Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications
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ItemBarriers to implementation of sustainable construction in India(The University of Melbourne, 2023)Abstract: The Indian construction industry was estimated to be worth three trillion INR in 2022 and is expected to be the third largest construction market by 2025. The industry is responsible for a large amount of energy consumption, which not only contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases, but also adversely impacts resources like land, waterbodies, minerals, and other naturally sourced materials. Hence, implementing sustainable construction practices across the project life cycle is essential to reducing the detrimental impacts of the industry. Despite having 3 green building rating systems (GRIHA, IGBC, and LEED) and adopting certain national level initiatives, there is an absence of a systematic regulatory framework for the incorporation of sustainability principles in the Indian construction industry. It is critical to determine the existing issues that prevail in the industry to address the barriers in a timely manner. This paper determines the critical barriers to incorporating sustainable construction in India by reviewing the academic literature, Environmental Performance Index (EPI), and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2022 reports. Unskilled workforce, low productivity, lack of monitoring schemes, inadequate technology, poor team integration and collaboration are the key barriers that are deduced from the systematic literature review. The ongoing national level initiatives and schemes promoting multiple goals of SDGs are also identified. The administrative framework of the Indian construction industry includes ministries, state departments, local authorities, and regulatory councils. Every state in India has building bye laws that differ from those of other states and this has also been identified as a barrier. One of the solutions determined by experts and researchers is for the Indian construction industry to comply with the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. In order to accomplish that, policy makers, sustainable construction practitioners, and industry professionals must develop specific grassroot level mitigation factors to counter the key barriers.
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ItemInvestigating the Embodied Energy of Wall Assembly with Various Material Service Life Scenarios(Springer Nature, 2023)Studies have advocated that there is much less research on the impact of embodied energy. Researchers have asserted that a building’s embodied energy can be as high as 60% of the life cycle energy. However, there is insufficient research and understanding of embodied energy impacts and its relationship with material specification and service life. This research aims to fill this gap by investigating the life cycle embodied energy of a villa in the United Arab Emirates with particular emphasis on the wall assembly. The findings show that the embodied energy impact of the wall structure and wall finishes was found to be 19.7% and 11.7% of the villa’s life cycle embodied energy (LCEE), respectively. Alternative material service life (MSL) scenarios for the wall assembly shows that using minimum material service life (MSL) values results in a 54% increase in LCEE of the wall, and 74% increase in the LCEE of the villa. For maximum MSL, the findings show a 27% and 31% decrease in LCEE of walls and villa, respectively. Alternative wall finishes show that wallpaper as a replacement of water-based paint will increase the LCEE of the villa by 28%.
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ItemUsefulness of data analytics in Smart Villages development(Smart Villages Lab, The University of Melbounre, 2022-12-20)With over 40% global population still live in rural with many under extreme poor conditions, effective management of resources for supporting the development is crucial. One of the key considerations in effective management is need-based and context specific intervention planning incorporating bottom-up information flow. Traditional top-down approaches in planning and development are considered not only wasteful but also irrelevant for transforming rural communities keeping the value, culture, heritage at the core of the development cycle. In the bottom up planning, empirical data at the grassroots level activities play a pivotal role. In this research, significance of the data-driven planning coupled with the strong data-analytics is demonstrated as one of the most critical elements supporting the planning and development of rural communities under the auspice of Smart Villages. Based on a case study conducted across 37 villages in the river island Majuli in Assam located in the north eastern part of India, the research highlights the functionalities and efficacies of a Smart Data Platform used for evaluating real-time data analytics and supporting context specific planning and development of a large area comprising 2300 plus households. The concept is further highlighted to signify the need for central data-centric Research and Development center for supporting policy making within the public governance.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableSustainability and Health: The nexus of carbon-neutral architecture and wellbeing(The Architectural Science Association and the University of Tasmania, 2023)Within the imperative surrounding contemporary concepts for environmental and social sustainability and the affordable housing crisis, an opportunity exists to explore low-cost, low-skill labour use as a transferable housing solution to support vulnerable communities. In this scenario, recognising the intricate nature of the domestic construction industry is critical: involving the interweaving balance between material culture, the social networks of construction and the boundaries between architecture, structure, materials, and building in a digitally enabled domestic construction industry. Amongst the challenges this scenario poses is to broaden education modes, using technological enablement and aligning them to communicate architectural science in its application to political economy, societal equity and the environment. This paper explores ways to use a digitally designed and fabricated unit to embed youth training through participation in the assembly process and as future training ambassadors as the project develops. It enquires how digital tools engender new pathways for collaboration between designers and makers and incorporate end-users needs, facilitating the permeation of capacity-building access via a construction material (timber) that has traditionally circumvented formal-driven social structures.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableIndigenous Knowledge in Built Environment Curriculum: A review of current practices and a principled based alternative approach(AMPS, 2023)There is growing recognition of the need for and value of including Indigenous Knowledge (IK) systems in built environment higher education curriculum, however current efforts to do so are limited and fragmented. Despite this, there are some discrete examples both internationally and within Australia that are making progress in this area. Efforts are needed to improve Indigenous curriculum pedagogy and content in built environment education to ensure meaningful IK core competency outcomes are achieved for built environment professionals emerging from our institutions. Central to this objective is the challenge of articulating a process that ensures meaningful learning outcomes, is inclusive of both staff, students and the broader community. This presentation reviews existing initiatives across Australian universities that aim to embed IK in built environment curriculum at course and subject scales in meaningful ways. The review includes a desktop analysis of course and subject curricula and interviews with key academic and professional staff who engage with Indigenous Knowledge in their teaching and/or in the process of embedding it into their built environment schools. This review will show that existing initiatives while piecemeal and ad hoc, highlight some exemplary initiatives and approaches that can contribute to a useful set of shared principles as an entry point to further embedding IK in built environment curricula.
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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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ItemBarbara van den Broek. Contributions to the Disciplines of Landscape Architecture, Town Planning and Architecture(SAHANZ, 2022)Barbara van den Broek (1932-2001) trained as an architect in Auckland, New Zealand before moving to Brisbane with her husband and fellow architect Joop, where they established an architectural practice. van den Broek went on to run an office as a sole practitioner and took on architecture and landscape architecture projects. Over the course of her career she completed post-graduate diplomas in Town and Country Planning, Landscape Architecture and Education, and a Master of Science – Environmental Studies, and collaborated on a number of key projects in Queensland and Papua New Guinea (PNG). Our paper will build an account of her career. In assessing the significance of her contribution to landscape architecture, planning and architecture in Australasia, it will bring a number of other spheres into the frame: conservation and Australia’s environment movement; landscape design and the bush garden; and van den Broek’s personal development that included artistic expression, single parenthood, teaching, and the navigation of male-dominated professional environments to develop a practice that contributed to town planning projects in cities across Australia, and made significant contributions to landscape projects in Queensland and PNG.
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ItemThe unintended consequences of novated design construct procurement and the impact on the education of graduate architects in Victoria(Architectural Science Association, 2023)In the practice of the building industry, Novated Design and Construct (NDC) contracts have gained widespread usage and are well-established in the Victorian market across many building classifications. This study draws insights from a comprehensive approach that includes interviews, desktop research, transcript analysis, and key takeaways from ongoing research. A notable concern arises from the bespoke nature of NDC Contracts, which demands a nuanced understanding of their contents and associated risks. This prompts a critical examination of the architecture profession's foundation, debunking the notion of the lone genius designer. Instead, the evolving role casts architects as both designers and coordinators of documentation, carrying shared liability. This paradigm shift necessitates an expanded education framework, beyond the current confines, warranting the development of a structured 'apprenticeship' model. Over the past three decades, the construction industry has undergone profound transformations, resulting in heightened complexity to construct the built environment. To comprehend this complexity, the prevailing siloed discussions and contract author-centric approaches must be disrupted. It is imperative that education, both initial and ongoing, equips professionals with the requisite skills to thrive in an evolving remodelling. This research underscores the urgency for adaptive education, ensuring that architects are adept at navigating intricate contracts and industry dynamics, thus promoting architectural practices and an improved built environment.
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ItemImproving student engagement in learning and assessment activities using peer-to-peer feedback(AUBEA, 2023)Peer review assessment feedback practices are part of the contemporary trend of active learning methodologies to improve student engagement in learning and assessment activities. With the increasing importance of active learning and the challenges posed by remote learning due to COVID-19, this research offers valuable insights into crafting efficient peer assessment systems. Concerns about students' evaluative abilities, power dynamics, willingness to engage, and resource limitations were raised. Moreover, factors such as the level of anonymity, the weighting of the assessment, and the provision of training for students need to be addressed. This research reviewed best practices in the literature to develop a framework and tested an approach using a pilot study conducted in the Master of Construction Management Program at the University of Melbourne using the FeedbackFruits software tool. Surveys and focus groups are used with students, in addition to teacher reflections, then yielded several implications and recommendations for implementing peer review assessment. These include understanding student needs, testing the effectiveness of collaborative peer review assessment, and enabling assessments to close the feedback loop by giving them incentives to use and evaluate the quality of the feedback they receive. The findings can help educators make informed decisions about designing peer-review assessment processes that meet students' learning needs.