980001421 - 0093

Kampong houses were typically made from wood and shared a similar type of roofing - nipa palm roofs, also known as attap roofs. Attap was a readily available material, it had good heat-insulating properties and could protect the inhabitants from rain. The attap would be layered out in sheaves so that it could lift with the breeze and cool the house down.

Yet, as Prof. Fiona Williamson writes in her article (this section), historic archives highlight how heat waves and dry weather triggered many fire outbreaks. This often turned the wooden houses and attap roofs into potential fire hazards. Intense sunlight and hotter-than-normal heat turned such roofs bone-dry, more brittle, and made them easier to burn. For example, Josephine Chia penned the following memory of a neighbour's attap roof easily catching fire from a cigarette:

"One night one of our neighbours, two doors away from our house, was smoking when he fell asleep. The lighted cigarette butt fell onto his pillow and started a fire. His attap-roof rapidly went up in flames. My parents woke us sleepy children and ushered us out of the house hastily. The small passageways or lorongs between the houses made it doubly dangerous as they became packed with people trying to run away from the fire..."

To reduce the risk of fire outbreaks during heat waves, many kampong dwellers doused their attap roofs with water. They also exercised extra caution by extinguishing all flames in their homes, kitchens, and from their joss stick offerings.

Despite these efforts, from the 1950s to 1960s, fire outbreaks were a part of "everyday life" in the kampongs. Lin et al. (2021) compiled a brief history on a string of fire outbreaks during this period:

1951: Kampong Bugis

1953: Geylang Lorong 3

1953: Geylang Lorong 5

1955: Kampong Tiong Bahru

1958: Kampong Koo Chye

1959: "Friday the 13th" fire in Kampong Tiong Bahru

1961: Kampong Bukit Ho Swee

There were various environmental and systemic factors underpinning these outbreaks.

The El Niño Southern Oscillation and the Indian Ocean Dipole created prolonged, warmer-than-usual drought conditions in Singapore (and the rest of Southeast Asia). Prolonged droughts greatly reduced the availability of water. In the intense heat, kampong dwellers had to prioritise drinking and cooking over the wetting of their attap roofs.

While the colonial authorities started to address fire risk in the city's commercial and entertainment buildings, they neglected the kampongs. Seng (2009) argues that the colonial authorities were more focused on clearing the kampongs than making them fire-safe. One example of fire protection would have been providing kampong dwellers with non-combustible roofs at subsidised prices. Another would have been providing a consistent and sufficient water supply. But neither were pursued.

In the post-WWII period, the overcrowded urban kampongs were more vulnerable to fire outbreaks. The absence of affordable housing alternatives caused the squatter population to rapidly grow from 127,000 in 1947 to 246,000 in the mid-1950s. The density of these settlements increased vis-a-vis their proximity to the city centre.

Newly-constructed huts followed the pattern of being tightly-packed, with narrow passageways and insufficient fire breaks. Urban kampongs also tended to be situated on hilly ground. The unfavourable geographical terrain coupled with the colonial authorities' failure to install water mains and telephone lines exacerbated the risk of fire outbreaks.

The combination of all of these factors meant that a single fire could spread and turn into a settlement-wide fire disaster.

One of the most infamous fire disasters occurred in the Bukit Ho Swee settlement. This disaster helped catalyse massive investment in public housing and the large-scale resettlement of kampong dwellers into modern, high-rise housing units in Singapore.

Image of the 1961 Bukit Ho Swee fire disaster, from Our Home, Oct. 1979. Collection of National Library, Singapore.

Bukit Ho Swee was one of the most crowded attap slums in Singapore, it was filled with thousands of squatter huts and lacked basic sanitary services. On Hari Raya Haji, 25 May 1961, a scorching heat of 32 degrees Celsius caused a fire to break out at 2.50 pm. Emboldened by strong gusts of wind, the fire spread and devoured 19 hectares of squatter homes. Hours later, over 16,000 people from 2,600 families became homeless.

Then-Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, promised that all the fire victims would be resettled in HDB flats within 9 months. By February 1962, the Singapore government and Housing & Development Board (HDB) built the new Bukit Ho Swee Estate on top of the disaster site.

Till today, the Bukit Ho Swee fire occupies a key position in Singapore's historical narrative, and is frequently cited as an early and definitive moment of progress under the PAP's leadership. Kwak (2012) reminds us, however, that the PAP's quick response to the disaster was enabled by decades of housing modernisation programs.

Nevertheless, the official discourse positions the PAP as rising to an incredible challenge and successfully transforming "one of the unloveliest slum areas'' into a modern housing estate. Fire became one strong justification for the rehousing of kampong dwellers into high-rise flats.

Although kampongs were abundant less than 60 years ago, many can hardly imagine living in a community of wooden and attap-covered kampong houses. The shift to modern, high-rise living in Singapore has both reduced the chance of our homes becoming fire hazards but has also removed a key aspect of our landscape and history.

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Post-WWII Fire Hazards in Singapore's Kampongs

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Before high-rise HDB flats, Singapore's housing landscape was dominated by rural and urban villages called kampongs. Rural kampongs were early fishing villages that were located along the coasts and river as well as some that developed inland and involved the cultivation of coconuts or fruits.

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Ways public housing estates have adapted to address the needs of the evolving population.

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Ways public housing estates have adapted to address the needs of the evolving population.

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TheSmartLocal - Singapore's Leading Travel and Lifestyle Portal

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Image adapted from: National Council of Social Service
As part of Gen Y, I spend over 5 hours a day with my eyes glued to my phone. Many fellow millennials, on auto-pilot mode to and from our destinations, barely notice our surroundings, except when it directly affects us. Discovering a new covered walkway to the MRT, for example, is cause for celebration. Suddenly realising there's braille lettering on lift buttons, on the other hand, will make us go "Oh so that's what those dots are!"

Think, for example, about the little bars and bumps beneath our feet at MRT stations. They're not there for aesthetic reasons - they're tactile paving to guide persons with visual impairment. Here're 8 other upgrades in our neighbourhood that you should know about:

1. Inclusive gym for persons with disabilities
Enabling Village's ActiveSG gym equipment. Image credit: ActiveSG
With all sorts of fitness centres available in Singapore, it was about time that amidst the suspension training equipment and hammocks meant for floating yoga, there would be gym machines with removable seats and braille letterings on treadmill user panels.

Dubbed 'inclusive gyms', ActiveSG and iFit gyms are the first of their kind set up just last year. Meant to be accessible for everyone, these gyms include machines in contrasting colours for persons with visual impairment, a 'hearing induction loop' system for persons who are hard of hearing, and air-pressure systems that are gentler on the muscles and joints.

These days, there are even swimming pools that cater to persons with disabilities.
Some locations include:

Lengkok Bahru Enabling Village

Sengkang Sports and Recreation Centre

2. Real-time route maps for those who can't hear announcements

Most of us probably don't realise the importance of having a real-time route map on the train until you find yourself with your earpiece still plugged in, struggling to catch a glimpse of the station name that's blocked by the morning crowd.

But convenient as they are for everyone, these 'dynamic route-maps' are most useful for the Deaf or Hard of Hearing commuters. As they can't be notified otherwise by the announcements made as the train approaches a platform, with this system they now know which station they're at without having to look out the window every 3 minutes.

3. Magnifying glasses at NTUC Fairprice for persons with visual impairment

I know I'm not the only one who's had difficulty reaching for items on the higher shelves in supermarkets. Thankfully, some NTUC Fairprice outlets now have useful features that make grocery shopping more comfortable for everyone, including shelves designed for easier reach and magnifying glasses that make reading product labels easier for the elderly and persons with visual impairment.

These outlets - at Lengkok Bahru, Bukit Merah Central and most recently at Our Tampines Hub - also have call assistance buttons at every aisle and wider checkout lanes!

4. Tables at hawker centres without chairs

If, like me, you've wondered why hawker centres have some tables with chairs only on one side, or worse, no chairs at all, congratulations you've finally found your answer: these chairless spaces are designed so that there's a space for wheelchair users to eat with their friends and family. Mind = blown. Eyes = opened.

5. Inclusive playgrounds in neighbourhoods, with some even having wheelchair swings
Image adapted from: National Council of Social Service
As kids, we used to kick off the ground on swings, scale up the 'spider webs', and spin till we're dizzy on merry-go-rounds. As young adults, we look back with fondness and nostalgia. Simple pleasures like these are now reality for persons with disabilities at inclusive playgrounds.
A modified merry-go-round. Adapted from image credit: National Council of Social Service
Alongside the usual fixtures in our beloved playgrounds, there are now wheelchair-friendly swings and merry-go-rounds, slides with tactile simulations and sand tables for children with visual impairment. Children with autism can even hide in enclosed play tunnels if they feel overwhelmed by crowds or loud noises of children in the playground!

Some locations include:

Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park

West Coast Park

Pasir Ris Park

Our Tampines Hub

Tampines Estate

6. 'Quiet Hours' at Toys 'R' Us and NTUC Fairprice
Image credit: Quiet Hour SG
When you step out of a cinema right after a movie, you get a tiny dose of what persons with autism feel. Bright lights, hiss. Noise everywhere, hiss. Lucky for you, this goes away after ~1 minute, but for them, this hypersensitivity may never go away.

The hypersensitivity experienced by persons with autism can make it hard to enjoy activities that others take for granted, such as shopping for toys, which can be an overwhelming experience in and of itself, with crowds or loud noises.

With the Quiet Hour initiative that kicked off earlier this April, persons with autism can now look through shelves at Toys 'R' Us and NTUC in a less stressful environment. For just an hour, a few Toys 'R' Us and NTUC Fairprice supermarket outlets dimmed their store lights and switched off in-store music, public address system, and display monitors, allowing persons with autism to enjoy their shopping experience.

Look out for when the next Quiet Hour is happening on their Facebook page.

7. Emergency bell button in lifts now have blinking lights
The borders of alarm buttons now flash if pressed to provide reassurance to the Deaf or those who are hard of hearing that help is coming.
I've never been trapped in a lift, but I can imagine the sheer panic that comes with not knowing when help will come.

As annoying as the ringing of alarm bells may be to outsiders, they also let the "trappees" know that help is coming as soon as the button is pressed. The Deaf or persons hard of hearing don't get any such reassurance - they won't even know if the alarm has been triggered.

Emergency bell buttons in new lifts are now fitted with blinking lights to signal that yes, help is on its way.

8. New bus interchanges have signs in braille on handrails
Bedok Bus Interchange. Image credit: Wikimedia
From old bus interchanges with their distinctive square tiles to air-conditioned ones integrated into malls, our ever-bustling bus terminals have come a long way. The new ones even have braille on handrails, for persons with visual impairment to identify which bus lane they're in and where the waiting areas are.
Woodlands interchange. Image credit: SMRT
The new temporary Woodlands Bus Interchange boasts ramps for wheelchairs, electric buggies, and staff assistance call buttons. The new Bukit Panjang integrated transport hub will also feature many inclusive features, including barrier-free facilities for passengers in wheelchairs.

Little changes for persons with disabilities that go a long way

From taking the MRT to lim-ing kopi at the coffeeshop downstairs, persons with disabilities are no different from us - they speak Singlish, joined the hype and queued for everything salted egg, and call stall owners at the hawker centre uncle and auntie. There's really far more in common among us than we'd expect from a quick glance.

You know how annoying it is when people constantly describe you as that "teacher/driver/ insurance agent/engineer"? We're multi-faceted people, all of us, and as much as we appreciate not being pigeonholed into stereotypes, so do persons with disabilities, and that's something we can hopefully all work to learn.
This post is in support of the See the True Me Campaign by the National Council of Social Service.

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8 Little Details You've Never Noticed In Singapore That Make Life Easier For Persons With Disabilities

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As Singapore progresses as a First World nation, we do our best to bring all Singaporeans along. Here are some "invisible" upgrades that most of us would have missed.

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Gen Y Speaks: I am blind, deaf and lonely. This is how I try to keep my chin up

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When I was a child, I was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2), a genetic disorder caused by four tumours in my brain. I was only 11 when I saw my last sunset. It was 1998.

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4 Ways to Stay Fit Without a Gym Membership

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You don’t need a gym to improve your physical fitness. Here are 4 ways to work up a sweat and stay fit!

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Community Living for Persons with Disabilities

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Community Living for Persons with Disabilities

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Ministry of Social and Family Development

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The Enabling Masterplan 2030 (EMP2030) sets out the vision for Singapore as an inclusive society in 2030.

It was developed by, for, and with persons with disabilities and their caregivers. Their words and thoughts are reflected throughout the report.

EMP2030 contains 29 recommendations along three strategic themes, to guide our efforts in shaping the future disability landscape untill 2030.

EMP2030 includes quantitive indicators and targets, which we will use to measure our progress towards achieving tangible change in 2030 and beyond.

Join us in the next step of our journey to build a more inclusive Singapore.

Read the full Enabling Masterplan Report here

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TheSmartLocal - Singapore's Leading Travel and Lifestyle Portal

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Image adapted from: National Council of Social Service
As part of Gen Y, I spend over 5 hours a day with my eyes glued to my phone. Many fellow millennials, on auto-pilot mode to and from our destinations, barely notice our surroundings, except when it directly affects us. Discovering a new covered walkway to the MRT, for example, is cause for celebration. Suddenly realising there's braille lettering on lift buttons, on the other hand, will make us go "Oh so that's what those dots are!"

Think, for example, about the little bars and bumps beneath our feet at MRT stations. They're not there for aesthetic reasons - they're tactile paving to guide persons with visual impairment. Here're 8 other upgrades in our neighbourhood that you should know about:

1. Inclusive gym for persons with disabilities
Enabling Village's ActiveSG gym equipment. Image credit: ActiveSG
With all sorts of fitness centres available in Singapore, it was about time that amidst the suspension training equipment and hammocks meant for floating yoga, there would be gym machines with removable seats and braille letterings on treadmill user panels.

Dubbed 'inclusive gyms', ActiveSG and iFit gyms are the first of their kind set up just last year. Meant to be accessible for everyone, these gyms include machines in contrasting colours for persons with visual impairment, a 'hearing induction loop' system for persons who are hard of hearing, and air-pressure systems that are gentler on the muscles and joints.

These days, there are even swimming pools that cater to persons with disabilities.
Some locations include:

Lengkok Bahru Enabling Village

Sengkang Sports and Recreation Centre

2. Real-time route maps for those who can't hear announcements

Most of us probably don't realise the importance of having a real-time route map on the train until you find yourself with your earpiece still plugged in, struggling to catch a glimpse of the station name that's blocked by the morning crowd.

But convenient as they are for everyone, these 'dynamic route-maps' are most useful for the Deaf or Hard of Hearing commuters. As they can't be notified otherwise by the announcements made as the train approaches a platform, with this system they now know which station they're at without having to look out the window every 3 minutes.

3. Magnifying glasses at NTUC Fairprice for persons with visual impairment

I know I'm not the only one who's had difficulty reaching for items on the higher shelves in supermarkets. Thankfully, some NTUC Fairprice outlets now have useful features that make grocery shopping more comfortable for everyone, including shelves designed for easier reach and magnifying glasses that make reading product labels easier for the elderly and persons with visual impairment.

These outlets - at Lengkok Bahru, Bukit Merah Central and most recently at Our Tampines Hub - also have call assistance buttons at every aisle and wider checkout lanes!

4. Tables at hawker centres without chairs

If, like me, you've wondered why hawker centres have some tables with chairs only on one side, or worse, no chairs at all, congratulations you've finally found your answer: these chairless spaces are designed so that there's a space for wheelchair users to eat with their friends and family. Mind = blown. Eyes = opened.

5. Inclusive playgrounds in neighbourhoods, with some even having wheelchair swings
Image adapted from: National Council of Social Service
As kids, we used to kick off the ground on swings, scale up the 'spider webs', and spin till we're dizzy on merry-go-rounds. As young adults, we look back with fondness and nostalgia. Simple pleasures like these are now reality for persons with disabilities at inclusive playgrounds.
A modified merry-go-round. Adapted from image credit: National Council of Social Service
Alongside the usual fixtures in our beloved playgrounds, there are now wheelchair-friendly swings and merry-go-rounds, slides with tactile simulations and sand tables for children with visual impairment. Children with autism can even hide in enclosed play tunnels if they feel overwhelmed by crowds or loud noises of children in the playground!

Some locations include:

Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park

West Coast Park

Pasir Ris Park

Our Tampines Hub

Tampines Estate

6. 'Quiet Hours' at Toys 'R' Us and NTUC Fairprice
Image credit: Quiet Hour SG
When you step out of a cinema right after a movie, you get a tiny dose of what persons with autism feel. Bright lights, hiss. Noise everywhere, hiss. Lucky for you, this goes away after ~1 minute, but for them, this hypersensitivity may never go away.

The hypersensitivity experienced by persons with autism can make it hard to enjoy activities that others take for granted, such as shopping for toys, which can be an overwhelming experience in and of itself, with crowds or loud noises.

With the Quiet Hour initiative that kicked off earlier this April, persons with autism can now look through shelves at Toys 'R' Us and NTUC in a less stressful environment. For just an hour, a few Toys 'R' Us and NTUC Fairprice supermarket outlets dimmed their store lights and switched off in-store music, public address system, and display monitors, allowing persons with autism to enjoy their shopping experience.

Look out for when the next Quiet Hour is happening on their Facebook page.

7. Emergency bell button in lifts now have blinking lights
The borders of alarm buttons now flash if pressed to provide reassurance to the Deaf or those who are hard of hearing that help is coming.
I've never been trapped in a lift, but I can imagine the sheer panic that comes with not knowing when help will come.

As annoying as the ringing of alarm bells may be to outsiders, they also let the "trappees" know that help is coming as soon as the button is pressed. The Deaf or persons hard of hearing don't get any such reassurance - they won't even know if the alarm has been triggered.

Emergency bell buttons in new lifts are now fitted with blinking lights to signal that yes, help is on its way.

8. New bus interchanges have signs in braille on handrails
Bedok Bus Interchange. Image credit: Wikimedia
From old bus interchanges with their distinctive square tiles to air-conditioned ones integrated into malls, our ever-bustling bus terminals have come a long way. The new ones even have braille on handrails, for persons with visual impairment to identify which bus lane they're in and where the waiting areas are.
Woodlands interchange. Image credit: SMRT
The new temporary Woodlands Bus Interchange boasts ramps for wheelchairs, electric buggies, and staff assistance call buttons. The new Bukit Panjang integrated transport hub will also feature many inclusive features, including barrier-free facilities for passengers in wheelchairs.

Little changes for persons with disabilities that go a long way

From taking the MRT to lim-ing kopi at the coffeeshop downstairs, persons with disabilities are no different from us - they speak Singlish, joined the hype and queued for everything salted egg, and call stall owners at the hawker centre uncle and auntie. There's really far more in common among us than we'd expect from a quick glance.

You know how annoying it is when people constantly describe you as that "teacher/driver/ insurance agent/engineer"? We're multi-faceted people, all of us, and as much as we appreciate not being pigeonholed into stereotypes, so do persons with disabilities, and that's something we can hopefully all work to learn.
This post is in support of the See the True Me Campaign by the National Council of Social Service.

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8 Little Details You've Never Noticed In Singapore That Make Life Easier For Persons With Disabilities

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As Singapore progresses as a First World nation, we do our best to bring all Singaporeans along. Here are some "invisible" upgrades that most of us would have missed.

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NKF opens new dialysis centre amid rising number of kidney failure cases

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High demand for dialysis treatment in the eastern part of Singapore prompts opening of new centre in Bedok. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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Think about ways public housing can change in the future to meet future needs.

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Think about ways public housing can change in the future to meet future needs.