Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemExploring Perceptions of Urban Leftover Spaces and their Multifunctional Possibilities: The Neighbourhood Perspective( 2023-07)Rapid urban development and urbanisation have resulted in various types of underutilised or formally neglected land, referred to as urban leftover spaces. While they project a negative impression, the literature has identified positive social and ecological implications of such spaces, particularly in urban neighbourhoods, as valuable resources for local communities. However, the significance of leftover spaces at the neighbourhood level and residents’ relationship with these spaces, particularly in developing countries, remains unclear. This research explored different types of leftover spaces and how residents perceived them within four urban neighbourhoods in the Kirulapone precinct of Colombo, Sri Lanka. It aimed to better understand these spaces and their potential based on an exploratory, bottom-up approach through a perception-based framework. The study adopted a mixed methodology, which included field reconnaissance, projective mapping, focused interviews and photo elicitation using the photo Q-sort method. These methods were used to identify neighbourhoods and leftover spaces within them, explore residents’ perceptions of the associated landscape features and assess their preferences to inform potential treatment. Residents’ knowledge of the physical environment and social networks primarily influenced how they conceptualised their neighbourhood areas and boundaries. Although seven types of leftover spaces were identified in Kirulapone, the four most commonly defined by residents lacked formal development and stewardship. These spaces encouraged informal uses, which reflected an ambiguity in residents’ distinction between the public and private domains. Such spaces were perceived as unclean or unsafe and typically had distinct visual qualities attributed to the effects of informal uses and unintended vegetation. However, the spaces with vegetation and features that could afford recreational opportunities were most preferred, while messy and polluted spaces were the least preferred. Residents’ socio-demographic conditions also influenced their preferences. Further, three perceptual dimensions underlying residents’ preferences revealed perception related to the degree of cleanliness, naturalness and defined use in such spaces, reflecting residents’ evaluations for potential improvement based on aesthetic quality and utilitarian values. Overall, their perceptions highlighted inherent values that need to be considered in treating these spaces and ecological and socio-cultural attributes that can be addressed to benefit the local community. The findings suggest multifunctional treatment and management can be explored in these leftover spaces to serve diverse community needs and various socio-cultural, ecological, economic and aesthetic functions. Potential improvements of these spaces include introducing recreational amenities, enhancing their ecological value, integrating existing community functions, aesthetic improvement and more formally programmed uses. This thesis contributes a bottom-up approach that design professionals and local authorities can adopt to instigate community engagement in informing the treatment of leftover spaces. Thus, it promotes a nuanced understanding of such spaces and their potential to create more sustainable and socially responsive neighbourhood spaces for the future.
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ItemFrom Environmental Data to Landscape Design: Responding to urban heat in inner city Melbourne( 2023-05)External site design is traditionally the domain of landscape architecture and urban design, yet the challenges of climate change in inner urban projects require joint expertise from the sciences, engineering, planning, architecture, and landscape architecture. Despite the increasing need for collaboration, little research examines how these diverse disciplinary values, methodologies, and knowledge come together in the design of the built environment. With a focus on Melbourne, Australia, a city known for its fluctuating climate, this thesis addresses this gap through an interrogation of the multi-disciplinary processes which inform the conceptualisation of designing for urban heat. Part One (chapters 2-4) comprises an extensive literature review tracing the development of environmental data, simulation, and thermal sensation research. This section documents the major theoretical and technical drivers influencing how architects, landscape architects and engineers conceptualise and engage with thermal conditions for designing external urban space. Part Two (chapters 5-7) then turns to the challenges of designing for heat in the unique climate of Melbourne, Australia. Chapter five establishes the core models of built environment interdisciplinarity and further draws on theory from social and political geography to highlight the influence of institutional, sociological, and epistemic values in shaping how disciplines come together in response to complex problems like urban heat. These values provide the analytical lens for exploring the policy and design case studies in the final two chapters. Chapter six focuses on the evolution of climate policy related to heat in inner Melbourne, where the institutional response, aided by the rise of digital tools, has shifted from risk assessment towards collaborative planning models, followed by design guidelines and tools. Chapter seven focuses on a major built project that foregrounds the landscape's value and addresses urban heat in the initial project proposal. This final analysis traces the evolution of that project through the design brief, interviews with designers and the constructed outcome. This study reveals layers of misalignment from policy to practice, which shape how urban heat is addressed in external site design. Fragmentation of the Australian climate governance structure and the adoption of loading-dock models privilege science in policy development and contribute to persistent implementation gaps between research priorities, policy-led ambitions, and design in the competitive built environment industry. In all contexts, the role of external space is overloaded with competing demands, from climatic and ecological performance to community engagement, social programming and functional concerns like access and maintenance. Finally, this thesis demonstrates that while technology, simulation, and data provide more knowledge and tools for working with the complex conditions of urban heat, it cannot be assumed that they offer the answer. Instead, institutional frameworks, power dynamics and conflicting disciplinary values continue to shape the success of policy and design in addressing the demands of climate change.
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ItemLandscape architecture and aboriginal culture : recent interactions(University of Melbourne, 2002)
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ItemPerceptions of park landscapes : an investigation of preferred park aesthetics for Manningham City Council(University of Melbourne, 2004)
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ItemRepresenting landscape architecture : the photograph, the monograph, and why theory matters(University of Melbourne, 2005)
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ItemEarth, land, landscape : Javanese perceptions of landscape in the Mataram kingdom( 2002)This thesis explores the philosophy of nature as manifest in the landscape realms of the royal court (kraton) and village (desa) of the Mataram kingdom (8l C- 19'h C), which is recognised until now as the centre of Javanese culture. The Javanese are the dominant ethnic group in Indonesia and their culture has a great influence on the way people think, make decisions, and act in the Indonesian environment. This study is an initial investigation in the field of landscape architecture in Indonesia, providing a basic understanding of the traditional beliefs and concepts of landscape as found in the dominant culture. It describes and discusses the perceptions of nature and landscape amongst the Javanese nobility (priyayi) and common people (wong cilik) in the kraton and desa. Such knowledge can form future policies for landscape planning of the region, which is undergoing great change. The research focused on several key realms in the study area, including the still surviving Royal Tomb and the Great Mosque complex at Kota Gede, the Surakarta kraton and desa in its surroundings, the Yogyakarta kraton and some traditional desa in its surroundings which were investigated through field studies and archival searches. Javanese attitudes and philosophies relating to nature, land and landscape were investigated through its cultural products including archaeological artefacts, chronicles and wayang shadow puppet ritual. The research benefited from a number of old and new chronicles translated from the Javanese language into Indonesian and English and past descriptions of traditional desa in Java from Indonesian and Dutch sources. Since the nature of this study is to explore relationships between cultural media and manifest landscape form, the techniques used are descriptive, analytic and interpretative. It was found that in Java, the people's beliefs and concepts of nature and the landscape are an amalgam of beliefs, rituals and myths. For example, the mountain, tree, and water were and still are taken as important symbols that influence how landscapes are made. There is a rich cultural heritage in the living landscape of both kraton and desa, which is now being overtaken by development. The findings of this research can, however, influence this process of landscape change for the better. The most representative examples of both landscapes of kraton and desa in Surakarta and Yogyakarta regions should also be the focus for future conservation efforts. These should include at least the Royal Tomb and Great Mosque complex at Kota Gede, the whole kraton sites in Surakarta and Yogyakarta and their sacred sight line areas, the sacred forest/grove such as the Krendhawahana forest, some traditional desa in the surroundings, and some forbidden landscape areas (punden, keramat) like the Imagiri and Mangadeg royal tomb hills, the kraton Ratu Baka hill complex, Kayangan site, Gua Semar amongst others.
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ItemVisual thresholds for detection, recognition and visual impact in landscape settings( 1996)Although the concept of visual threshold has long been used in psychophysics, its transplanting to visual landscape research is very new. Very few studies have attempted to look at visual thresholds in landscape settings, and none has ever produced any tangible results. This study was the first to have proposed a systematic organising structure for visual impact assessment procedures via three articulated visual thresholds - visual thresholds for detection, recognition and visual impact. Three sets of visual thresholds, which were defined as the points when 50% of the viewers accomplished a requested perception task, were obtained through controlled slide-viewing testings using computer simulated images with modified visual attributes. Three contrasts, four visual sizes, two object types and four baseline landscape settings were the defined independent variables. Detection, recognition and visual preferential rating were the dependant variables. These variables were controlled, manipulated and combined using photorealistic computer imaging techniques from which a total of 88 simulations were produced. Two groups of randomly selected university students (94 altogether), half of whom pre-informed, were used as the test subjects on 88 pairs of "before" and "after" images in a strictly controlled environment. From the tests results, general and specific visual thresholds values were derived and four detailed multivariate logistic regression models for the thresholds were also established. In general, detection, recognition and visual impact thresholds were found to be around 27, 65 and 85 square minutes. But more precise results were given by the logistic regression equations which achieved an average prediction success of over 90%. Many perceptual phenomena were also observed. For example, contrast weighted visual size (measured in square minutes of angle subtended by an object multiplied by visual contrast) was found to be the determinant variable for visual detection, recognition and visual impact assessment; detection and recognition were found to be linearly related to the log visual size of the object; it was many times easier to detect an object on a darker background than on a brighter background, and pre-knowledge definitely increased people's ability to recognise objects. The term maximum visibility was redefined as the detection threshold, and the concept of perception radius (visibility, recognisability and impact threshold) was initiated and used. The obtained thresholds, equations and perceptual findings could be readily applied to landscape management systems and enable automated mapping and zoning of the maximum perception radii. Perhaps it is the establishment of the three articulated visual thresholds concepts and their quantitative definitions in landscape settings that will challenge and redefine the validity and true usefulness of the sensitivity levels and the current visibility theories upon which many existing visual management systems are built.