Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemHuman criteria for design : an inner city case study(University of Melbourne, 1979)
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ItemUrban dispersal around Kumasi, Ghana( 2008)Kumasi, the second largest Ghanaian city, has grown rapidly recently and dispersed into its surrounding rural region. The outcome is that large numbers of incomplete houses and overgrown housing plots are spread across a large front in an unplanned and uncoordinated manner. The research used published data and interviews with homebuilders and city officials to develop an understanding of that outcome. Although transportation networks figure prominently in urban dispersal studies in western cities, this research found that transportation had less significant influence on the outcome. It found that the uncoordinated urban dispersal reflects uncertainties in land ownership shaped by administrative fragmentation and ineffective regulatory controls. These are expressed in land ownership and chieftaincy disputes, the difficult application of official regulations alongside traditional mechanisms, and gridlock in the complex framework for development controls. The results suggest some changes in local and regional actions to improve the urban outcomes. Key challenges include reorganising land development management structures, better land information systems and a rethink of ways to finance infrastructure investment in new subdivisions. In addition, improvements in housing financing mechanisms and property taxation could minimise land banking and thereby encourage speedy home construction. The links between official land administration and the practices of traditional authorities needs to be rationalised in order to enhance the system of land management. The research has provided new perspectives on suburban development with implications for urban management in low-income countries.
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ItemSteps towards a sustainable Bangkok : reorganizing and retrofitting to mitigate sprawl( 2004)The thesis investigates the application of sustainability principles on a specific "superblock", the expansion unit of Bangkok. The case site is located in the urban fringe northeast of Bangkok and is characterized by the sprawl of leapfrogging developments and concurrent intensification of the urban fabric. The thesis proposes that sprawl and the associated environmental degradation can be arrested and mitigated within the framework of sustainability and the context of the superblock. The thesis begins by investigating the theories of sustainability which provides the basis upon which the case site is selected and the design/planning scenarios are analyzed. The research utilizes the case study approach to investigate the phenomena of contemporary sustainable design practice in Bangkok, combined with the generation of alternative scenarios/futures as a method and design tool to investigate the possibilities for a more sustainable urbanization. Through studies of Bangkok's sprawl, a representation model of the site is generated from which two alternative scenarios are projected-the `business as usual' unmediated change and the more `sustainable' mediated change stressing the central roles of khlong's and open spaces. A preliminary process of "backcasting" then speculates the varying local barriers and contexts to practicing and implementing sustainability. In the tradition of alternative visions of the designed future as major contributions to knowledge, the design/planning process provides an heuristic device as a framework that can inform and potentially assist practitioners, decision makers and stakeholders in navigating, engaging with the complexities and the application of the metanarrative of sustainability at a local level. Through the reorganization and retrofitting of the local urban ingredients and typologies of Bangkok, the thesis demonstrates that sustainability, while providing the generic theoretical framework, should, in practice, be coordinated, incremental and variable-catering to the specific evolutions in the socioeconomic, political, cultural and environmental facets of place
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ItemCharacteristics of design for sustainable urban settlement( 1999)Most people in the world live in urban settlements, and urban settlements are also the location of many environmentally damaging activities. A sustainable future is dependent on the design of sustainable urban settlements. It is now widely recognised that sustainability theory and practice must deal with the dynamics and uncertainties of the evolving world in which we live. The dynamics of an evolving world present a challenge to design for sustainable urban settlements, when design is viewed in a conventional way. Conventional ideas tend to assume limited and fully determined outcomes from design. However, experience tells us that designed changes have often brought unintended and unexpected consequences for sustainability. It is argued, therefore, that a new concept of design is required with its roots in the cultural and biophysical interactions of evolving urban settlements. Drawing on theories of non-equilibrium,systems,notably on the theory of dissipative structures, the evolutionary dynamics that integrate cultural and biophysical change in an urban settlement, and are the generators of uncertainty, are described by reference to a case study of the Western Suburbs of Melbourne. The links between theory and the case study are established by application of an adapted version of the Slocombe/Gryzbowski method for identifying and describing the evolutionary dynamics of large scale cultural-biophysical systems. With minor modifications, the method's step-by-step procedure, is used to establish relationships between evolutionary change and the sustainability of the urban settlement, and the role of design in both. The case study supports the idea that design is deeply embedded in the evolution of an urban settlement and its sustainability. Drawing on the findings from the case study, a range of new characteristics of design for sustainable urban settlements are proposed. Together these establish a new model of design for sustainable urban settlements, that incorporates the dynamics of evolving systems, and replaces the conventional and purely deterministic model. In the new model, design is found to be an instrument of change and uncertainty. At the same time it has the capacity to endow urban settlements with the flexibility necessary to persist and adapt to new circumstances. As such it is both a risky and experimental activity, but one with which we must engage if we are to ensure a sustainable future