Outside The BLK

Size: 134 x 176 mm

There is more to Singapore than the Singapore you know. Stepping away from the city centre beyond the tourist’s trails, I began to notice a continuous expanse of mid-rise buildings arranged in designated clusters, each group featuring identical architectural designs, colour scheme and overall aesthetics. These are Singapore’s beloved public housing, commonly known as HDB (Housing and Development Board), where over 80% of Singapore’s population choose to reside. Given the size of Singapore, there are impressively over 1 million flats across 24 precincts and 3 estates; each comes with their own quirks and perks. The diverse range of HDB buildings appears to be a significant architectural characteristic, leading me to consider whether they could be a true icon of Singapore.

Outside The BLK is a photography documentation that assembles my fondness for the dazzling exterior appearance of Singapore’s HDBs. It aims to explore a unique architectural feature that unveils a rare contemporary aesthetic and foreign aspect of Singapore’s urban vernacular—an organic design that naturally integrates into the urban environment, mirroring a way of life. While the brightly coloured HDB blocks might be commonplace to Singaporeans, their often-overlooked beauty offered me a fresh perspective on Singapore, revealing them as a visual treasure deserving of attention.

One of the reasons these HDB blocks are given a certain visual characteristic is the aspiration to foster a sense of community, physical identity, ownership and pride; representing an identity of a town. The use of strong colours, symbolic paintings and murals is a strategic approach to distinguish one block from another. These motifs are not only decoratives, but they also serve as a visual cue that helps residents identify and remember precisely which building they live in.

The medley and mishmash of palettes on the HDB facades certainly bring cheers and joyfulness to some residents, while others are struggling to find a reason to love them. There are over 10,000 HDB blocks across the island—a bunch of these are coated with striking designs with full-on dramatic colours and geometrical patterns. Strolling across these blocks certainly felt like wandering through an enormous outdoor art gallery. There is an inexplicable sense of calm and satisfaction in the gridded arrangement of these colours and patterns that I struggle to express in words.