Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications
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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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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.
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ItemAn early-stage life cycle model for low-energy buildiings(Green Building Council Spain, 2014-10-30)The aim of this study is to demonstrate the application of a model previously developed by the authors for low-energy building design, to show how the availability of comparable energy performance information at the building design stage can be used to better optimise a building’s energy performance. The life cycle energy demand of a case study building was quantified using a comprehensive embodied energy assessment technique and TRNSYS thermal energy simulation software. The building was then modelled with variations to its external assemblies in an attempt to optimise its life cycle energy performance. The alternative assemblies chosen were those shown through the authors’ early-stage life cycle energy model to result in the lowest life cycle energy demand for each building element. The study showed that significant life cycle energy savings, up to 45%, are possible through the modelling of individual building elements for the case study building.
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ItemConcept and barriers for the economic value of low-energy houses(Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, 2015)This study explores the market revealed price of low-energy residential buildings and why the economic value of low-energy housing products is less transparent in active residential markets. It explores Australian and Japanese conditions and examines the proposition by using embodied energy, operational energy and market price data of selected housing stock in Australia. The study aims to examine a new perspective towards understanding the barriers to ascertaining the economic value of low-energy buildings. In particular, the study examines the composition of energy consumption associated with the residential property life cycle. Operational energy is linked to consumer preference by its inter-temporal value estimate of future expected utility or benefit flow. A ‘low’ embodied energy house is an environmental construct, which does not appear to currently link to short-term market value perception. It does not strongly link to an expected (intuitive) benefit. This ‘gap/disconnect’ creates a barrier to estimating a holistic economic value of low-energy residential property.
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ItemExploring the relationship between Melbourne’s water metabolism and urban characteristics(State of Australian Cities Research Network, 2015)Cities can be seen as complex urban systems that mobilise local and global resource flows to meet the needs of their inhabitants and their manufacturing sector. However, the local consumption of resources can be responsible for major local and global environmental changes that impact the human health and wellbeing inside and outside of the boundary of the urban system. With global urban population expected to continue to grow, the mitigation of further future environmental pressures from urban consumption is of critical importance. The complexity of the interrelationships between the local social, political, cultural, economic and environmental facets of a city as well as the interrelationship between these local characteristics and urban consumption, dictate that each city will have a different set of parameters that drive urban consumption. This research will investigate this issue by exploring the relationship between Melbourne’s water metabolism and its urban characteristics. In practice, this study will correlate the spatially disaggregated water use of Melbourne with local factors such as demography, average income, territorial organisation, etc. It will then be possible to identify which urban characteristics have the greatest influence on water use and ultimately help to inform the development and implementation of the most appropriate and best targeted policies for reducing water use across Melbourne Metropolitan Area.
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ItemVentilation for Reduced Heat Stress in Apartments(The Architectural Science Association (ANZAScA), Australia, 2017)The increase in building code requirements of modern buildings are correlated with increased overheating, particularly in apartment buildings. This research addresses the comparative performance of the Australian apartment stock with international heat wave regulations, six apartment buildings were performance modelled based on the extremes of the 2009 Victorian heatwave that began on the 27 January with daytime temperatures topping 43°C across 3 days, with night‐time minimums of above 25°C. All 6 apartments failed the four international summer comfort standards that were reviewed. The worst performing apartment underwent further investigation. Retrofit strategies were tested to determine the most effective method for reducing overheating. As found in the literature, improved ventilation is often the most effective retrofit method. Further investigation revealed that ventilation opportunities are significantly restricted by the Australian NCC window protection requirements that restrict window openings, reducing typical ventilation area from a window from 50% to 20%. This has a significant impact on the ability to use natural ventilation for reducing of overheating in apartments.
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ItemFuture proofing the accuracy of building simulations by addressing climate change projections in modified weather files(The Architectural Science Association and The University of Adelaide, 2016)Complex building simulation is increasingly common in the design process of buildings in Australia. Traditionally, building simulation has been conducted using weather files constructed from typical historical weather data, but in a period of climate change the use of historical data to assess performance has been criticised as inappropriate. Modern buildings need to be efficient and comfortable today, but also into the future. This new design challenge requires adaptability and resilience to be included in building designs from the outset, and necessitates that data used for simulation is as accurate and reflective as possible of the environmental conditions in which buildings are likely to operate. This research utilises the improved imposed offset method proposed by Guan to construct a future hourly weather data file for various Australian locations that can be used in building simulation software. This approach will produce weather time series that incorporates the RCP8.5 climate change scenario while maintaining the local and realistic characteristics of the original weather file. This future weather data can then be used by designers and building engineers to assess off-axis scenarios in the simulation and address the risks of overheating during the lifetime of the building.
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ItemStaged Competition as a Driver of Construction Innovation(Elsevier, 2017)Globally building operation contributes 30-40% of the primary energy demand in most developed economies. At the same time the construction industry is repeatedly found to have lower rates of adoption of innovation than other industries, despite being described as "a lively source of new ideas". A general conclusion is that the rate of innovation lags behind most other sectors. A new mechanism for innovation generation, diffusion and adoption is required. The automotive industry provides a benchmark for innovation, and has a distinct advantage with regards to generation, implementation and adoption of innovation. Automotive 'staged competitions' (e.g. motorsport), occur within the industry between manufacturers, and rely heavily on the involvement of suppliers within the industry. Such competition provides an excellent platform for marketing, testing, and development of innovation within and beyond the parent industry. Although rare and fleeting, construction competitions already exist in the construction industry. However they are not as advanced as motorsport is for the purposes of generating, diffusing or adopting innovations. This case study research considers three unique existing construction competitions, and shows how each example can contribute to the increase in innovation in the construction industry. The research shows that none of the case study competitions are able to provide the required steps to progress radical innovation from generation to adoption, and are thus failing as a new innovation mechanism for the construction industry. Further discussion of how these competitions can be optimized to drive innovation within the construction industry is provided with the ultimate aim to reduce resource use and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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ItemUsing image processing to understand 20th-century architectural colour schemes in Singapore(Archetype Publications, 2018-05-25)Increasing awareness of architectural heritage in Singapore has led to greater shared responsibility in preserving the urban fabric. There is now widespread public acceptance of conservation guidelines and the gazetting of listed buildings as part of the planning process. However, conservation efforts are hindered by gaps in our knowledge of historic buildings materials and architectural finishes. This is certainly the case with historic paint and colour schemes in Singapore. If urban planning authorities are to advise building owners on historically appropriate colour schemes, it is vital to understand what colours and finishes were used in the past. This paper examines how image processing, machine learning and computer-aided visualisation can complement more established colour research procedures such as paint analysis to fill the gaps in our knowledge. This project utilises colour photographs of historic streetscapes in the Urban Redevelopment Authority's collection, taken as part of a heritage survey conducted from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, to complement conventional paint and plaster sampling to further our understanding of historic architectural colour schemes in Singapore. As colour photographs deteriorate over time, controlled digital restoration is necessary to provide more accurate colour information from the time when these images were captured. With further refinement, these processes, used in tandem with more conventional paint sampling techniques, could be of some use for researching and dating historic architectural colour schemes. It is hoped that this paper will provide a starting point for further discussion into these digital research techniques.