As someone who writes about real estate, I’ve visited more than my fair share of HDB developments in Singapore. While some have been quite conventional, there have been some that have surprised me with just how distinct they are. So if you are someone looking for an HDB home but are after something unique, here’s a good way to look for some of these flats – by the year it was built. As a bit of a history lesson, HDB has had different design themes through the decades. In 1960 when HDB was first set up, HDB flats were just meant to address the housing crisis. As such, flat designs were spartan and basic to keep costs down. In the 1970s, it was about providing facilities to these HDB towns – still, nothing too fancy. It was in the 1980s that there was more thought on how HDB towns should be conceived, with the precinct...