HDB renovation rules every interior designer should design around

011. Start from the planWhere do HDB renovation rules start?

With the floor plan HDB gives the owner. The sales plan of a BTO or resale flat already shows the most important rule: its legend says that structural columns and walls shaded in black, and all beams and slabs, must not be hacked, removed or tampered with. The household shelter is drawn on it too.

That is why IDstudio starts there. Upload a photo or scan of the plan and the AI reads the walls, doors, windows and printed dimensions before it draws anything. Whether it is a 4-room resale in Ang Mo Kio, a 5-room BTO in Punggol or an executive flat in Telok Blangah, the floor plan from HDB is enough to start. Condos, ECs and landed homes work the same way.

022. Structural wallsWhich walls can never be hacked?

The walls shaded black on the HDB plan, the columns, the beams and the external walls. A layout that needs one of them gone is not a layout for that flat, however good it looks in a render.

IDstudio never alters them. The harder case is the element the plan does not make clear, such as a box in a corner that may be a duct or a riser. IDstudio treats it as structural and flags it to confirm on site, rather than designing a wardrobe into a space that may not exist.

033. The household shelterWhat can you do with the household shelter?

Leave its wall and door as drawn. The household shelter (HS) has its own rules, so IDstudio keeps the HS wall and door exactly where the plan puts them, whatever the rest of the layout does.

Designers often want to dress the shelter wall so it does not break the look of the living room. When a design does that, as the Ang Mo Kio sample does, IDstudio flags it for checking with HDB and SCDF. The client sees the idea; you know which part needs a yes before anyone builds it.

044. HackingWhen should a partition come down?

Only when the brief allows hacking and removing it clearly helps the layout. Plenty of good HDB designs hack nothing; the Ang Mo Kio sample hacks no walls at all.

When IDstudio does remove a partition, it lists each one with the reason and the approval it needs, and the change can be reversed. That list is useful in the first meeting: the client sees what opening up the kitchen would cost in approvals before falling in love with it.

055. Local sizes and habitsWhat sizes and habits should an HDB design follow?

The ones Singapore homes are actually built and lived in with. A layout drawn to generic furniture sizes looks wrong to a Singapore client straight away. IDstudio lays out every room to these defaults:

• BedsSuper single and queen beds, the sizes Singapore bedrooms are planned around.
• StorageFull-height wardrobes, and a shoe cabinet and niche at the entrance.
• KitchenGlass-enclosed kitchens, so cooking stays in the kitchen without closing it off.
• WindowsCurtains under pelmets.
• Wet areasKept where they are on the plan.
• CeilingA 2.6 m ceiling assumed for newer flats until it is measured.

066. What stays with youWhat still needs a designer on site?

The measuring and the approvals. Every IDstudio plan comes with the brief checked line by line, met or not met and why, plus the assumptions to confirm on site, such as ceiling height and wall thickness, and anything that needs approval. Sending those with the renders sets honest expectations from the first meeting.

IDstudio is a design proposal tool for residential projects. It does not make construction or submission drawings for HDB or BCA, and the designer approves every step. Its job is to make sure the first proposal a client sees already respects the flat they own.

FAQQuestions designers askHDB rules and AI, briefly

CodaTry it on your next planWhat does a rule-aware proposal look like?

See the Ang Mo Kio 4-room in the open sample project, or start a free trial with your next HDB sales plan: one full project, 7 days, trial credits worth US$50, no card needed.

More on IDstudio for Singapore interior designers. Related: How AI turns an HDB floor plan into a design proposal and AI vs hand drafting vs render tools.

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