PALETTE POLITICS

When the residents of a Teck Whye Avenue housing estate went to the polls in 2017, they were not choosing political candidates or parties.

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They were deciding on whether the exterior of their flats should be repainted in a Mondrian-inspired red, white, blue and yellow scheme or something more conventional. The unusual choice claimed a landslide victory.

The design inspired by Dutch abstract artist Piet Mondrian won 75 per cent of the votes in the seven blocks that make up the Housing Board estate, beating two alternatives. It was an outcome lauded by both residents and netizens at the time.

Mr Dhaval Bhate, a 36-year-old former resident of the estate, says the striking colours added to Teck Whye's uniqueness. The estate's 25-storey seventh block was among the tallest HDB flats in the west of Singapore at the time.

"One often needs to read the road signs just to know where you are in Singapore because most HDB blocks look almost the same, whether it's Bedok or Clementi," says the tech start-up worker, a "perpetual renter" who has moved house 13 times in 19 years.

"But that's the thing about those Teck Whye blocks. They stood out, they really had character."

What happened in Teck Whye happens almost every day in Singapore. Over 77 per cent of the island's resident population live in public housing blocks, which are typically repainted every seven years.

This everyday democratic exercise has become a distinctive feature of urban life in the Republic.

WHEN PURPLE GOES WRONG

The stakes of these consultations bubbled to the surface during a public spat at an HDB estate in Tiong Bahru in May.

Some residents expressed anger over a block in Boon Tiong Road being repainted a "gaudy" purple without a vote.

This prompted Mr Foo Cexiang, a newly elected Member of Parliament, to organise a vote. He is an MP for the Tanjong Pagar GRC and oversees the estate's Boon Tiong area.

The vote, held over three days in May, resulted in 40 per cent opting for a brown scheme.