Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemMaking Civic Space: A Comparative Study of Civic Space Design in the Contemporary Settler Societies of Australia and New Zealand( 2019)Designers in settler colonial cities around the world are being asked to respond to the demands of decolonisation as nations increasingly acknowledge their ethical obligations to redress colonialism. This thesis explores the state of decolonising practice in design through the lens of civic space in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, as compared through two exemplary projects - Adelaide’s Victoria Square/Tarndanyangga and Wellington’s Waterfront. The politics of settler nations are intrinsically spatial, as legislative and symbolic processes of sovereignty negotiate territory. Traversing conflicting layers of history in the spatial present is very complex, as physical ecologies and topographies both disrupt and support the legacy of colonialism. This research examines the textual, conceptual, spatial and architectural modes of practice which together collectively ‘make’ civic space. Civic space offers the opportunity to explore shared histories, experiences and practices, between indigenous and settler subjectivities However, the very notion of ‘civic’ is problematic within the settler context, where space and politics are inherently ‘unsettled’. The study considers the approaches to the design of civic space from placemaking and planning through to the scales of landscape architecture and architecture. This study found that despite progress and good-will on the part of design practitioners and stakeholders, the position of designers in Australia continues to be compromised by the arrested development of reconciliation in terms of legislation, governance and the redress of history. In the absence of meaningful change, designers are reliant on creative placemaking practices of acknowledgment, applied through techniques of interpretation and curation. When viewed in contrast, the constructs established by the legislative and policy redress of New Zealand have provided designers with a stronger footing from which to explore finer grade spatial design responses to decolonisation. When viewed together these two spaces offer a revealing collision of design, policy and indigenous reconciliation.
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ItemAn investigation into construction management practices influencing labour productivity in multi-storey building projects( 2017)Productivity improvement in construction projects is essential for the economic growth of a country, for increasing the profit margin of contractors and for reducing the project delays and the related consequences such as liquidated damages. Previous studies indicate that management related problems are negatively influencing labour productivity in construction projects. However, understanding the management practices which are suitable for improving productivity in specific project type in a certain location, planning the appropriate practices, monitoring the implementation of the planned practices, and assessing whether the implemented practices are associated with high or low productivity can help to increase productivity. Previous studies identified the best practices for increasing productivity in infrastructure and industrial construction projects in North America. However, it is possible that none of these practices is suitable to enhance productivity in multi-storey building construction projects in Australia as the management practices and their effectiveness would depend on the context such as differences in the resources supply chain within the local market, local regulatory requirements and project types. Furthermore, there is little or no research conducted on what these practices might be and which of them are the most important in the context of multi-storey building projects in Victoria State, Australia. Also, no research has been conducted on how the management practices that could enhance productivity in multi-storey building projects are measured, planned, monitored and evaluated. Additionally, no tool has been developed to predict a productivity value or a probability of exceeding a certain productivity value when the levels of planning of the management practices are known. The purpose of this research is to identify the management practices that have the potential to improve productivity in multi-storey building construction projects, refine and validate scoring tools for measuring, planning, controlling and evaluating the practices in the context of building projects, and develop a tool for predicting the probability of exceeding a baseline productivity factor when the levels of planning of the management practices are determined. The research adopted a two-phase exploratory sequential mixed methods design. During Phase-I, in-depth interviews were conducted with 19 experts who have been involved in the delivery of multi-storey building projects. The qualitative data was analysed, construction management practices that have the potential to improve productivity were identified, and the unweighted scoring tools for the practices were prepared. In Phase-II, quantitative data was collected from 39 principal contractors on 39 projects using questionnaires. During stage I of the quantitative data analysis, the data collected from the 39 principal contractors’ experts regarding the relative importance of the practices in enhancing the productivity of multi-storey building projects were analysed to prioritise the practices identified in Phase I, and on that basis, the weighted scoring tools were prepared. During stage II of the quantitative data analysis, the data collected from the 39 multi-storey building projects were analysed to validate the scoring tools and to develop as well as validate the logistic regression model for predicting the probability of exceeding baseline productivity factor using a sigmoid graph when the scores of the practices are known. Overall, 47 construction management practices that have the potential to improve productivity in multi-storey building projects in the context of Victoria State, Australia have been identified and prioritised. The practices ‘well-defined scope of works,’ ‘safety and health policy,’ and ‘safety and health plan’ are found to be the three most important practices. The findings of the correlation analyses revealed that all the 47 construction management practices are positively associated with productivity. The output of linear regression analysis also indicated that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between productivity and the management practices. The findings of Friedman test showed that the practices ‘well-defined scope of work,’ ‘safety and health policy,’ ‘safety and health plan,’ ‘hazard analysis,’ ‘long-lead materials identification,’ ‘safe work method statement’ and ‘toolbox safety meetings’ are equally important to improve productivity in multi-storey building projects. The study revealed that high levels of implementation of the construction management practices are associated with low levels of project delays. The use of practices also varied according to the project costs. Long-lead materials identification, procurement plans for materials, and materials delivery schedule are found to be the three most important construction materials management practices. Construction equipment maintenance, construction equipment procurement plan, and construction equipment productivity analysis are identified as the three construction equipment management practices. Traffic control plan, project start-up plan, machinery positioning strategy, project completion plan, and dynamic site layout plan are found to be the top five practices which are related to construction methods. Well-defined scope of work, short interval plan, buildability review, construction work packages, and regulatory requirement are found to be the five most important pre-construction phase management practices. Clear delegation of responsibility, stability of organizational structure, and crew composition are found to be the three most important human resource management practices. Finally, safety and health policy, safety and health plan, and hazard analysis are the three most important safety and health practices. The scoring tools which can be used to measure, plan, monitor and evaluate the management practices have been refined and validated. Thus, the scoring tools for construction materials management practices, construction equipment management practices, pre-construction phase management practices, management practices related to construction methods, human resource management practices, and safety and health practices are prepared and validated. The baseline scores against which the users of the scoring tools assess the adequacy of their practices have been determined and validated. The baseline scores can be used as benchmarks to evaluate if the planned or implemented management practices on a certain multi-storey building project would be associated with high or low productivity. Hence, the baseline scores for the overall management practices, construction materials management practices, construction equipment management practices, pre-construction phase management practices, management practices related to construction methods, human resource management practices, and safety and health practices are set. Logistic regression models that can be used for predicting the probability of exceeding baseline productivity factors are built and validated. The associated sigmoid graphs have been developed to determine the corresponding probabilities when the scores of the construction management practices are known. Thus, the logistic regression models for predicting the probability of exceeding baseline productivity factors based on the aggregated scores of the construction management practices as well as based on the scores of construction materials management practices, construction equipment management practices, preconstruction phase management practices, management practices related to construction methods, human resource management practices, and safety and health practices are built and validated. Additionally, linear regression models which are used to predict the productivity factors of multi-storey building projects based on the scores of the construction management practices are developed and validated. The study has practical implications. Contractors involved in the construction of multi-storey buildings in Victoria State, Australia can implement the identified practices to enhance productivity in their projects. They can also measure their management practices and evaluate whether their practices are adequate or not. Furthermore, the contractors can use the probability-based predictive model to assess the risk of low productivity for specific levels of implementations of the construction management practices. During the project planning phase, the management practices scoring tools can be used to plan appropriate practices which can be implemented to potentially increase productivity. Moreover, the productivity predicting tools can be used to estimate the productivity of a certain multi-storey building project based on the levels of planning of the management practices. By using the estimated productivity, the likelihood of occurrence of project delays can be predicted, and corrective actions can be taken prior to commencing the construction of the project. During the construction phase, the scoring tools can be used to control the implementation of the planned practices. Finally, during the project closure phase, the scoring tools can be used to evaluate whether the implemented practices are associated with the predicted productivity. If not, lessons can be learnt, and suitable practices can be planned for future projects. This research contributes to the body of knowledge in construction management by identifying and prioritising the management practices which are suitable to enhance labour productivity in multi-storey building construction projects. The findings of the study can facilitate international comparisons as well as sectoral comparison and provide useful information for future researchers and companies seeking construction works in Australia. This study also contributes to the growth accounting framework (neoclassical economic growth theory) by investigating the under-researched areas of the drivers of labour productivity. The technological advancement and capital deepening are the two main factors which were explained by the theory. However, the theory did not provide an in-depth explanation of the management practices. This research increases the understanding of the importance of the management practices for increasing labour productivity in the context of multi-storey building projects.
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ItemPlanning for dogs in urban environments( 2016)Dogs are the most common pet in Australia and increasingly occupy both social and cultural norms. There is a growing interest in more-than-human geography and my thesis extends this critical concern to the planning of urban environments as a human habitat. Contemporary literature in more-than-human geography typically and unconsciously anthropomorphises the experience of those other species and in turn accounts for other species from a human perspective. My thesis recognises this gap and endeavours to provide a critical account of planning for dogs through a lens of justice for animals. My research problem is predicated on the basis that Australian society lacks consensus on the appropriate treatment of dogs in urban environments, reflecting in local differentiation of opportunities available to dogs and yielding different outcomes of justice for dogs. My thesis accordingly examines how institutions and planners affect such freedoms through their language and actions. My thesis comprises a similar systems case study design that examines the phenomenon of planning for dogs using the case of Melbourne, a city of four million people and the capital of the state of Victoria, Australia, through the institutional discourse of eight representative councils (local government authorities). In order to critically address the fundamental uncertainty of anthropomorphism introduced by the dependent companion relationship, I elect to examine the discourse of government institutions as a credible, consistent and comparable reflection of society. Themes and theory emerge from the data through a disciplined application of qualitative content analysis underpinning a grounded theorisation of planning for dogs in cities. An operational framework describing justice for dogs is developed from first principles, suggesting the importance of animal management, open space planning and urban planning professions in planning for dogs. These roles demonstrate a clear ontological distinction, with the dominance of ontology shown to be exceedingly important to understanding planning for dogs. In operationalising a justice for dogs, I capture the pervasive anthropocentrism of planning which manifests in the animal management practices of councils and in how human agency is defined and exercised in the process and outcomes of planning for dogs. Whilst my thesis is ostensibly about planning urban environments and the role of local government, it also contributes to the social sciences more broadly. My approach distinguishes from what may be typical to other more-than-human geography literature through its treatment of planning for dogs as attending to underlying considerations of justice for dogs. A natural concordance with the justice as capabilities (derived from the Capabilities Approach espoused by Sen and Nussbaum) emerges, suggesting more authentic and just outcomes for dogs than in the utilitarian anthropocentric tradition where actions are guided by the demarcation of humans from animals. My thesis is a valuable contribution to this growing body of more-than-human geography literature and advances the philosophy of planning of urban environments beyond humanity, in doing so strengthening the bonds which connect the broader social sciences.
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ItemWomen and their career progression in the Australian construction industry( 2013)This comprehensive study of women and their career progression in construction makes five substantial research contributions: longitudinal data on Australian women's participation rates; the development and validation of a career advancement measure; empirical validation that women experience 'contest'career mobility; evidence a gender inclusivity continuum exists in construction; and the development of a career typology model for professional women in construction. Construction, an industry with an image of being macho, confrontational and riven with conflict, has not yet embraced gender diversity, despite the improvements this can make to corporate performance and the industry's ongoing skills shortages. The purpose of this research was to investigate women's participation in Australian construction and the career advancement of professional women in the industry. It involved three studies with Study 1 using secondary longitudinal data and Studies 2 and 3 involving both qualitative and quantitative methods. While it is well understood that construction is male-dominated, previous research had not investigated if this has changed and what roles women undertake within construction in Australia. Study 1 revealed that since the early 1990s female participation has been relatively stagnant overall, as well as within the construction trades. As well as identifying women's participation in many non-traditional roles, this study verified patterns of horizontal and vertical segregation. In addition, a significant disparity between women's increasing participation rates in professional roles and declining rates within management in construction prompted a study of professional women's career advancement. To date, research on women's careers in construction has focussed predominantly on barriers they experience (most of which are outside their control) and explanations for their under-achievement. However, in today's industry some women are advancing, so it is timely to understand organisational, interpersonal and individual factors which facilitate this process. Many theories can be used to explain women's advancement (the extrinsic component of career success) including: homophily; organisational support theory; theory of work adjustment; values congruence theory; social capital theory; human capital theory; trait theory; role scarcity theory; and role accumulation theory. Before an investigation of career advancement could be undertaken, a five-round Delphi study (Study 2) was conducted to develop and validate a scale to measure career advancement suitable for Australian construction. Study 3, a cross-sectional correlational field study involving 456 professional women, applied this new scale and investigated factors that affect women's career advancement. Individual factors, in particular human capital variables, rather than interpersonal and organisational factors were found to have the greatest influence on women's career advancement. This finding, contrary to previous research, indicates a 'contest', rather than 'sponsored'(the typical male pattern), career mobility path. Study 3 also tested a model developed to specifically explain women's advancement and investigated aspects the intrinsic component of career success known to be important to women. While this research did not find support for the model, the results indicate the experiences of women differ and that a gender inclusivity continuum exists in construction. A career typology model was developed which explains the career experiences and progression of professional women in construction. The development of the gender inclusivity continuum and the career typology are major theoretical contributions to women in construction research. The finding that interpersonal and organisational factors were not predictors of women's career advancement in construction was significant, as it counters the viewpoint of the majority previous research in the area. Lastly, the discovery that women follow a 'contest'career mobility pattern contributes significantly to both research in construction, as well as research exploring professional women's careers.
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ItemBeneath the veneer : negotiating British and colonial Australian relationships in Queensland domestic interiors, 1880-1901( 2012)Australian histories of design have largely characterised furnished interiors as passive imitations of European models, with Australia seen as marginalised by time and distance, and lacking in agency from the centres of international design. These interpretations have over-shadowed a range of cultural meanings attached to furnishings at this time. The examination of the discourse of design, business trade and consumer choice on furniture in this thesis, using the case study of Queensland in the late nineteenth century, exposed the dynamic co-dependent relationship between Britain and the Australian colonies, where issues around the materials and making of furniture figured prominently in the construction of colonial identity. Using a wide range of primary source material, including furnishing guides, trade journals and catalogues, parliamentary debates and inventories, the study showed that colonial Australians used their knowledge of the material and cultural aspects of furnishing acquired from British-based texts to maintain the overall appearance of British genteel middle-class interiors. Colonial Australians faced contested local issues around climate, local materials, race and labour relations, which saw colonial loyalty divided between Britain and their local industries. In response, they adopted new construction and branding techniques to subtlety distinguish locally made items from British ones based on native timbers, their functional performance and the employment of local European labour, rather than their visible aesthetic design. This thesis contributes further context for Australian interiors, and argues that the inclusion of more detailed business histories for objects designed for global consumption, such as domestic furniture, are required understand the subtle transfers of cultural meaning between imperial powers and settler nations which change over time. Ultimately, a combination of locally made and imported items and practices observable in different rooms of the home reflected the composite or hybrid nature of an emerging colonial Australian identity. Issues of materials and labour revealed agency on the part of colonies, which has hitherto been obscured by an over-reliance on surviving images of complete interiors and single nation studies. This is to certify that: - the thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD except where indicated in the Preface; - due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used; - the thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices.
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ItemArchitectural design studio and the real world out there : an investigation of content in Architectural Design Studio at three faculties of Architecture in Australia from years 1-5 (2003-2007)( 2011)In Anglophone countries, architects appear disengaged from the public realm despite professional bodies' policies. Critics frequently blame architectural education's core pedagogy, design studio. This research examined studio handouts from Australian universities against professional design brief criteria, and by discourse analysis, seeing how studios might contribute. Few studios aimed to solve problems, most focusing on form-making and aesthetics, under-stressing social, environmental and financial issues, sometimes unintentionally. But rare, conceptually 'thicker' proposals often targeted social housing and engagements with the 'real world.'
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ItemNational identity, Australian plants, and the natural garden in post-WWII Australia, 1945 to 1986( 2015)Dramatic changes to Australian cultural life following the Second World War prompted the search for new understandings of Australia’s national identity. Between 1945 and 1986, post-WWII Australian plant and natural gardens and the ideas and activities associated with their promotion, legitimation, and creation served important functions in the reformulation of Australian identity and nationalism. These gardens, ideas, and activities provided spaces for the development and articulation of distinctly national forms of cultural expression. They also offered a way for Australians to imagine a national community, and conceive new foundational myths. This thesis explores the ways in which Australian plant and natural gardens served, or reflected, national identity formulation and nationalism. It does this by investigating a rich and diverse body of sources which include: archival and documentary materials; popular gardening and horticultural literature, popular natural history writing, nursery catalogues, other popular media, garden design treatises, and professional landscape design discourses contemporary with the period studied; oral testimony; and. two physical places. This thesis also considers a range of events and activities related to Australian plant gardens which produced and disseminated knowledge and enthusiasm, the social spaces in which these occurred, and a network of native plant enthusiasts. Importantly for this thesis, the wide spectrum of views provided by this multiplicity of sources allows several voices and stories to emerge, thus helping to question current generalised views of the time and space under consideration. The first part of this thesis presents an innovative framework for the analysis and interpretation of national identity and nationalism through the prism of garden history and garden making. The second part examines the cultural activities and ideas that legitimated post-WWII Australian plant and natural gardens. Two case studies examining the post-WWII histories of the Canberra Botanic Gardens in Canberra, the Federal capital of the Commonwealth of Australia, and Royal Park in Melbourne, the capital city in the state of Victoria, follow in the third part. These case studies enable detailed exploration of state-sponsored and managed Australian plant gardens, one at a national scale and the other at a local government level. The case studies reveal the different functions and ways in which public Australian plant and natural gardens of the post-WWII period reflected attempts to formulate understandings of national identity and nationalism. By developing a theoretical and evidence-based discourse and applying it to the analysis of relevant archival documentation, oral testimony, ideas, and physical places, this thesis provides a new and richer understanding of the ways in which Australia’s national identity was shaped through garden making.
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ItemColony and climate: positioning public architecture in Queensland, 1859-1909( 2010)Since the writing of the first substantive national histories of Australian architecture, the development of architecture in Queensland has been positioned as different from that of the southern Australian states and former British colonies. An essential platform for this difference has been an assumption about the influence of a hot and humid climate contributing to the development of a distinctive, climatically responsive architecture, most notably the traditional Queensland house, or `Queenslander', which developed in the late nineteenth century and has since come to define an image of Queensland architecture,, and indeed Queensland identity. Queensland's nineteenth century civic buildings have received less critical attention in this romantic construction of a historical tradition of climatically attuned Queensland architecture, as historians have grappled to reconcile the representational imperatives of civic structures with the exigencies of a hot place. This thesis examines public architecture in Queensland — Britain's largest nineteenth century settler colony in the tropics — from the separation of the colony in 1859, through to the early years of the twentieth century, subsequent to the Federation of the Australian nation in 1901. The thesis uses a nineteenth century idea of `appropriateness' — defined in terms of design coherence, both within buildings and in relation to their settings — to examine the design choices that impacted the realisation of these buildings. It argues that Queensland's nineteenth century public buildings represent a collective search for appropriate public architecture specific to its colonial context, influenced by colonial aspiration, political and personal ambitions as well as Queensland's position as a settler society in unfamiliar, sub-tropical and tropical surrounds, all which influenced stylistic choice and expression. By locating the issue of climatic response within a broader matrix of concerns, the thesis questions the potentially anachronistic construction of a historical tradition of climatically responsive architecture in the former colony. The thesis contends that it is not possible to understand responses to climate in the public building without first understanding the motivations behind their design.
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ItemCultural adaptation to climate change and the 1997-2010 drought in the suburban landscape of Melbourne, Australia( 2013)The period of drought from 1997 to 2010 in Melbourne, Australia saw significantly below average inflows into Melbourne’s reservoirs due to persistent high temperatures and low rainfall, conditions that climate change modelling suggest will occur more frequently in the future. In response to a dwindling water supply, water restrictions were enacted by the Victorian government to reduce water demand at the same time as infrastructure projects were commissioned to increase the water supply. These water restrictions limited the use of water outdoors, and had negative impacts on the suburban vegetation. A range of technical and behavioural adaptations could be made to mitigate these negative impacts by reducing the need for the use of potable mains water in the landscape, and this research explored the hypothesis that, over the course of the drought, changing attitudes towards climate change and water use in the suburban landscape resulted in behavioural adaptations by suburban dwellers in Melbourne that led to observable changes to the suburban landscape of Melbourne. Three research methods were used to investigate relationships between changes in Melbourne’s suburban landscapes and people’s attitudes towards water conservation in the context of drought and climate change, namely: (1) a content analysis of newspaper articles related to water restrictions in Melbourne to look at the ways in which the topics of drought and climate change had been addressed within the public discourse; (2) an observation of the suburban landscape of Melbourne using Google Street View and aerial photographs to identify the observable adaptations that have taken place in a sample of 530 front yards; and, (3) a questionnaire survey of households in Melbourne to assess their attitudes towards their own private landscapes, water conservation and restrictions, drought, and climate change and its impacts. It was found that, both in the newspapers and from analysis of the questionnaire data, people generally agreed with the need to conserve water, especially during times of drought. Belief in climate change, and the need for people to personally take action to adapt to it, was also generally high. Observable drought adaptations in Melbourne front yards were rare, but in the questionnaire many respondents indicated that they had taken steps to conserve water, and some of the sampled front yards had changed between 2004 and 2008 to better adapt to drought conditions. However, the content analysis found that two of the four newspapers studied perpetuated expressions of unscientific climate change scepticism and uncertainty, consistent with the politicisation of the climate change issue. The questionnaire, which employed visual stimuli of front yard scenarios, found that water use requirements did not correlate with overall desirability, which was most strongly correlated with rated visual attractiveness. Despite the general agreement by respondents with regard to the need to conserve water, and their stated willingness to take concrete steps to do so, obstacles remain for successful drought and climate change adaptation, both in the responses of the public to change and the physical transformations of the landscape.