Singapore Improvement Trust

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Housing built by SIT at Tiong Bahru, Singapore.
Housing built by SIT at Tiong Bahru, Singapore.
Same group of housing, from a bird's eye view.
Same group of housing, from a bird's eye view.

The Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) was a government organisation set up in 1927 by the British colonial government in Singapore in response to the housing needs of the population of Singapore. At that time, many people resided in overcrowded shophouses and squatter settlements, resulting in widespread disease and lack of hygiene and sanitation. Often, over 200 people would live in one shophouse. This also generated massive civil unrest and crime.

The SIT was composed of professional architects and contractors to resolve this large social problem, with the goal of building affordable public housing for the common population of Singapore. However, SIT managed to build only 23,000 housing units in 32 years, unable to find an effective solution to lack of housing as the population grew faster than it built housing units. It was eventually replaced by the Housing and Development Board (HDB), which in contrast managed to build 110,000 housing units within less than a third of that time. On the other hand, flats built by HDB then are almost identical in their two-dimensional “matchbox” style; This is in contrast with the aesthetic art deco theme undertaken by SIT.

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