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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ItemSex and the slum : imperialism and gender in nascent town planning, Australia and New Zealand, 1914-1919( 2003)This thesis explores early 20th century town planning discourse in two of Britain's dominions, Australia and New Zealand. It uses the first national town planning conferences held in Australia and New Zealand (1917, 1918 and 1919) as a vehicle for examining themes of imperialism and gender within town planning discourse. In both dominions, women had a visible presence and an increasing voice in the nascent town planning movement. The women planning advocates were predominantly middle-class, they supported the continuation of women's traditional domestic role and they celebrated women's position as the `mothers of the race'. They wanted improved housing standards in order that women could undertake their important work of mothering to better effect. Similarly, they wanted more extensive kindergarten and playground facilities in order to shape and mould the citizens of tomorrow. But more than this, the women who took the most active role in the Australian and New Zealand town planning conferences were imperialist, win-the-war loyalist and in some cases even militarist. It was the imperial race that was at stake. The term `planning's imperial aspect' has been used by others to describe the initiatives of imperial powers in exporting town planning to their colonies and dominions. However, in view of the Australian and New Zealand enthusiasm for importing town planning, and the extent to which Australian and New Zealand planning advocates promoted town planning in terms of its potential to benefit the imperial race, this thesis expands the usage of the term to encompass colonial/dominion initiatives in importing town planning from the relevant imperial power, in this case from Britain. The thesis shows that in early 20th century Australia and New Zealand, the activities of women planning advocates clearly demonstrate planning's imperial aspect. This is because the women recognised the particular plasticity of children's bodies and minds and the consequent opportunities that infancy and youth provided for the instillation of middle-class values and behavioural norms, and thus focused their attention on the sites and activities that had the greatest potential to positively modify the fitness, health and morality of children - the imperial soldiers, workers, wives and mothers of tomorrow.
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ItemMaterialising the immaterial: social value and the conservation of recent everyday places( 2004)This thesis argues that recent everyday places can constitute significant cultural heritage. All places are cultural heritage, but only some are judged to be significant cultural heritage by professionals applying established criteria. Recent everyday places can play an essential role in people's lives, and become sites of strong emotional connection. In Australia and New Zealand, social value is the heritage criterion that recognises people's attachment to place. Recent everyday places are potentially significant cultural heritage if they have social value, yet they are difficult to accept as such, and they are rarely recognised in heritage conservation procedures. They do not fit preconceived notions of cultural heritage; their significance is not understood; and they have no established tradition of academic inquiry for support. The objective of this research is to examine the relation between recent everyday places and social value within the context of the contemporary Western heritage conservation frameworks. The thesis is an analytical study comprising two principal components: discourse review and analysis, and case study analysis. Discourse analysis draws upon two primary fields of inquiry. The first is contemporary Western heritage conservation discourse, including policy, legislation, charters, and literature. The second is multidisciplinary academic discourse that recognises everyday life, everyday objects, everyday places, and their values and meanings. The case study analyses apply a framework of current theoretical and practical conservation methodologies and methods to selected places in Australia and New Zealand. Findings from the research are two-fold: Firstly, social value is not adequately represented within established heritage conservation frameworks. Secondly, the acceptance of recent everyday places as significant cultural heritage is problematic because of the relation with social value. The major implication from the research findings is that recent everyday places with social value will not be accepted as culturally significant heritage until social value is adequately represented within the theoretical and methodological frameworks of contemporary Western heritage conservation. The inadequate representation of social value has implications for all heritage places with social value. The inclusion of social value in theoretical frameworks will have limited application until the methodological frameworks and methods can enable it to be maintained. Until this happens, important connections between people and place will continue to be neglected in the decision-making processes that are designed to create and maintain the quality of the built environment.