Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications
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ItemEcoHome reflection on research outcomes in light of initial research grant intentions: a multidisciplinary approach to complex housing sustainability issues(Flinders University, 2006)Sustainability in the housing industry is a complex interrelated field of inquiry. In Melbourne, Australia, a consortium of seven industry, regulatory and policy organisation, two universities covering three disciplines (building, social science and engineering) came together to explore a multidisciplinary approach to the field through the EcoHome research project. This paper will summarise the journey of the EcoHome project and its outcomes, beginning with its intentions in 2001 to the home’s sale in 2005. The journeys of the three research projects is briefly outlined and discussed in light of the intentions of the project. This paper also reports on how this project resulted in a collaborative multidisciplinary approach to research called the ‘Triple Helix’ approach and the linked development of the Re-imaging the suburb research program.
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ItemEcotourism in the architectural imagination(Channel View Publications, 2007)Ecotourism is a burgeoning sector of the tourism industry offering a relatively guilt-free environment in which to satisfy the desire for travel and adventure. The discourse is firmly entrenched within the dominant conception of sustainability, which posits nature as a privileged ‘other’ free from human intervention. Images of ecotourism destinations celebrate this ideology through the promotion of ‘pristine’ environments. However, a more complex image question arises in relation to the infrastructure that supports the tourists’ encounter with this idealised natural environment. This paper is concerned with unpacking the identities and ideologies that are embedded within images of ecotourism resorts and within the broader field of sustainable tourism. Through the lens of the premier global sustainable tourism certification program, Green Globe, three ‘images’ that correspond to three typologies of tourism destinations are identified. The ‘hyper-real’ is embedded within the mass-market arena of sustainable tourism, while the niche ecotourism market engages in a process of architectural ‘absence’. The third typology of place-based tourism mediates between these two extremes. While it can result in a tendency towards undifferentiated ‘background’ architecture, at its most productive it is conceived as a form of architectural ‘camouflage’ by maintaining a dynamic process of emergence and disappearance. When this typology is extended beyond the limits of the image, it offers even greater potential as a form of spatial liminality between traditional representations of human/environment relations as alternatively undifferentiated or ontologically distinct. The paper concludes by arguing that the design of ecotourism facilities should be focused on more than minimising impacts and that architecture has a productive role to play, particularly in relation to the education imperative of ecotourism.
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ItemApproach to thermal modelling innovative green building elements: Green roof and phase change plaster board(The University of Melbourne, 2010)
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ItemEcotourism certification tools - what is their role now and in the future(Australian Science Network - ASN Events, 2008)