En-bloc fever

This came up in a chat the other day with a friend, when I brought up the topic of building design and how much wastage (in terms of renovation, repair, etc) emerges because of poor building design and construction.

The conversation broaded to construction in general, and to en-bloc developments. For those international readers (note to self, international readers are a big ask given hardly anyone reads this blog) who might not be familiar with the term, "en-bloc" development refers to a process (common in recent years) in land-scarce Singapore where developers purchase a site (usually condominium) from owners in a collective sale requiring consent from a minimum 80% of unit owners. The development is then torn down, and rebuilt typically in a much denser fashion that maximises "plot ratio" (the maximum permittable ratio of built up area to land area). Singapore is a young country and often the development being torn down and rebuilt is relatively young, less than 20 years old.

A huge waste of concrete, the production of which is resource intensive and far from environmentally friendly.