Final A2 Solution Board

Our final solution is 3 of the items combined like a set. There are renderings of our final design of living and bed room. This can be used in the future where dorms or HDB flats can be build. More space and rooms which fulfilled every needs with a low price.

Section Individual Items

When living with one or more roommates, the relationship between the two plays a big role in deciding whether its a comfortable living condition or awkward and irritated life style.Dirty and messy could cause problems therefore; sectioning individual items are rather important. By using organizers like buckets, multi-purpose holders, shelves, people can easily identified their own items without taking the wrong one. Colours, shapes, stickers can help section or mark personal territories too.

Floor Plan

This is our floor plan after we re-structured the rooms. Most common HDB flat has 3 rooms, one of them is master bedroom with toilet inside. We took off the master bedroom and divided the room into 2. Toilets were arranged outside the room so they can be shared with everyone to avoid queuing. Living and dining are combined together in one space. When its dining time, foldable table will be out, in other times, its a living room. Kitchen space is not so big but just right to consider that they might not have time to cook.

So there are 4 rooms with 2 single beds in each room.

Foldable and Expandable furniture:

There are many special designed furniture to fulfill every needs of the crowds like in several sizes, colours, and the most importantly, the design.


 

This is the basic type of foldable furniture, popular among people with limited living space or short in budget. Light weight can allow adjustments whenever people want to change the arrangement.The price is more affordable compared to regular furniture with fancy designs and heavy weight. 

The design of sofa-bed is convenient for a family where the extended part can fit the kids while sleeping together. In many hotels sofa-bed is provided which saved space and cost for people wanting to add additional bed.

Expandable furniture can be creative too! A dining table with pol hidden underneath, combined both pleasure and function well together.

  

Possible solution: 101 ideas

We came up with 3 categories:

1) Government/ rent issues

Government can provide subsidize the rent or set a regulation for maximum rent. Increase their salaries is another solution but it is more unlikely because the decision is up to the company who employed the workers.

2) Room mates problems

They can set house rules as well as punishments to have a peaceful living environment together.Sectioning personal belongings is another way to have a nice living space. Cluttering won't happen because they have their own area even though its limited. Multipurpose hangers, buckets and colours can help differentiate territories.  

3) Redesign floor plan 

Remove unnecessary rooms like kitchen, balcony and master bedroom. Reduce the size of living to create more space for rooms. Combine dining and living together and toilets will be shared instead of having it in individual rooms. Foldable and expandable furniture instead of normanl furniture for less cost and bigger space. Remove or unfold them whenever they don't need them. 

We have some CRAZY ideas too like;

A painting in the house as a portal an another space

People can shrink themselves if their house is small

Hypnotize to make you believe you own a big house

Get more sleepovers! Therefore; you have many houses.

Migrant workers include a wild range of occupations from doctors to janitors, all with different pay rates.A survey was conducted to understand how they feel about housing in Singapore and were they satisfied with their living conditions. We are targeting foreign workers from the age 20 and above who is now or used to be working in Singapore.





 
         

It turned out 94.20% of people think the real estate in Singapore is way too high which is an obvious fact that the economy is growing fast so as the living standard. 65.71% lived in HDB flat and most of them are satisfied with their living condition.

1:4 Why is it so expensive for such a small space?

Migrant workers were often been placed in a dormitory where the rental price and the living conditions were not at a same level. Housing is capital intensive, which means it is expensive compared to most other products especially in a small country like Singapore where lands are literally gold. Dormitories for migrant workers are normally old houses located in rural areas where the lands are cheaper. When the numbers of migrant workers are getting bigger, more dormitories are build, so the companies can control the cost and quality in an easier way.

All the rental prices were set by the companies, they have the authority to raise or reduce the rent. The truth is, all firms are created to earn as much as possible, living conditions of the migrant workers are certainly not a concern. The government should have regulations on the dormitories for basic living condition such as the number of workers sharing a dorm and sanitation.

Case Study:

Housing Conditions of Migrant and Seasonal Farm Workers in Virginia

In Virginia, migrant and seasonal workers were hired for harvesting agricultural products during a short working season. Ideal labor camps were always hard to find especially when the demand of housing was temporary. Short- term leasing is always more expensive than permanent rental. As a result, the living conditions for the workers were always poor. The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry was concerned about this issue so they developed a study to have a better understanding of the living conditions for the workers. The research stated that the workers are often be placed in trailers and mobile homes with communal bathrooms. Large camps frequently reported having problems like leaking roofs, electrical and plumbing issues. 

 

Empathy Exercise..

Construction Worker

My name is Robert, a 35 years old migrant worker from Israel. Two years ago i was hired to work for a well-known Construction corp in Singapore. When i first arrived, everything was settled, I was taken to a building near the airport and then i realized this is my dormitory. Well, not as bad as i thought. There were 10 other migrant workers on the truck but none of them speak my language. We followed our manager through the building and went up to 3rd floor, second door to the right. When we got in, there were already 5 people inside. I looked around, this dorm have three rooms and one bathroom, it was small. Things were piled up like a trash hill just right behind the doors. The manger told us 5 people in a room and if we're not happy, living room is another choice. The room was tiny, no bed just 5 mattresses laying on the floor, some were overlapping each other. When the manager left, we settled ourselves into the rooms, unfortunately 1 of us have no room and it happens to be the youngest one. He will have to sleep in the living room,oh and our living room have nothing but some simple plastic chairs with luggage and some unwanted trash.

After one night, i realized many problems, first of all, its too crowed. We bump into each other all the time. At night my toes were stepped on several times because the others were trying to go toilet and the room was tiny. People talks, some listen to music, the environment is frustrating, not to mention privacy, they stare at you all the time. The most terrible thing is that we only have one toilet and there are 16 of us. We need to queue for shower and toilet, sometimes it took me 2 hours just to take shower. The air is filled with nasty smell and its humid.

I still couldn't get used to the environment for the first few month but after 2 years these are nothing. I am fine with and smell, crowdness, and stranger. Tough time but still can be handled.

Problems on "Collective Living Spaces"

Definition:
Collective living spaces are sharing spaces focusing on the residence itself rather than the relationships with roommates and neighbors.

Singapore is a small country with a high living standard, its common for people to share rooms in order to save rent. Sharing rooms can be bad in some ways like lack of privacy, no clear identity on roommates,lost of freedom and the arrangement of the space which lead to the next problem; cluttering.
If the room or house is already small, with piles of furniture or rubbish stuffed inside, the active space will definitely reduce. Some houses are small due to garages and sharing spaces like the yard or walking path. This could be worse in small places like Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has a high density of population and due to the lack of available lands, apartments and houses are very expensive, even like the houses showed above. Sickness and diseases can spread easily in these kind of crowded and dirty environment. It is uncomfortable, not hygienic and irritating. This is what happens when a country develops too fast. Another problem is the noise. Houses are too close with each other, thin walls and doors cannot effectively block or stop the noise from next door.

Collective living spaces are a big problem in fast developing or developed countries. Price of houses and rent are far beyond people's salaries and sharing rooms seems to be the best solution to cut cost and still maintain a living.