Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemNo Preview AvailableVictorian architectural ornament( 1972)Summary. Part One Is concerned with a technical and historical account of the chief materials employed in architectural ornament in the period indicated; cement and plaster, terracotta and brick, wood and metal. Part Two is a catalogue of the ornamental types and forms produced in these materials based on an analysis of over two thousand buildings and illustrated by just over one thousand drawings, encompassing the following categories : cement and plaster - acroteria, parapet treatments (chiefly pediments), scrolls, finials, balustrades, window surrounds, shells, keystones, swags and festoons, studs, friezes, consoles or brackets, capitals and chimneys (rendered); clay products - ridge cresting, finials, chimney pots, brickwork patterns and chimneys (exposed brick); wood - gable end fillers, bargeboards, struts or brackets, verandah woodwork; cast-iron - balustrades, friezes, brackets, ridge cresting and window guards; pressed metal - wall and ceiling lining, centre roses, cornices, roofing finishes and finials. Part Three deals with the buildings as a whole, considering stylistic changes and the typology of distinct groups of structures under the headings: offices, warehouses, factories and banks; shops - major and minor; hotels; town and shire halls; court houses; hospitals; schools; railway buildings; theatres and halls; miscellaneous public buildings; houses employing bricks in contrast colours; houses employing red brick with cream dressings; "Italianate" houses ; "Italianate" terraces; Queen Anne style houses; sub-Queen Anne and bungalow houses. The stylistic changes in general may be summarized broadly as proceeding from a mixture of details derived from Gothic and Classical sources applied to buildings of non-historical (nineteenth century) character via another pseudo-historical revival (Queen Anne in two major forms), followed by an admixture of fairly superficial Art Nouveau influence to a welter of historically oriented revivals and abstractions and simplifications of preceding forms. These developments overlap considerably and appear with variable force and diversity according to the type of buildings. Part Four is a brief account of the work of one hundred and seventy-five leading architects or builders of the period arranged alphabetically under the name of the architect or firm. The emphasis throughout is on dealing with as broad a range of examples as possible, rather than concentrating only on large scale and/or progressive projects.
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ItemAn investigation Into building and planning problems of the tropical regions of Australia and the Territory of Papua New Guinea(University of Melbourne, 1967)
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ItemArchitectural development in Singapore(University of Melbourne, 1973)
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ItemVisual assessment techniques for rural road management(University of Melbourne, 1989)
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ItemAustralian flats : a comparison of Melbourne and Sydney flat developments in the interwar period( 1998)The differences between the architecture of flats in Melbourne with flats built in Sydney during the 1920s and 1930s, suggests that these differences were manifest by factors in addition to topography. This study compares the development of architectural forms and expression in the two cities, discussing them in relation to concepts of architectural regionalism and modernism. The planning and urban redevelopment contexts result in differences in number, location, building height, lot size, site coverage, flat size, image, lifestyle and modern technology.
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ItemSimulating recreation behaviour in complex wilderness landscapes using spatially-explicit autonomous agents( 1998)This work introduces and explores the potential of using intelligent agent based modeling and simulation as a tool for examining the complex interactions between recreators and the environment, and interactions between recreators as a means to improving the our understanding of the recreational use of wildland settings. In this research the concept of rule driven autonomous agents as surrogates for human visitors is introduced. Agents are designed to represent the actions of the individual recreators (hiking, mountain bike riding, and pink jeep tour outfitters). Behavioural rules are derived from visitor surveys and interviews conducted in Broken Arrow Canyon, Arizona. The autonomous agents can be seen to dynamically move over a GIS based model of the Broken Arrow landscape. Line-of-sight calculations determine whether an individual agent is able to 'see' other agents and are used as method to record 'actual' and 'perceived' encounters with other agents. Using agent location maps combined with the underlying GIS data the agents can be observed moving across the landscape, pausing, changing pace, lingering at a view-point etc. A discussion focuses on analysing the resulting behaviours found in these simulations and additionally to explore the influence of alternative trail alignments on recreator movement, congestion and crowding. Some potential future directions for this research are discussed.
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ItemEquitable and sustainable development in less developed countries( 1997)There has been a perception among development planners that if economic progress continues economic efficiency and market forces will even out any inequality problems through the 'trickle-down' effect. However, in many LDCs (less developed countries) this assumption does not seem to hold. Moreover, it seems that persistent poverty and income inequality are also reflected in environmental degradation in many parts of the world. This leads to unsustainable development, both in the equitability and the environmental contexts. The aim of the research is to explore development policy for LDCs that is both equitable and environmentally sustainable, within the context of the current market economy. Two research approaches were used. First, a statistical cross-country analysis of 40 LDCs was employed. The objective was to provide a general picture of income equality and development attributes, namely: 'level of development'; 'orientation of development'; and 'balanced urbanisation' as an indicator of the spatial distribution of development. Second, a detailed analysis of development over the last few decades was made for two LDCs, Indonesia and Thailand. This was to verify the relationship between development, balanced urbanisation and income equality and to explore the relationship between balanced urbanisation and environmental conservation. The findings were then linked to decentralisation policy in the two countries. Income equality was found to have a negative relationship with level of development and a positive relationship with orientation,of development-export-led growth strategy. It also had a positive relationship with balanced urbanisation. The detailed study of Indonesia and Thailand revealed that when urbanisation was unbalanced, regional disparities in manufacturing, GDP and per capita income and environmental degradation were likely to be high. This indicates that if a government wishes to create equitable growth, one approach is to undertake regional development, targeting on balanced urbanisation. To achieve this, the government should take action on decentralisation policy. Although the findings were mostly specific to Indonesia and Thailand, the following major findings are likely to hold for other LDCs: (1) national development with little attention to equitability is neither socially nor environmentally sustainable; (2) equitable development is likely to be achieved by regional development aimed at balanced urbanisation through fiscal and political decentralisation; (3) the form of development advocated in (2) needs central government intervention although the degree of decentralisation will depend upon the particular country's conditions.
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ItemOccult dwellings : architecture, anthropology & the possibilities of a postcolonial sublime( 1997)This thesis addresses questions of intercultural relations as they are theorized in the field of postcolonial criticism, and seeks to explore the ways in which architecture is implicated in these relations. Architecture's traditional engagement with cultural difference is shown to be negotiated through the conceptual and methodological devices of another discipline, anthropology; as a consequence the thesis exploration is developed along inter-disciplinary lines. This institutional negotiation is investigated in terms of two specific historical moments: eighteenth century Enlightenment and early-twentieth century colonial. The first moment is exemplified by the well-known relationship between the architectural theory of Marc-Antoine Laugier and Antoine Chrysostome Quatremere de Quincy, and the letter's engagement with the anthropology of Joseph-FranVois Lafitau. The second moment is exemplified by the little-known architectural theory of two colonial Dutch architects working in Indonesia in the early twentieth century, Henri Maclaine Pont and Charles Wolff Schoemaker. Their work is explored with reference to contemporary anthropology through the theory and practice of James Frazer and Bronislaw Malinowski. In different ways the negotiation between anthropology and architecture is shown to alleviate a threat of cultural difference, leaving a legacy which remains unchallenged in contemporary debates on architecture and cultural difference. The thesis argues that this negotiation is underpinned by developments in Enlightenment aesthetics. However, it reads the latent workings of a sublime aesthetic in this institutional relationship, and seeks to exploit the more radical possibilities of this aesthetic in order to offer a mode of architectural invention which might more effectively address the cultural demands of contemporary postcolonial contexts.
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ItemManagement of coastal aquaculture in Thailand( 1998)Intensive shrimp farming r Thailand has developed significantly since the 1980s. The industry has played an important role in the Thai economy. However, the high profit from shrimp farming has driven the industry into unsustainable development. The indiscriminate and rapid expansion of shrimp farming has created many environmental problems, such as the destruction of mangrove forest, salt water intrusion, conflicts with other uses, water pollution and land abandonment. To solve these problems, the present study aimed to answer two questions. Firstly, how can we identify potential areas for developing shrimp farms as well as other types of aquaculture which minimize environmental problems and conflicts with other uses? Secondly, how can we calculate an upper Iimit to the area of shrimp farms to avoid creating adverse impacts on the receiving environment? Based on these questions, the main goal of this research was to initiate an appropriate planning approach to sustainable aquaculture. Two models were developed: a model for the assessment of suitability of sites using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) together with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP); and a model for the assessment of carrying capacity. GIS was found to be a very useful tool for the first model. Although GIS alone cannot deal with the relative importance of factors, it provides a mechanism whereby weighting can be assigned, calculated and updated. The incorporation of AHP provides an effective method for dealing with complex situations involving many factors, such as aquaculture. The assessment of site suitability deals mainly with the problems on the landward side of the coastal zone, but not with the problems of the seaward impacts such as water pollution in the receiving water. Therefore, the assessment of the carrying capacity of the receiving environment was also needed to properly address the problems of coastal zone management. Although, both models need improvements in data acquisition and further research to improve the analysis methods, the integration of the two models provides the basis for a greatly improved method for making decisions about the development of sustainable aquaculture in the coastal zone.
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ItemParticipative techniques for urban environmental improvement( 1997)The aim of this research is to discover the characteristics for a successful participative bottom-up technique for urban environmental improvement. As we are nearing the end of the second millennium, the state of the environment is gradually being recognised as everyone's concern. Problems of air and water pollution, and rising population are even more acute in urban areas. Urban regions and urban people are facing environmental crises, some more severe than others. In some instances, urban people have responded to specific environmental problems at the local scale and have achieved some success. But often such responses tend to be ad hoc, and do not ensure continuity. Businesses and other structured organisations have used participative techniques to allow changes to take place at the lower levels of the organisational hierarchy. They have been used for several decades in the world of business, and have achieved some success. A review of different participative management techniques showed that some are structured, and some are not. Most of them rely on group interaction. It was found that two of the business techniques reviewed could be transferred to the community. They are the suggestion scheme and the quality circle techniques. The suggestion scheme is an unstructured technique and is based on individual initiative, whereas the quality circle is a structured technique and it is group-based. These techniques were adapted to the community, and were called the Community Suggestion Scheme and the Community Quality Circle. Since a trial would determine the effectiveness of the techniques in the community, a case study approach was used. The Community Suggestion Scheme and the Community Quality Circle were trialed in the community over a period of three years. The Habitat project in Western Melbourne was used as the umbrella organisation to carry out the trial. The Community Suggestion Scheme was trialed first, and was partly successful. It acted as a feeder for the Community Quality Circle. The Community Quality Circle was an unqualified success. The first Community Quality Circle formed - Habitat: Mount St. Josephs Community Quality Circle is still in operation showing that it is capable of being independent and self-managing. Certain characteristics for successful participative bottom-up environmental improvement processes emerged from the trials. Techniques need to be flexible and open to change and learning. They must take diverse approaches to problem-solving. Techniques that are group-based are more likely to succeed than individual-based techniques. Their structure should be flexible, not rigid, and techniques must be capable of self-perpetuation and self-management. The members should be given the opportunity to become familiar with each other. The support of an overarching umbrella organisation is essential for techniques to be successful in the community. Incorporating these characteristics allows the development of future participative methods for environmental improvement. The research shows that participative techniques can be used as a potent medium to instigate environmental improvement in urban areas.