29 January 1819: British statesman and Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen Sir Stamford Raffles lands on an island known as Singapura (meaning “lion city” in Sanskrit).

6 February 1819: Seeking new territory to counter expanding power of the Dutch in the region, he signs a treaty with Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor to allow the British East India Company to set up a trading port.[1] Singapore officially becomes a British settlement.[2]

• Singapore was an ancient port by the time Raffles re-discovered it. By the 14th century, the port was connected to the "Silk Road of the Sea," facilitating the movement of "pottery, glass, rare stones, and foreign coins, and spices from Southeast Asia to places as far as the Nile in Egypt." Before it was called Singapura/Singapore, the island was known as Temasek.[3]

• Before the treaty was signed, the island had approximately 1,000 inhabitants: “500 Orang Kallang, 200 Orang Seletar, 150 Orang Gelam, and other orang laut (Malay for “people of the sea”).”[4] These were names of different tribes of orang laut who had settled in Singapore prior to Raffles’ arrival.[5]

Late 1822: Raffles develops a master town plan demarcating different, segmented zones for Europeans, Chinese, Malay/Arabs, and Indians.[6] Europeans and Chinese got the best spots: north and south of the Singapore River respectively.[7]

• Raffles had picked up lessons from previous colonial towns he had worked on, such as Georgetown in Penang and Calcutta. He believed urban planning would mitigate poor sanitary conditions and disorganized growth.[8]

• The British painted indigenous Malays as lacking in intelligence and lazy, in line with other ‘lazy native’ stereotypes of other colonial areas.[9] Alatas writes that the Malay people were “[unwilling] to become a tool in the production system of colonial capitalism,” which “earned [them] a reputation of being indolent.”[10] Conversely, Chinese people were lauded as hardworking, entrepreneurial, and “capable of civilization of the highest kind”: closer to Europeans in the latter’s self-constructed racial hierarchy.[11] These preferences were reflected in the zoning of the town around the Singapore River (as seen below).

1824: The island reaches 10,000+ residents.[12]

1836: The Chinese become the majority racial group in Singapore[13] and that trend continues to the present day.

1840s: Shophouses start being built in Singapore. These typically two-story buildings are mainly erected in the downtown area. Residents can set up shop on the ground floor and live upstairs. (Both stories can also be used for living; these are terrace houses.) Shophouses are a curious mix of East and West architectural styles. Five-foot ways (walkways that were five feet in width) were also constructed in front of shophouses to provide continuous verandahs and a shelter from the elements as shopkeepers sold their wares. Five-foot ways were part of Raffles' master town plan.[14]

• Shophouses are still around in Singapore today, preserved as sites of cultural heritage.

1850s: Downtown Singapore starts to get crowded. Residents venture to reside in 'rural' parts of the island. Chinese agricultural immigrants set up pepper and gambier plantations along river banks. The first kampongs outside of Raffles' master plan were also set up, like Nee Soon Village in the north of the island (one of the oldest Chinese kampongs).[15]

1927: The colonial government officially constitutes the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) to review the living conditions in central Singapore. It was initially meant only to build housing for residents left homeless by its improvement schemes. However, in 1932, the commission was given more authority to build housing for the rapidly growing population.[16]

1959: The Anglicized, Chinese-dominated People’s Action Party (PAP)[17]—formed in 1954—'inherits’ Singapore from the waning British forces weakened after WWII.[18] They get power over internal self-governance while the British handle the country’s foreign affairs. There is continued one-party dominance until the present day.[19]

• During this process, the British mentored and favored English-educated, local-born Chinese and nominated members of this new class to various roles in the government.[20] In doing so, the British displayed their intent to “transfer power eventually to the English-educated section of the population who felt at ease with colonial rule.”[21] They could thus continue enacting and imparting Western values to the rest of the country.

3-10 December 1959: Singapore holds National Loyalty Week to “encourage a sense of loyalty among the diverse citizens of the new state of Singapore.”[22]

1960: Singapore establishes the Housing and Development Board (HDB) to replace SIT. By now, the country is facing a housing shortage, overcrowding, and the formation of squatter colonies. HDB’s main objective is to provide public housing for lower-income residents.[23]

1968-1982: The Jurong Town Corporation (JTC), another governmental authority (under the Ministry of Trade and Industry), constructs a small number of public flats in industrial areas for low-income residents.[24]

1974-1982: The Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) constructed housing for middle-income residents.[25] The government introduced this option for Singaporeans who could afford a place beyond the regular HDB flat but found private housing unaffordable. According to PropertyGuru: "HUDCs were typically larger, better built and also had better amenities compared to regular HDB flats, such as covered carparks and sheltered grounds. The largest HUDC flat was 1,700 sq ft, which is amongst the biggest HDB flats ever constructed."[26]

1976: HDB flats have housed half of the local population[27] (half of the 1976 population is about 1.15 million[28]).

1982: HDB takes over the management of JTC and HUDC flats and becomes the sole housing authority (and it continues to be until today).[29]

1989: The HDB introduces the Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP), which limits the total percentage of a certain race in a block or neighborhood. These percentages largely follow the Singaporean population. This policy applies to the buying and selling of all new and resale HDB flats, as well as HDB’s allocation of rental flats.

• According to the government’s website, the EIP was introduced to “ensure a balanced mix of ethnic groups in HDB estates, and to prevent the formation of racial enclaves. It seeks to promote racial integration in Singapore by allowing residents of different ethnicities to live together and interact on a regular basis in public housing.”[30]

1995: The government introduces plans to privatize HUDC apartments, granted at least 75% of owners approve of the switch. As of 2020, all 18 HUDC apartment estates are privatized.[31]

2020: HDB flats house almost 80% of the 4.04 million local resident population.

• Click here to see how HDB design has evolved over the years.