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.