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Safety should come before style in flat design
Published on Jun 23, 2012
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<!--close .storyLeft-->I AGREE with Mr Ang Chin Guan's letter ('Focus on safety first in building HDB flats'; Forum Online, Wednesday).
My family and I, owners of a new Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) flat in The Peak @ Toa Payoh, discovered designs that create safety concerns.
The bay windows in the bedroom, while pleasing to the eye, act as a step to the window grilles comprising a series of four horizontal bars that lead to a huge gap at the top. Active children who love to climb may regard it as a children's gym meant for exploration. Diagonal bars, or even floral design grilles would have been safer.
The three- and four-room units have master bedroom toilet doors through which pregnant women, or larger people, cannot squeeze.
A folding or sliding door would have been more practical.
The gates of the flats are oddly designed. The padlock holders are not on the inside of the gate facing the interior of the flat, but outside the unit. The design makes it hard to lock and unlock the gate. If a fire breaks out, the occupants will have a hard time escaping because the padlock is located outside and at a height above the shoulders.
Residents whose units are perpendicular to each other have discovered that they cannot open their gates at the same time or keep the gates open as this will impede the movement of people from the other unit. The gates should have opened not towards each other but in different directions.
Huge planters are provided but not everyone has a green thumb, and as the planters are like drains, they are a hazard for children.
The HDB, the developer Hoi Hup, and the Bishan-Toa Payoh Town Council should take a good hard look at how the units are designed.
Tan Xiu-Yin (Ms)
Published on Jun 23, 2012
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<!--close .storyLeft-->I AGREE with Mr Ang Chin Guan's letter ('Focus on safety first in building HDB flats'; Forum Online, Wednesday).
My family and I, owners of a new Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) flat in The Peak @ Toa Payoh, discovered designs that create safety concerns.
The bay windows in the bedroom, while pleasing to the eye, act as a step to the window grilles comprising a series of four horizontal bars that lead to a huge gap at the top. Active children who love to climb may regard it as a children's gym meant for exploration. Diagonal bars, or even floral design grilles would have been safer.
The three- and four-room units have master bedroom toilet doors through which pregnant women, or larger people, cannot squeeze.
A folding or sliding door would have been more practical.
The gates of the flats are oddly designed. The padlock holders are not on the inside of the gate facing the interior of the flat, but outside the unit. The design makes it hard to lock and unlock the gate. If a fire breaks out, the occupants will have a hard time escaping because the padlock is located outside and at a height above the shoulders.
Residents whose units are perpendicular to each other have discovered that they cannot open their gates at the same time or keep the gates open as this will impede the movement of people from the other unit. The gates should have opened not towards each other but in different directions.
Huge planters are provided but not everyone has a green thumb, and as the planters are like drains, they are a hazard for children.
The HDB, the developer Hoi Hup, and the Bishan-Toa Payoh Town Council should take a good hard look at how the units are designed.
Tan Xiu-Yin (Ms)