Chapter 8 Flashcards
What is housing?
Housing refers to structures or buildings to protect people from the elements of weather. It also refers to places for interaction, security and rest.
What are the kinds of housings?
- Formal (built with legal permission)
- Informal (Built without legal permission)
- Permanent (Long-term housing, the most common, found in both rural and urban areas)
- Temporary (Short-term housing, less common, found in very rural areas or cities)
- Government developed (e.g. Private housing)
- Privately developed (Formal and informal housing built by private companies)
How can urban housing be classified as?
Height and density.
Describe high-rise, high density buildings.
- Six storeys or higher
- Has lifts
- Accommodates large numbers of people
- Commonly found closer to or at the city centre
- Has shared facilities like playgrounds, exercise equipment and swimming pools
Example: Flats built by the HDB
Describe low-rise, low density buildings.
- Lower than six storeys
- Lifts are optional
- Accommodates fewer people
- Rarely found at the city centre
- Usually located closer to the city fringe
Examples: Privately built detached houses, terraces, shophouses
Describe the shortage of housing.
It is a serious problem in cities, which occurs when the growth of housing is slower than the growth of the population.
Describe formal and informal housing.
Formal housing: legally built by the government or private developers
Informal housing: Illegally built by private individuals who do not have access to formal housing
What are the features of formal housing?
- It is built by the government or private developers with legal rights to use the land.
- It is permanent.
- It is typically constructed with high-quality building materials.
- There is access to basic services.
Why is formal housing generally built by the government or private developers?
This is because of the high cost and the coordination of basic services required.
Describe how HDB estates in Singapore conforms to the needs of residents.
Singapore’s Housing Development Board (HDB) develops public housing estates with amenities like food centres, recreational facilities, public transport, and educational facilities. They offer various flat sizes and financial subsidies to ensure affordability. As of 2020, over 80% of Singaporeans reside in public housing. Private developers also develop high-density condominiums or low-density landed properties, with shared amenities.
What do land rights do?
land rights enable individuals to freely acquire, use and own land at their discretion, provided that their activities do not hinder the rights of other individuals or entities.
What are the positive impacts of well-being when someone own a land?
Owning the land on which housing is built makes homeowners feel secure and increases their ability to do many things.
Describe some basic services that comes with formal housing.
- Electricity (through electrical substations or power grids)
- Running water (through water distribution pipes)
- Sanitation (through sewage pipes)
Why is basic services for housing needed in Singapore?
Infrastructure required to support basic services are built together with the town or housing estate, where access to these services increases the quality of life for residents.
Why are the basic services constructed underground in Singapore?
In Singapore, most of these services are constructed underground so that it does not take up land in this land-scarce country.
What are the factors of the guidelines and regulations that vary on on the use of building materials?
- The level of economic development
- Environmental needs
- Threat of hazards
- Social circumstances
What are some common high-quality building materials?
- Concrete
- Metal
- Hard wood
What should the purpose high-quality building materials be?
- Withstand the extremes of weather and climate experienced in the area
- Protect occupants from fires
- Last for a long period of time with minimal maintenance
What is The Building and Construction Authority?
It is the statutory board that oversees the guidelines and regulations related to construction in Singapore. This is done to ensure the safety and quality of buildings.
What are the features of informal housing?
- Self built by individuals or communities with no legal rights to use the land
- Occurs when people are unable to access formal housing
- Has little or no access to basic services, resulting in poor living conditions
Why do informal housing develop?
- Many city governments are unable to cope with the large influx of people entering the cities and a housing shortage ensues.
- People who cannot afford the available formal housing end up building informal housing in undesirable parts of the city or on the city outskirts. Such people are known as squatters and large concentrations of such housing form squatter settlements.
Why do governments view squatter settlements as undesirable?
They tend to suffer from various problems:
- Social unrest
- Degradation of the environment
- Vulnerable to the spread of infectious diseases
- Appropriate intervention is needed so that squatter settlements do not become a problem and eyesore.
- With the right policies, squatter settlements can be transformed into solutions that address the housing shortage issues faced by growing cities and aid in the sustainable development of cities.
How is informal housing built?
- Self-built by individuals or communities.
- Built in an unplanned manner, with no plans for the provision of basic services such as water and electricity.
Informal housing is usually constructed from scavenged materials of poor quality:
- Repurposed pieces of wood
- Cardboard
- Zinc sheets
Due to the use of low-quality building materials, houses in informal settlements are unsafe:
- Fire hazard
- Risk of collapse
- Risk of flooding during rainy season
Where can squatter settlements be found?
Squatter settlements may be found conveniently located along rivers and transport routes, but they are still developed without any government planning.
