Creative Commons Image by flickr user sheeprus

If you’re living in Singapore, you’re probably familiar with multi-story shophouses that has a open space between the shopfront and the outer-most facade. But did you know where it came from?

The idea of a Five Foot Way (五脚基) can be traced back to the old Colonial Government and Sir Stamford Raffles’ 1812 Town Plan.

This form of architecture is unique to South-east Asian colonies of the time and can still be found in the former colonial settlements in Malaysia, Brunei and Borneo.

I’ll just leave you with an opening from an old Singaporean 80s’ TV drama with the same name.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 6th, 2011 at 9:36 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.