Tiong Bahru blocks to be painted brown after criticisms over purple makeover

SINGAPORE – The 14 Tiong Bahru HDB blocks that ignited much debate and discussion after residents found out the buildings were going to be painted purple are now going to be painted brown.

The decision on the new colour scheme comes after the views of residents were sought through a poll held from May 26 to 28.

A notice by Tanjong Pagar Town Council on May 30 showed that 40 per cent of the Boon Tiong Road residents who voted on the colours selected the “taupe” colour scheme from four options.

There were 569 valid votes.

The initial purple paint job

came under the spotlight earlier in May

after parts of the exterior of Block 9A Boon Tiong Road were painted several shades of purple, including a dark plum which some residents said looked gaudy.

Residents were upset as they said their views were not sought.

Following the uproar, Tanjong Pagar GRC MP Foo Cexiang decided to do a poll after residents told him they wanted a choice in the colour scheme.

Two of the options were variations of purple.

The “classic purple” option, which had more white portions and shades of light purple, garnered 17 per cent of the votes.

Another option, called “lightened purple gradient”, had more purple sections. It received 13 per cent of the votes.

One other option, a yellow colour scheme, had 30 per cent of the votes.

A resident, Ms Nicole Lau, felt the winning taupe colour scheme was acceptable. But she had hoped that the classic purple option would be chosen as she liked the finished paint job at Block 2A Boon Tiong Road, which had shades of lilac. 

“The lilac colour looks quite soothing. What I didn’t like was the dark purple shade,” said the teacher, who is in her 40s.

“Are we going to be called the Milo blocks now?” she added, referring to the chocolate malt beverage.

A resident at Block 2A, who wanted to be known only as Mr Chen, said he was disappointed with the results as his block would have to undergo another round of painting.

“The purple colour is nice, I don’t understand why there was a huge fuss over it. Now, residents at Block 2A will have to be inconvenienced again,” said the 60-year-old information technology consultant.

He said the block’s purple makeover took about a month and was completed in early May. It was previously off-white with shades of light orange.

Mr Foo told reporters on May 17 that the purple colour scheme was selected to reflect the purple-blossomed bougainvillea planted in Boon Tiong Road as part of a community event in 2015.

The idea came from a discussion between Ms Indranee Rajah – who was previously adviser to Tanjong Pagar GRC grassroots organisations – and residents and architects, he said.

Ms Indranee, who is Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, was an MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC from 2001 to 2025 before moving to head the PAP’s team in Pasir Ris-Changi GRC for the 2025 General Election.

As to why voting was not done earlier, Mr Foo said there is no protocol on how advisers should conduct the repainting process.

He said painting would start about three to four weeks after the colour scheme was chosen.