Design Process - Blog 3 (Bibliography)

These are the five resources that my group has gathered for our research. We find on what makes the living space to be shrinking in housing units over the decades.


2 Books: 

- Conran, Terence. Small Spaces. London, 2001 
- Tanqueray, Rebecca. Small Spaces: Making The Most Of The Space You Have. Singapore, 2003

Referring to these 2 books, we find out how small spaces in homes can be used efficiently. They mentioned on different aspects in homes that storage, furniture and space can be used to make a small living space looks as great as a large living space. 

For storage, they listed out on some solutions to address the following problems. Firstly, it is encouraged to install built-in cupboards or nooks if many storage compartments are needed whereas preferred to be hidden. Secondly, if there is less space in kitchen, a drying rack can be installed above the sink. Lastly, if more shelves are needed for storage or display, walls can be replaced with full-height shelf instead to divide the room space.

For furniture, they also listed out on some solutions to address the following problems. Firstly, wardrobes usually take up quite a lot of space in a small bedroom, hence, it is more beneficial to store clothing or essentials under bunk beds instead of having extra wardrobes. In addition, having see-through or mirrored furniture can create the illusion of more space, hence, also do not block light reflection or too much cast shadow to make the space feel small.

Lastly, for space, they also listed out on some solutions to address the following problems. If there is limited space along walkways, furniture or storage cabinets can be built against the walls. Secondly, if hinged door is taking too much space, sliding, folding or swing (pivoting) door can be used instead. Lastly, structural dividers or partition can be used instead of having walls from rooms to rooms.

1 Magazine:

- Singapore Home & Décor, June 2014, Stylish Living Made Easy, pg. 100, 10 Common Storage Problems (and how to solve it), Text Mavis Ang (Writer)

The magazine talks about 10 common storage problems that are faced in Singapore. They talked about small spaces can be made use of if finding the correct storage solutions for the problems faced by the people. Some of these examples include storage underneaths, walk-in wardrobe and shelves that can take up less space.


2 Websites:

- https://singapore2025.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/smaller-hdb-flats-10-years-on-think-small-and-put-the-buzz-into-singapore/
- http://www.teoalida.com/singapore/hdbflatsizes/

 We came upon the two websites as listed above that show evidences on why this is so. They mainly talk about how the household size are affected over the decades and people living in Singapore are complaining about it.

Figure 3.0 Household size versus Flat size and Living space per person

From the table above, we can see that the average household size decreases from 4.6 to 3.4, from period 1980s to 2000s. However, it states that the living space per person increases for 3-room and 4-room flat type. This shows that the amount of people living in a household decreases where a family may contain lesser family members as compared to the past, 1980s. On the other hand, the living space for an individual increases as a result.