Circular Point Block (259 Ang Mo Kio Ave 2.)
Completed in 1981, Block 259 at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 2 is the first and only circular point block designed and built by the Housing and Development Board (HDB). It was one of the seven new housing typologies introduced in August 1979 when HDB set out to redesign Singapore’s public housing “from that of mass produced stereotypes to recognisable individual housing estates”¹. Previously, HDB was focused on breaking the back of Singapore’s housing shortage by constructing “the maximum number of units of public housing in the minimum time and at the most economical cost”². It had only carried out limited experiments with the two main housing typologies of the slab and point blocks.
The new typologies of 1979 included greater variations of the typical point and slab blocks, such as a point block with circular balconies, or two slab blocks joined at 30- or 45-degree turns. These typologies preceded experiments with postmodernism in the 1980s and the privatisation of public housing design post-1990s. As part of an important turning point in the history of Singapore’s public housing design, Block 259 at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 2 is an interesting example of the public housing that houses 80% of Singapore’s population.
Locations: 259 Ang Mo Kio Ave 2, Singapore 560259
Architects: Housing and Development Board
Year: 1981
Status: Not conserved
¹ HDB Annual Report 1978/79 (Singapore: Housing and Development Board, 79 1978).
² ‘Annual Report 1966’ (Singapore: Housing and Development Board, 1967), 46.
Written by Justin Zhuang, last updated on 12 May 2021.
