Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses

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    Encountering Architecture Architecture, Audience, Communication and the Public Realm
    Davidge, Tania, Louise ( 2021)
    What new forms of communication can be developed to communicate architecture, city making and city shaping to public audiences? This thesis advocates for the urban spatial encounter as a communicative strategy that uses the medium of the public realm to engage audiences with architecture, the city and the built environment. Situated at the intersection of architecture, urbanism and public art, the urban spatial encounters are creative works that take the form of installations and events. They are designed to catalyse active conversations between architectural practitioners and public audiences; conversations that engage people with architecture and the built environment and the issues that shape them. The encounters traverse a broad range of sites and scales—from small-scale guerrilla spatial interventions into public space to a grassroots community activist campaign that took on one of the world’s largest corporations, Apple. Drawing on the fields of public art and play scholarship, this thesis argues that the urban spatial encounter is an effective medium for communicating architectural and spatial knowledge and practices, for increasing city-making literacy in public audiences and a means for affording citizens a place in shaping the urban environment. Through practice based research, this thesis aims to raise public awareness and catalyse discussion within the architectural profession on the value of scholarship and research into the public communication of architecture and the built environment.
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    Transformative processes for architectural design: a heuristic study of regenerative practices
    Rojas Gracia, Angelica ( 2020)
    This research investigates the role of design processes in nurturing initiatives and outcomes beyond the provision of physical infrastructure. Intertwining theory and practice, the research approach combines Heuristic Inquiry, Case Study and Design Research methods. Building on the literature and two case studies in Australia and Colombia, this thesis proposes the Enabling Design Process approach (EDP). The EDP recognises the ‘regenerative’ and ‘transformational’ capacity of design processes to nurturing collective and individual actions towards more inclusive, resilient and beneficial interactions in the creation of a project. The thesis starts by exploring literature that provides a planetary context to design processes, such as the concept of Transitions, the Ecological Worldview and the Social-Ecological System. Then it examines existing and emerging approaches in design, including literature that argues for the need to expand both the accessibility and agency of architectural design practice. The case studies provide demonstrations about how the different concepts in the literature work in practice allowing the emergence of the creative synthesis - The Enabling Design Process approach. The creative synthesis brings literature and case studies together to propose principles, capabilities and activities to apply to the design process of projects. The design process to rebuild a school project in Nepal offered a learning opportunity to put the creative synthesis into practice, providing insights into the potential and challenges of its application. The thesis concludes by discussing the possibilities of applying Enabling Design Processes in future projects and the ability of these processes to enable agency (individual and collective), support communities through significant change and to increase living systems awareness while designing built environments. This thesis offers four main contributions. The first is linking different theories through practice and, by doing so, contributing to various bodies of literature. The second is a methodological contribution to research in design and creative practices. The third is highlighting close connections between design and the social context, making design a process of ongoing dialogue able to raise levels of mutual understanding. The fourth is a design approach that enables designers and stakeholders of built environments to nurture social, ecological and personal development. By providing an intersection between different bodies of literature through practice, the thesis contributes to Transition theory, Regenerative Design and Development and Agency in design practice literature.
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    The instruments of transitional urbanism: The mobilisation of temporary-use projects in state- and market-led urban development
    Moore, Timothy John ( 2020)
    Research in “temporary-use” urbanism — the interim use of vacant land and buildings — has identified a shift from a citizen-driven process to one enabled and managed by the state and the market. Amid this colossal pantomime of actors, projects, plans and capital, however, the field lacks studies of the value in co-opting this short-term activity for larger-scale urban development. These values, or useful benefits of temporary-use projects, impact a range of areas including urban design, architecture, planning, policy and property development. This dissertation argues that the longer-term value of temporary-use projects for urban development are embedded in knowledge hidden within organisations and actors. Through a comparative research framework, this dissertation examines how specific value can be transferred to larger-scale urban development via people and projects.
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    Queering Heritage: How can Informal Collections be Safeguarded for Enriching Community Heritage?
    Webster, Dillon ( 2020)
    Due to historic perceptions of LGBTQIA+ people, valuable information regarding their historiography and culture have been systematically excluded from institutional safeguarding, including their use of public and private built environments. With the advent of technologically mediated knowledge sharing, oral histories, memories, and other ephemera are now being collected by queer communities' as an informal form of auto-archivization. While queer archival initiatives are gaining representation, informally collected intangible heritage has the potential to consolidate with formal archival practices through networked metadata to recreate lost spaces for heritage purposes. This research develops a conceptual framework for contemporary queer community groups to use for the creation of a place-based digital archive. Decentralizing record management from traditional hierarchical boundaries allow for public contribution and collaboration, while recorded spatial experiences and visual ephemera are coded in participatory archival frameworks; these can be extracted and converted into metadata for a networked archival practice. This consolidation provides the information to apply techniques of architectural forensics and reconstruct a digital replica of non-extant spaces in which an archive is virtually situated. This paper argues that a combination of contemporary digital technologies and informal memory catalogues can be used to redefine archival and heritage practices, regulations, and legal frameworks. While virtual environments provide a technical framework for interacting with digital reproductions of space, issues of authenticity, representation, and information retrieval arise. Future research with active participants is required to determine results on the interpretation and experience of virtually situated archives. There is increasing pressure placed on acknowledging the heritage of marginalized groups and digital accessibility plays a vital role in the management of cultural information. Through a queer lens, the future of heritage and archival practices can transform to be more diverse, accessible, and publicly respected.
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    Making Civic Space: A Comparative Study of Civic Space Design in the Contemporary Settler Societies of Australia and New Zealand
    Johnson, Fiona Claire ( 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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    Participation in architecture: agonism in practice
    Beyerle, Ammon ( 2018)
    Literature about participation in architecture promised architecture the restoration of a moral dimension, arguing that participation would offer opportunities for empowerment and deliver broad benefits. To its disservice, the field of participation has been dominated by a rational ideology, and a focus on agreement and decision-making – incorporated in the term ‘consensus’. The dominant approach to participation has been at the expense of difference, passions, arguments, resistances and tensions present in the participatory process – incorporated here in the term ‘agonism’. Exacerbating this gap between consensus and agonism, a lack of real-world examples and analysis of everyday participation, has led to a quite limited practical language about participation or descriptions of the concrete process of participation in action, and arguably an avoidance to design and critique participatory processes in architecture and urban design. This Doctor of Philosophy attempts to do participation in architecture through a series of Creative Works in practice, by carefully considering approach, and, designing for difference and bottom-up empowerment of others with social, physical, emotional and psychological benefits specific to each project. The methodology exposed the realities of participation in architectural design practice with communities, highlighting social themes for exploration and multiple modes for practice. This research project demonstrates that agonism is an action-orientated way forward for participation, arguing that the tension between architecture and participation is actually productive. It concludes that difference rather than consensus is crucial to participation, suggesting for architectural and urban design practice that the philosophical role of an architect is to consciously create and maintain opportunities to keep alive the participatory process in the world, by critically designing participation.
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    Supercharged paintings move towards light and space
    Adams, Luke ( 2018)
    This project considers certain connections between the so-called art world and global social mobility. Is the ubiquity of some universal aesthetic frameworks implicitly promoting the ever-expanding cultural class to become even more seduced by the forces of late-capitalism? The thesis, which comprises a dissertation presented in conjunction with a studio-based investigation, is centred around three distinct, but inter-related templates for display: the generic living room TV wall unit; the painted canvas; and the gallery. I consider how each format conditions our reception of cultural information by influencing our sense of individuality, whilst as the same time signalling our inclusion in a unified non-culturally specific world view that is rooted in western modernism. Significantly, these three selected display arenas all convey a sense of universality—not necessarily through specific content, but rather through their inherent structures. I argue that these successful systems of display potentially mask otherwise visible signs of power through implicit democratic ideologies disseminated via inspirational design trends. Considered together, I demonstrate that all three offer insights into the underlying function of international systems of cultural exchange. A substantial part of this research considers the homogenising effect of Internet image-searching, especially in relation to notions of class and sophistication at a time characterised by a global democratisation of desire and appreciation for ‘good’ design principles. The artworks I have produced in conjunction with this dissertation are designed to critically engage and antagonise the already fuzzy intersection of art, architecture and design. Accordingly, I have sought to produce works that are less distinguished by traditional art-making decisions but rather emphasise compositions, materials, and principles associated within modernist and minimalist infused trends in design and architecture. This strategy seeks to recode the sublime grandeur of late-formalist abstract paintings as a kind-of banal realism perhaps more associated with marketing and pop consumerism. The physical creation of individual artworks has taken place in accordance with two predominate modes of production. Firstly, and in reference to painting, wall mounted sculptural relief works incorporating materials such as Formica composite wood panelling, plywood, hardwood, acrylic paint, enamel paint, glass, vinyl flooring, composite stone samples, imitation plants, real-plants, pots, fluorescent lights, and found objects, were produced. The second mode of production is in the digital realm, and includes digital photographic montages (combining online images with my own photography), video (using online content and making interventions within it) and creating audio tracks (to accompany the video works). Considered together, these modes of production are used as tools to psychologically position the viewer in a space in which materials, surfaces and compositions, might trigger considerations of social mobility, our relationships to design, and finally, notions of personal intimacy and memory that are activated through smart-screen technologies.
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    Architecture and the design of therapeutic environments: the case of self harm
    Liddicoat, Stephanie ( 2017)
    This thesis finds that specific design interventions in the spaces providing therapy can improve therapeutic outcomes for those who self harm. Therapeutic interventions for this service user group typically involve various forms of talking therapy, and/or medications. However these service users are amongst the most clinically challenging to treat. The physical environments in which therapy takes place have not been thoroughly examined for their contribution to therapeutic outcomes. Despite a large body of literature affirming the links between good design practice and mental wellbeing, there is a paucity of research addressing specific environmental needs of service users who self harm. Further, existing design guidance is often generic in nature, describing broad principles to be achieved through design, but offering little tangible advice for the designer to integrate these principles into a realised built environment. The research involved an exploratory qualitative design that utilised a triangulated strategy; the method of data collection included three data collection methods: systematic literature review, multi-stakeholder interviews and case study observation. Key findings from the scoping review included the paucity of design guidance for therapeutic environments and counselling workspaces specifically, and that there is no published research examining the design of therapeutic spaces for individuals who self harm, specifically. Key findings from the semi-structured multi-stakeholder interviews included a deeper understanding of the perceptions of spatiality of individuals who self harm, aspects of therapeutic environments that are supportive or unsupportive and in what ways this occurs, and potential design strategies to assist therapeutic activities and psychological engagement. Analysing built therapeutic environments found that there is a limited inclusion or implementation of design recommendations uncovered in this research in existing built spaces. Through the analysis undertaken of the literature, interviews with service users, therapists/counsellors, carers, architects and design researchers, together with a case study examination of existing built therapeutic environments, a series of design recommendations were derived. These principles have been developed from environmental aspects which were commented on by those who self harm, and supported by other interview participant groups and observations in the field. The findings from this thesis are indicative that the design recommendations assist therapeutic outcomes. However, as indicated through the exploratory qualitative analysis undertaken, the built environment is a meaningful agent in therapy. What emerged from the study was the notion that for individuals who self harm, the built environment is not merely the housing of therapy, but an active participant in the therapeutic process. The counselling workspace may be a platform for therapy to unfold in a physical sense, providing aspects such as physical privacy and safety features, but offers many more psychological support mechanisms if designed/manifested in a particular way, including psychological safety and relief, negotiation of relationships, non-verbal communication opportunities, increased body awareness, reduced dissociation, increased sensory engagement and perception, and opportunities for the development of the self. The counselling workspace has active roles in therapy, including being a mediator between therapist and service user and helping to clarify and establish boundaries, being a vehicle for communication, and being a testing ground for the problem solving abilities and aspects of the self. When the built environment design initiatives outlined in this thesis are considered carefully and articulated through design and the curation of space, architects/designers may provide a platform of engagement through counselling workspaces, resulting in positive therapeutic effect. If the design recommendations were to be integrated into the built environments delivering mental health services to individuals who self harm, then the misgivings, difficulties or negative psychological interferences reported by the service users would be mollified and/or eliminated. Therefore, therapy and therapeutic outcomes would be assisted. In this situation, counter-productive stimuli are removed or reduced, assisting the service users to maximise the benefits of their therapy.
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    Constructing publicness: politics and the role of design in Melbourne's grid since the 1990s
    Davis, Michael ; © 2016 Michael Davis ( 2016)
    During the 1990s the developmental trajectory of inner Melbourne shifted dramatically and the city became the site of an entrepreneurial strategy of urban development. Within the inner grid, spatial interventions grounded this redirection, and a number of the city's open spaces became of utility in catalysing growth. This thesis explores the role of the design of public open spaces within the development of Melbourne's inner grid since the 1990s and investigates the implications on public life within these spaces. Focusing on City Square and Federation Square, analysis draws Upson ideas from contemporary political philosophy in order to understand the political capacities of these spaces and the forms of citizenship they produce. Influenced by numerous factors, Melbourne's inner grid evolved with a scarcity public open spaces and a strong economic focus. This has continually prevented the securing of such spaces and consistently privileged economic concerns over social utility in the creation of new spaces. This focus on the financial aspects of public spaces was heightened during the entrepreneurial shift of the 1990s and design became of importance in satisfying the emerging imperatives of development. Theories of design dominant in the 1990s, particularity deconstructivist methodologies of design and the urban design approach of Jan Gehl, found expression in spaces created and operated well within the broader entrepreneurial paradigm. Both approaches relied heavily on the use of architectural program to catalyse the animation of urban space, and within the resultant spaces there exists a conflation of civicness with programmed activities and consumptive practices. Within spaces analysed, design has proven instrumental in producing forms of citizenship and transforming notions of publicness in space.
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    Immersed at the water's edge: three imaginings of nature in the modern public pool
    Phillips, Christine Marie ( 2015)
    This thesis examines the architecture of modern waterside public swimming pools to ex-plore the nexus between architecture, nature and the body. Prominent architectural historians have largely overlooked the modern public pool, although it records a trajectory of major architectural themes of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Maturing as an architectural type during the 1920s and 1930s it has enjoyed four waves of development since this period, but it also highlights themes of leisure and nature, body and health, gender and class. Furthermore, the architecture of modern public pools located within or adjacent to existing bodies of water, such as the sea or river, is also revealing of how architecture relates to nature. The cultural artifice of the swimming pool that frames and controls a body of water positioned in relation to a natural body of water, brings to the fore a compelling spatial and cultural juxtaposition. In particular, this thesis argues that the architecture of modern waterside pools reveals dif-ferent imaginings of nature that manifest as three distinct design modes. This is demonstrated through an examination of seven case studies constructed between 1934-2004 from Europe and Australia. I describe these design modes as the Hydrophobic Pool: an architecture that contrasts its natural surrounds, the Hydrophilic Pool: an architecture that integrates with its natural surrounds, and the Hydromimetic Pool: an architecture that mimics its natural surrounds. Given the feeling of water against the skin stimulates senses unique to this architectural type, the thesis also employs and develops autoethnographic methods from the field of anthropology in order to explore how these conditions of architecture and nature are experienced. This has been tested using my own body as a public vehicle for research alongside spatial and visual forms of analyses commonly adopted with-in architectural histories. Framing a study of the modern waterside pool around these interrelations of architecture, nature and the body contributes to an alternate reading of this architectural type. In addition, the thesis raises broader questions regarding the formation of architectural history and critique and how might we better consider how architecture is inhabited and experienced.