Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemBus Network Accessibility in Thu Duc City, Vietnam: An Analysis Through the Lens of Public Transport Planning Principles for Network Effect( 2024)Effective public transport hinges on accessibility, enabling seamless travel across a city. To compete with private vehicles, public transport systems must offer a level of convenience comparable to car ownership. This necessitates a well-integrated network, where buses and trains connect through coordinated routes and schedules, facilitating transfers and minimizing disjointed journeys for passengers navigating diverse destinations. This powerful concept is called the "network effect". This thesis evaluates how Thu Duc City's planned bus system aligns with network approach principles to enhance public transport accessibility compared to the current system. It investigates two key questions: 1) the accessibility levels of the current and planned bus systems, and 2) how well their route configurations and service frequencies promote network effect. To answer these questions, the research employs established accessibility indicators developed by Australian researchers: transfer intensity and ease of movement. Transfer intensity measures the minimum number of bus changes required to reach an activity node, with lower values indicating a more transfer-free network. Ease of movement, focusing on user experience, considers both travel time and service frequency. Lower values represent a more convenient travel experience. Utilizing secondary data from the Department of Transport and analyzed with GIS and Excel, the study assesses these indicators for both the current and planned bus systems in Thu Duc City. Results reveal that both the current and planned systems exhibit similar average transfer intensity – 0.90 and 0.96, respectively. This suggests that most trips within the systems can be completed with one transfer. However, the current system faces challenges. Inconsistent and infrequent services at main transfer points, coupled with route overlaps on major corridors, create obstacles for passengers. The planned system addresses these issues. By increasing service frequency on key routes, implementing better schedule coordination at transfer points, and removing overlapping routes, it promises a 23% improvement in ease of movement during transfers, leading to a more seamless transfer experience for users. This thesis underscores the importance of network effect in improving public transport accessibility. By analyzing Thu Duc’s bus systems, the study demonstrates how network design with coordinated schedules and service frequencies can optimize user experience and promote a more competitive PT system within a bustling city.
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ItemAnalysing policy evolution trends with respect to SEZ 5.0: a case study of GIFT city, India( 2024)Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has long been an important means of investment for developing countries to aid economic development. A commonly utilised policy tool by these countries to promote the inflow of these investments, are the state sponsored economic zones commonly known as special economic zones or SEZs. While the infrastructural qualities of SEZs are highly discussed and studied, the policy mechanisms behind these zones are a niche topic in the larger discourse. These zones have evolved infrastructurally over time and are referred to as fifth generation zones. These SEZs are built around emerging technologies and integrated in the current urban scenario (Zeng, 2021). This research focuses on studying whether the SEZ policies have evolved in tandem with these infrastructural changes or remain stagnated. For an in-depth analysis, the case study of Gujarat International Fin-Tec (GIFT) city in India is chosen as its proposed technological advancement puts it closest to the description of SEZ 5.0 – a smart city. Two aspects of the case study are explored – the evolution of Indian Special Economic Zones towards fifth generation SEZs and its impact on domestic policy formation. The research questions are analysed using both primary and secondary data collection. Policy analysis is done via the New Dynamic Institutional Framework (Aggarwal, 2017) to negate any contextual restrictions. The policy analysis along with the interviews showcase a realistic, declining scenario of SEZs in India. Comparing the same against an optimistic projection of fifth generation SEZ i.e. GIFT city gives a more positive narrative. While the conclusion of the research is indicative of an overhaul of the existing SEZ policy to keep up with economic dynamism, the case study provides valuable inputs for directing the existing policy tool towards an optimistic direction. The research also leaves the discussion open for future research which takes into account other aspects like security in SEZs of developing countries.
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ItemCommunity connection and Master Planned Estates( 2024)The term ‘inclusive’ has emerged in the 21st century and has come to adopt a plethora of meanings in a series of scholarly and policy documents to date –especially as it means different things to different people, communities, and places. Its origins, however, can be pursued to diverse concepts in various disciplines. In the realm of planning, it can encompass two of many relevant traits: social inclusion and inclusive development. This paper comes to explore these qualities as it pivots the understanding of social inclusion and inclusive development on community connection and how local policy supports this. As such, Master-Planned Estates (MPEs) are taken as one form of such (potentially) inclusive development as well as a vehicle of (potential) socio-spatial segregation. While research has been conducted on greenfield, suburban, and ex-urban MPEs in Australia, brownfield MPEs also play a significant role in the ongoing development of cities –and as such, influence community experiences and lives. As such, brownfield MPEs are the object of study within this research, specifically in the Australian context where this study is based. This research contributes to knowledge on MPEs, including opportunities, and challenges in their creation and for their communities. As the urban landscape –the development forms that take up a piece of it– is a space of possibility and competition between a variety of contesting policies, and practices on varying socio-spatial levels, it is vital to learn from different perspectives in different settings to respond to existing and future issues better. Investigating environments generated by brownfield MPEs through a social inclusion lens is one way to do so, shedding further light on what elements generate positive contributions to a thriving inclusive environment.
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ItemSummertime Sadness: A planning perspective on the future of music festivals in rural Victoria( 2024)Like many other facets of our social and cultural landscapes, music festivals are increasingly impacted by the intensity and frequency of the changing climate, resulting in cancellations of multi-day festivals globally, nationally, and statewide. In response to this, my thesis explores, how increased climate-related risks are perceived to be affecting the success and longevity of music festivals held in rural Victoria. Considering the cultural, social, and economic importance of live music across the state, my thesis sought to determine whether land use planning, strategic and statutory, has the potential to intervene to help alleviate the risks posed to festivals. A multiple case study approach was employed, drawing from three festivals in rural Victoria: Hopkins Creek, Loch Hart Music Festival and Goomfest. Primary data was collected from interviews with the directors of each festival, supplemented by secondary data from online materials. The key findings illustrate that climate-related incidents have been devastating for festivals and, the associated biophysical and social impacts of this growing phenomenon continue to materialise in complex and volatile ways that festival organisers feel ill-equipped to navigate. The hardships facing the festival sector amidst the climate crisis will continue to worsen unless the challenges festival organisers are experiencing are confronted. More advocacy is required for meaningful changes to materialise and as planners, we could play a critical role in determining the future of festivals in rural Victoria.
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ItemChallenging Automobility Through Rail Trails: The Case of the Caboolture to Wamuran Rail Trail( 2024)There is a lack of cycling infrastructure in Australia’s regional and rural areas. These areas already face significant transportation challenges due to an underinvestment in modes other than the car. Investment in cycling infrastructure often contends with the widespread belief that people in regional areas do not cycle for purposes other than exercise, recreation, or tourism. Automobility is a key concept that sheds light on the cultural norms and societal structures that perpetuate car use and car-centric planning. Rail trails may offer a unique opportunity for providing a transport alternative and a potential to disrupt automobility in regional areas. My thesis uses the Caboolture to Wamuran Rail Trail as a case study to investigate: 1) in what ways did the paradigm of automobility inform the vision, planning and design of the Rail Trail, and shape the assumptions of how the Rail Trail would be used?; 2) how has the Rail Trail been used since its opening, and what meanings are associated with these uses?; and 3) what do these uses and meanings tell us about the potential for rail trails to disrupt planning approaches to allow for a greater challenge to assumptions around car-dependence in regional Australia? By taking an informed grounded theory approach to analyse qualitative interviews and micro-ethnographic data, my findings highlight how the subordination of cycling against the car was manifested in the physical design, planning complexities, funding allocation and assumed uses of the Rail Trail. However, current uses go beyond assumptions of planners and community representatives. New meanings and needs associated with these uses were created. My research shows that mobility is heavily structured through underlying assumptions. Planners, policymakers, and decision-makers should continuously re-assess, re-frame and challenge their understandings of mobility if they wish to see driving as optional in these areas and make transport more equitable.
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ItemAre we local enough yet? A Cross Examiniation of international and domestic students’ segregation amongst education precincts of different suburban development patterns( 2024)Social segregation between communities is created through the interplay of spatial and social attributes urbanities. Amongst the various communities that co-exists in urbanities, international students, as a social cohort, is a vulnerable group towards social segregation. In 2010, Fincher and Shaw conducted a study amongst students who study within the City and Melbourne and discovered that social segregation occurs within the municipality because its overall geopolitics discourages integration between international and domestic students. Yet, when considering the segregation of students across the institutional divide, Melbourne City might not be the only precinct where the phenomenon could manifest because universities are located throughout Melbourne’s urban fabric. Hence, this research takes an exploratory approach to better understand the experience of social segregation amongst international students who study in Bundoora, an education precinct where the spatial and social attributes are different than Melbourne City. If the execution of cross-cultural interaction within Melbourne City is constrained due to its geopolitical dynamics, would international students who attend universities elsewhere enjoy a better social landscape in developing friendships with domestic students due to a change in geopolitics? To explore this issue, a quantitative research approach was adopted to address the following research questions: 1. How do suburban development patterns of different designs consolidate social segregation between international and domestic students? 2. To what extent do the socio-economic dispositions of international students deter the prospects of integration with domestic students? 3. How do international students utilize their universities’ surrounding environment as socializing platforms? Analytical methods such as Chi-square tests, descriptive data analysis, and t-tests were used to address these questions. Overall, the results indicated that international students in Bundoora do not enjoy better integration with their counterparts even when conditioned to an environment with different geopolitics. Instead of attributing students’ segregation to factors such a systematic difference in culture, urban development patterns surrounding universities that do not promote after school hours interaction between international and domestic students might be a primary contribution to segregation. It is suggested that medium density housings should be built around the university campus to promote integration across the institutional divide. Further research points towards the university’s architectural design. The design of universities should achieve a high degree of assimilation with the urban fabric.
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ItemReclamation art : an alternative aesthetic to the picturesque(University of Melbourne, 1996)
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ItemA landscape for learning : the design and use of the school ground(University of Melbourne, 1993)
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ItemManagement of Victoria's visual landscape resources within the government legal and administrative structure(University of Melbourne, 1979)
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ItemWurundjeri(University of Melbourne, 1992)