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Box Story: The Housing & Development Board's New Urban Kampung Research Programme
Discover Singapore's use of behavioural science and data analytics to understand evolving needs and lifestyles, enabling the HDB to create better-designed towns.
As Singapore’s social make up becomes more diverse, there is an increasing need to rethink the future of housing so that residents at different stages of life can live well and stay connected with the larger community. The New Urban Kampung Research Programme is a collaboration between the HDB and SUTD. It aims to leverage technology and social and behavioural sciences to better understand residents and develop towns that are designed for community bonding and high quality of living. The initiative is supported by the MND and NRF, and comes under the Prime Minister’s Office’s Land and Liveability National Innovation Challenge Research Programme.
Redefining Resident Segments
The study recognised that traditional profiling of residents based on demographics such as age, gender or ethnicity is no longer adequate to understand their circumstances and choices, or for assessing their quality of life. Instead, the study identified eight emerging resident archetypes with a detailed understanding of their diverse perceptions and needs. This was done by drawing data from 5,155 door-to-door and street-intercept surveys conducted across 3 residential towns with different life stages, demographic profiles and town planning concepts. The aim was to better understand and anticipate the emerging resident archetypes and their needs, aspirations and lifestyles for more targeted design and planning of HDB towns.

Resident archetypes identified in the New Urban Kampung Research Programme (Housing & Development Board)
Establishing a New Quality of Life Framework
Based on surveys and 241 additional in-depth interviews with residents, the study also developed a new Quality of Life framework that is unique to HDB living and can be used to assess the current state of quality of life and identify opportunities to improve liveability in HDB towns and estates. The bottom-up data analytics process revealed various factors affecting the residents’ quality of life, which can be measured through objective and subjective indicators.

Urban analytics tools were developed to simulate the impacts of urban systems on socio-behavioural changes (Housing & Development Board)
Utilising Urban Analytics
how well the towns and residents are performing across various aspects of life, understand the impact of initiatives put in place, and track quality of life across time. Ultimately, the aim is to develop a sense of the town life cycle and allow the HDB to better design and plan towns in anticipation of the future needs of the communities they serve.
Building Self-Enabled Communities
By tapping on the collective knowledge of the residents, the project also established an online community platform and framework to empower HDB residents to stay connected with like-minded neighbours, and organise ground-up activities to build self-enabled communities. An example is the NuKampung mobile app, a one-stop platform that provides updates on all events and activities run by different organisations within a neighbourhood.
Conclusion
The fast-changing urban landscape brings along with it increasingly complex housing issues and needs. With social and behavioural science studies and data analysis, the HDB can better understand residents’ needs and changing lifestyles, as well as their responses to various plans and initiatives. As the urban landscape in Singapore evolves, the HDB will continue to tap on the power of technological innovation, and work together with industry experts and community partners to create well-designed, community-centric and sustainable homes for residents.