Singapore 360 - Day 11: HDB Laundry Bamboo Poles

Most of the Singapore population live in HDB flats. HDB stands for Housing and Development Board, the government office responsible for public housing here in Singapore. But locals have referred to these government-built housing units themselves as HDBs. "Do you live in an HDB or a condo?" is therefore a common question.

These high-rise flats were initially a response to the housing shortages Singapore faced after independence from Britain. Land is scarce especially here in Singapore, being the smallest nation in Southeast Asia and one of the smallest in the world, so HDBs make perfect sense.

How do you dry washed clothes if you live in an HDB and don't have a backyard to put up a clothesline? Easy, use bamboo poles to hang wet clothes outside. Bamboo pole holders, located mostly just below the kitchen windows, are built as part of HDBs and are designed specifically for that purpose.

There are holders inside the kitchen too, attached sturdily to the ceiling. They come in handy when it's raining or if there are certain clothes one is careful not to expose directly under the sun lest risk having their colors fade. Sometimes the only problem with this is that a number of people get too lazy to bring them down before they cook and so the aroma of the food seeps into the clothes. More often than not, it's not a very pleasant smell.

Like the HDBs, the bamboo poles and their holders are an ingenious solution to an everyday problem.

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Here's an interesting article I found on the Web:

Debunking the official myths about HDB flats (Part 1): Singaporeans are owners of their HDB flats

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