Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications
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ItemThe Shanghai Paradox(Architecture Media Politics Society, 2014)This paper outlines my ongoing research on the use of traditional symbolism and its utilisation in contemporary architecture of the Chinese global city. It specifically examines the landmark architecture of the Pudong, or the “new” Shanghai. Is there a contradiction in imagery when architects adopt traditional motifs in contemporary skyscraper architecture? Designs such as Cesar Pelli’s Petronas Towers (1994) in Kuala Lumpur use traditional Islamic patterns in the floor plans and façade detail. However, in the case of Shanghai, the three landmark buildings of the Pudong as shown in Figure 1; the Jin Mao Tower (1999), the Shanghai World Financial Centre (2008) and the Shanghai Tower (under construction at the time of writing), all reference fengshui and cosmology. The paradox in this case is that under law of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), geomancy, including fengshui and cosmological symbolism, is defined as a feudal superstition and its practice illegal.
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ItemArchitectural specialisation and the death of architectural practice(Architectural Science Association & The University of Adelaide, 2016)In the past 50 years the traditional role of the architect to supervise and control projects has been eroded. The last remaining bastion maintain this traditional role of the architect is in small practice. Using a survey that firstly looks at how architects are engaged via either full or partial services we explore how architects identify with and deliver specialised services. The respondents in the survey were taken from a sample of 1200 Australian architects. Data was collected regarding specialisation, service provision, outsourcing and contractual arrangements. This is positioned alongside a historical account of the profession which suggests that technology and changes within legal frameworks, strategy, marketing, operations, project management, and finance are leading to the marginalisation of architects. We test this assertion by investigating evidence for these changes and the extent to which specialised architectural knowledge is being created in firms. For architects, specialist architectural knowledge is integrative and resides in the traditional service delivery particularly in the realm of housing. However, fee competition has hampered the ability of architects to specialise. As a result, in the future the role of the architect may be non-existent.
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ItemDeveloping An Evidence-based Understanding of Hospital Space Planning Efficiency(Architectural Science Association, 2018)Over the last two decades there has been a steady increase in the demand for healthcare services and a commensurate rise in the global expenditure in health (WHO, 2014). Given the significance of the financial investment in capital works programmes required to meet growing healthcare needs and the expanding environmental impact of the healthcare industry, it is important to gain a detailed understanding of how healthcare infrastructure assets currently perform, the strategic drivers impacting on hospital space use efficiency, and the complex interrelationship of factors that impact on the healthcare environment. This paper outlines a research project that was conducted by the University of Melbourne in conjunction with a local architectural practice partner, to examine space planning efficiency and emerging trends in hospital space planning requirements. To assist in developing a greater understanding of the space planning efficiency of healthcare infrastructure, and changing trends in hospital space planning, this study examined a range of measures across 31 hospitals against regional and international benchmarks. This paper outlines a novel multi-modal research methodology established to examine the complex range of interconnecting planning measures impacting space planning efficiency, and some of the difficulties in assessing hospital space planning efficiency.
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ItemAll that glitters is not gold: the effect of mining activities and royalties on the built environment of remote North East Arnhem Land(Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ), 2016)This paper explores the effects of mining activities and royalties on the Northern Territory’s remote northeast Arnhem Land region, including the mining town of Nhulunbuy (with a 93.8% non-Indigenous population) and surrounding Indigenous communities, and shows that the associated architectures do not provide long-term benefit to local people. In 2014, Rio Tinto Alcan closed their alumina refinery in Nhulunbuy. This resulted in the redundancy or redeployment of 1100 workers and a significant reduction in the town’s 4000 strong population. The closure of the refinery calls into question the role of mining settlements and their surrounding regions beyond the life of a mine. Using the case study of northeast Arnhem Land, the paper describes the genesis of the Nhulunbuy Township in the late 1960s and how it precipitated the Indigenous land rights movement in the Northern Territory and the repatriation to homelands throughout the region. The paper analyses the architecture of Nhulunbuy, whose public, commercial and residential buildings were almost exclusively designed and built by the mining company, in comparison to the architectures that emerged through mining royalty funds distributed to traditional land owner groups such as the Gumatj and Rirratjingu Aboriginal Corporations, the Yirrkala Dhanbul Association and the Arnhem Land Trust. It historicises and critiques their respective contextual response to environmental, social and adaptive economic factors. Nhulunbuy has grown to become a significant resource centre for the northeast Arnhem Land region providing services to surrounding Indigenous communities and homelands. Thus the paper turns to a discussion of the recent history of the alumina refinery closure and the subsequent ramifications for the region’s architecture, both in the mining town and for mining royalty funded structures throughout the region. With the sudden closure of other mines throughout remote Australia, such as the Alinta coal mine at Leigh Creek, South Australia, which also acts as a service centre to the nearby Iga Warta Indigenous community, this paper is both a timely and relevant contribution.
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ItemStructural Design with Reclaimed Materials: an Elastic Gridshell out of Skis(International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS), 2017)This paper presents the design and construction of a 36m2 gridshell, the rigidity of which is achieved through the bending of an initially flat grid of 210 reclaimed skis. The generated waste for its production is near zero as it is mostly built from discarded material. Its construction process is such that it can be disassembled and reassembled multiple times without scaffolding and by means of traditional tools only. After a brief introduction on the need for reducing embodied carbon and waste in structures through reuse, the paper sets up the constraints that have driven the definition of the pavilion, the main one being the extension of the lifetime of high-performance sport equipment by reclaiming their intrinsic mechanical properties. The paper then details the encountered unusual aspects in the design process and how they have been overcome – i.e., sporadic material supply, categorization of mechanical properties, physical alteration of these properties, and uncertainties in the numerical modelling of both the structural analysis and the construction process. Eventually, we conclude that reclaimed skis as a material have the potential to be as good as conventional timber when designing elastic gridshells. A series of future directions for this emerging field of research are also laid out.
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ItemTracking the Trends in City Networking: A Passing Phase or Genuine International Reform?(University of Pennsylvania, 2019)
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ItemDigitization of Construction Claim Management: The Case of Additional Cost Claims(Deakin University, 2021)Claims management is recognized as a complex phenomenon that often leads to disputes between contracting parties. A contractor can claim for many reasons including additional cost. Additional cost claims allow the contractor to recover cost occurred due to several reasons such as delays and/or disruptions, variations and escalations, which evidently result from events beyond the conditions of contract and control of contractors. However, the submission and evaluation of such claims is a challenging task for construction stakeholders because of the existing issues in the management of these claims using traditional approaches. Hence, there is a need realized by industry practitioners for shifting the traditional claim management process of these claims to a digital environment. This need can be fulfilled by a forthcoming Information and Communications Technology (ICT) platform such as Building Information Modeling (BIM). Therefore, in this research effort has been made to utilize BIM for effective management of claims for an additional cost that frequently occur in construction projects. To start with, issues in traditional claims management process of construction cost claims are identified, which is followed by development of a framework for a new system named as BIM - Based Cost Claims Management System (B-CCMS). Grounded on the Application Programming Interface (API) provided by one of the BIM software (Autodesk Revit), a plugin named B-CCMS is proposed for working of the developed system. The proposed system is expected to solve the identified issues in the management of additional cost claims, especially those related to documentation, time, resources, cost, presentation and impact. This will result in quick and transparent settlement of additional cost claims making it less prone to disputes between contracting parties.
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ItemSAHANZ: The Last 15 Years, 2004-2019(SAHANZ, 2021)This paper investigates the writing of architectural history in Australia and New Zealand promoted by SAHANZ over the last fifteen years. In 2004, the Society celebrated its twentieth anniversary. To mark the occasion, Julia Gatley was commissioned to write “SAHANZ: The First 20 Years, 1984-2004,” an historical account of the formation of the Society, its conferences and journal Fabrications. Also, from 2004 are two papers presented at “LIMITS”: the 21st Annual Conference (Melbourne), which were reprinted as the last two papers included in the coedited anthology Shifting Views: Selected Essays on the Architectural History of Australia and New Zealand. The two endeavours were in a way the result of a growing concern regarding the potential loss of the Society’s early legacy, and prompted the collection/digitisation of minutes, records, and printed conference proceedings and issues of Fabrications. If the first twenty years of the Society are those of the establishment and development of concerns and priorities, the following fifteen have entailed a certain expansion. On the one hand, expansion of the audience, with SAHANZ themes and researchers featuring in international events and publications of partner scholarly institutions. On the other, expansion of themes, with an increase in the attention paid to the broader Australasian, Pacific, and Asia-Pacific regions. The research undertaken by members of the Society since 2004 not only evidences an explicit transnational focus on Australasia and the Pacific region, but also positions Australia and New Zealand in the recent discussions on global architectural histories.
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ItemTargeted urban heat mitigation strategies using urban morphology databases and micro-climate modelling to examine the urban heat profile(Copernicus, 2020)Strategies for urban heat mitigation often make broad and non-specific recommendations (i.e. plant more trees) without accounting for local context. As a result, resources might be allocated to areas of lesser need over those where more urgent interventions are needed. Also, these interventions might return less than optimal results if local conditions are not considered. This project aims to assist with these interventions by providing a method to examine the urban heat profile of a city through an automated systematic approach. Using urban morphology information from databases such as WUDAPT, areas of cities are clustered into representative local climate zones (LCZs) and modelled at a micro-scale using localised features and properties. This bottom up modelling approach, using the VTUF-3D, UMEP, and TARGET models, allows these areas to be assessed in detail for their human thermal comfort performance and provide a city-wide heat map of thermal comfort. It also allows mitigation scenarios to be tested and targeted for each cluster type. A case study performed using this method for Melbourne is presented.
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ItemThe lIfe cycle performance of Monomur in Australian residential construction(Green Building Council Spain, 2014)Brick veneer is the most dominant construction type in Australia; however it is not necessarily the most advantageous for the climate. Mass wall types, where massing is evident on the interior of the building, can help to achieve greater thermal performance. Monomur thermal blocks are a thermal mass system, based on single leaf construction. They are resistant to compression, transfer of heat, and are made from natural clay. Monomur has shown to benefit construction in Europe, most predominantly France, where the push for low energy buildings is high on the national agenda. This study aimed to determine the life cycle energy performance of the use of the monomur system in Australian residential construction. A life cycle energy analysis (LCEA) was used to quantify and compare the life cycle energy performance of two case study houses, one built from monomur and one from brick veneer. It was shown that there is minimal difference in the performance of these two construction approaches, paving the way for the potential use of monomur in the Australian context.