By Joyce Teo, Property Correspondent

AN EXCITING new generation of Housing Board (HDB) flats is set to go on sale in about a year's time at now-sleepy Dawson estate.

The 50-year-old Queenstown estate is set to be transformed with the construction of two striking 40-storey towers, designed by award-winning architects, SCDA Architects and WOHA Architects.

The towers are being built under the HDB's Build-To-Order system (BTO) - now the board's main means of providing new housing stock.

HDB rarely builds new flats within a mature estate due to the lack of space. The new towers will be nestled among gardens designed by landscape architects- a first for an HDB estate.

News that the flats will be on sale in a year's time was unveiled by Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for National Development at the HDB awards dinner on Wednesday.

Sales will start in the third quarter of next year (2009). Construction could start six months after that and be completed in 2014, Ms Fu said.

At Dawson - Singapore's first HDB estate - the SCDA-designed block is on a 2.2 ha site and could feature about 800 flats. The other tower block on a 2.7 ha site is to feature about 1,000 units.

The flats will have special features such as lofts, flexible flat designs, and sky villages or common high-rise space shared by every 10 floors.

Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.