Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses

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    City agency in an urban age: a multiscalar study of migration city diplomacy
    Pejic, Daniel Scott ( 2023-09)
    Over the previous two decades city governments have substantially expanded international engagement efforts, reflective of their potential to address major global challenges such as climate change, migration and even pandemics. This ‘city diplomacy’ encompasses a range of ways that cities are working individually and through formal transnational networks to become influencers of global agendas, as opposed to just implementors of national policy. Whilst there is broad academic consensus that city diplomacy is having at least some impact in international politics, the discipline of international relations (IR) has struggled to place cities conceptually in the milieu of international actors. Questions abound but answers do not. Are they non-state entities akin to NGOs and civil organisations, or unique socio-political units that require bespoke theorising to be understood? Are they coalitions of actors? Or is city agency on the global stage a function of mayoral priorities? In this thesis, carried out at the University of Melbourne via publication, I address the research gap related to the construction, sustainment and operation of ‘city agency’ on an international stage. This places my thesis between International Relations (IR) theory and urban studies and explicitly aims to strengthen their connection via a focus on urban politics. I do so by bringing together a sequence of published scholarly interventions into a cohesive study narrative. I firstly advance understanding of city agency by theorising that local governments and other urban actors are now operating in a context of ‘global urban governance’ wherein the governance of urban challenges has become infeasible without consideration of their global dimensions. Drawing from theories of group agency in political science and analytic philosophy, as well as collective urban governance in urban studies, I encourage the reader to look not only at local governments but also other urban actors who shape city agency. To explore these dynamics in action, the thesis presents findings from a multiscalar case study application of this theorisation, in which I analyse the emerging role of cities as actors in global migration governance. Migration has become an increasingly important domain for city diplomacy as the bulk of international migrants reside in cities and responsibilities for supporting these populations have increasingly been devolved to local governments. At the global scale, I explore the impact that cities have had collectively on global migration governance, demonstrating a causal link between migration city diplomacy and changes in global migration governance that have prioritised urban settlements. At the city scale, I analyse the way the migration city diplomacy of two internationally recognised cities in this domain, Bristol, UK and Montreal, Canada, has been shaped by the strong history of migrant inclusion from a range of actors within these cities. This is the first study to examine the link between local migration governance and migration city diplomacy at the international level. Finally, at the national scale, I highlight the importance of central–local relations and the underexplored link between city diplomacy and national foreign policy, drawing on the examples from the United Kingdom and Canada, but also other comparable contexts. Here I introduce models of the national governance of city diplomacy with relevance for migration policy and broader international efforts. This multiscalar view offers a new set of theoretical and empirical lenses through which IR and also urban studies scholars can understand the role of cities in global governance. A more enriched understanding of the type of international agent that cities represent offers new opportunities to study the tangible impacts of their international engagements. Through the case studies examined here, this thesis provides novel empirical insight into the emerging role of cities in global migration governance and uniquely links this city diplomacy with local dynamics. In the emerging context of ‘global urban governance’, where cities must increasingly work internationally and international actors must attend to the urban scale, the interplay between these scalar dynamics will shape the governance of major global challenges this century and likely beyond.
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    Reimagining Climate Urban Comparison Through A ‘More Global’ Urban Science
    Mokhles, Sombol ( 2023-12)
    Cities, as pre-eminent hubs of human activity, are one of the key frontrunners in tackling the climate crisis. As this recognition of the urban condition, we live in has become more and more widespread, interest in using ‘urban science’ to better understand cities has surged and has been widely applied to accelerate urban climate action. One of the growingly popular approaches in urban science is comparing cities based on extensive data sets, which this thesis terms ‘comparative urban science’. Comparative urban science is now commonly used by scholars and practitioners in urban climate governance to understand cities and accelerate their climate actions. Yet, this has to date incurred into two specific gaps of comparative urban science in urban climate governance that this thesis aims to redress. Firstly, large-scale studies, which primarily focus on quantitative and performance-based factors, often fail to comprehensively understand the diverse range of factors influencing cities’ climate actions. Secondly, these studies tend to reinforce city hierarchies and focus disproportionately on few often well-resourced, ‘global’ according to some, cities. These two limitations result in a biased understanding of smaller cities, perceived to be without global city status, especially in the Global South. This is doubly problematic as these more ‘intermediate’ cities are also, and in many cases principally, shaping the direction of urbanisation, and limited knowledge of these cities can be a critical gap and a missed opportunity for tackling climate change. The thesis proposes de-centring comparative urban science by incorporating a ‘more global’ urban comparison that strives to move beyond hierarchical comparisons based on size and economic status, connecting postcolonial critiques in urban studies to the development of urban science. The thesis aims to offer a bridging contribution across urban studies, particularly linking urban climate governance, comparative urbanism, and urban science approaches that at times have been at odds. Therefore, the main research question is, “To what extent can a ‘more global’ urban comparison be incorporated in comparative urban science to offer insights for research and practice in urban climate governance?”. The thesis deploys a mixed-method approach that combines quantitative and qualitative methods in three methodological steps. The first step includes two comparative approaches: one that is factor-based and one that is an action-based comparison. A range of factors are identified through a literature review to expand knowledge of diverse factors influencing climate actions for the factor-based comparison. The action-based comparison then builds on K-means clustering analysis of cities’ governance aspects of their reported mitigation actions (nature and finance-implementation) to identify distinct patterns of cities. In the second step, statistical tests of association examine the relationship between the identified factors and patterns and test if the clusters expand knowledge of diverse cities. Finally, in the third step of the thesis, a focus group discussion with climate city network experts is used to explore the practical application of these research findings. The thesis demonstrates the potential of a ‘more global’ and more explicitly relational approach using non-hierarchical K-means clustering as a pattern recognition method, expanding knowledge about diverse cities, as investigated in action-based comparison. Five clusters are identified based on mitigation actions’ nature and five based on finance-implementation. Importantly, this thesis finds no significant association between these clusters and cities’ population size and global city status. The findings highlight the need to move beyond simplistic quantitative measures and challenge the notion that population size and global city status determine cities’ climate action. Cities’ finance-implementation pattern is not found to be associated with most factors, denoting that cities implement their mitigation actions regardless of their national political economy, vulnerability to climate change, and perception of risk. Moreover, the thesis demonstrates that factors such as region, country-level GDP per capita, corruption index, cities’ climate responsibility, and vulnerability to climate change only partially explain some of the clusters of nature of actions. Overall, the thesis offers a novel approach to comparative urban science, providing valuable insights and seeking to contribute to a more inclusive and more effective evidence-based urban climate governance. It argues for collective climate action across diverse cities and calls for reimagining existing climate networking practices. Furthermore, the thesis illustrates how the conceptual framework of this thesis based on incorporating a ‘more global’ urban comparison into a relational approach to urban science could be applied, opening potential engagement into other research areas beyond climate to deepen our understanding of a greater diversity of cities when deploying urban science approaches. In conclusion, this thesis emphasises the need to move beyond simplistic measures and hierarchical comparisons, empowering cities to address climate change collectively.
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    Managing the planning and implementation of greenways from top-down in the Central Zhejiang City-Region, China: who is in charge?
    Chen, Junxian ( 2023-11)
    In 2010, China introduced the modern greenway concept, envisioning regional-scale greenway networks that serve multiple functions. The objectives were twofold: to alleviate the scarcity of urban green spaces without encroaching on land designated for development, and to strengthen the rural-urban physical and functional connections within city-regions. The planning and implementation of greenways at such a grand scale involves a diverse array of actors and a web of institutions. Given that China’s authoritative governance system is characterised by top-down decision-making along with the institutional complexities, it is important to understand who is in charge in Chinese regional greenway development. By integrating insights from institutional theories and organisational theories, this study develops a conceptual framework to examine the interactions between actors, institutions, organisational characters and resulting greenway outcomes. The Central Zhejiang City-Region, with its two successive greenway stages, was selected as the case study area. Data were gathered through thirty-nine semi-structured interviews, government documents, site observation, and spatial information from various sources. The main findings show that the regional government played a central role in regional greenway planning. However, its influence waned during the implementation phase since county governments dominated greenway projects as the capital suppliers, regulators and implementers. While the planning process was open to planning institutes, external consultants, and greenway user representatives, their presence mainly served to justify the aspirations of governmental actors. SOEs and sitting tenants were empowered to engage in the implementation process due to their access to funding or land resources for greenway construction. Nevertheless, their participation took place in the “shadow of hierarchy”, with the state taking a lead. Given that modern greenway was a new concept, greenway actors were inevitably confronted with existing regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive institutions, which raised transaction costs and posed constraints to greenway development. These institutional constraints were compounded by political pressures from the region and political leaders, driving actors to take strategic actions to develop greenways within a narrow timeframe. The key organisational actors, Local Greenway Coordination Offices (LGCOs), were also restructured to be more powerful, double-hatted, cross-agency and inclusive in order to overcome such institutional constraints. As reflected in the greenway outcomes, the Central Zhejiang Greenway Project does not appear to be an ongoing initiative that considers the long-term social and ecological consequences. Rather, it is treated as a political mission driven by campaign-style governance. The challenge still lies in establishing a complete set of supportive institutions and effectively enforcing them to safeguard the enduring value and sustainability of greenways for both communities and the natural environment. The findings from this study shed light on the complex institutional process underlying regional greenway development and its impacts on the urban and rural landscape.
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    A data-driven investigation on urban form evolution: Methodological and empirical support for unravelling the relation between urban form and spatial dynamics
    Tumturk, Onur ( 2023-06)
    Investigating the patterns of urban development and transformation and unravelling the principles behind these processes are critical for understanding how cities evolve under different physical conditions. While socio-economic, political and cultural forces undeniably shape the patterns of spatial change and persistence, urban form should not be perceived as a passive resultant or a mere consequence of these processes. Quite the contrary, urban form plays a determinant role in establishing the spatial conditions that influence future development patterns by constraining some choices while facilitating others. Recognising the scarcity of systematic, diachronic and quantitative studies on urban form evolution, this thesis is driven by an interest in understanding the relationship between urban form and spatial change. It aims to develop theoretical, methodological and empirical support for unravelling the influential role of urban form in guiding spatial dynamics. The thesis develops a diachronic and quantitative methodological framework to investigate how urban form conditions created by plots, buildings, streets and land uses affect the patterns of change and persistence in three different grid cities: Midtown Manhattan, New York (US); City Centre, Melbourne (AUS); and Eixample, Barcelona (Spain). As part of the research, three longitudinal morphological datasets were generated, drawing upon a rich array of historical cartographic resources and geospatial databases to enable a comprehensive assessment of urban form evolution within each city between the 1800s and 2000s. Through quantitative analysis of urban form and its association with spatial dynamics, the thesis demonstrates that urban form conditions have a measurable impact on the patterns of physical and functional change. This understanding contributes further to the fact that design does not exclude the possibility of change but may even favour it under particular conditions. A rigorous and evidence-based understanding of the interplay between urban form conditions and patterns of spatial change empowers practitioners and policymakers to choose particular forms and structures over others, guide the long-term evolution of urban form and improve the adaptive capacity and resilience of the built environment.
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    Environmental Experience Design Framework for High Density Urban Housing of Middle Income Occupants in Bangladesh
    Chowdhury, Sajal ( 2023-06)
    The size of middle-income groups has steadily increased around the world. A Least Developed Country (LDC), Bangladesh's capital and hub of business, Dhaka, ranks as Asia's 11th fastest-growing megacity. The middle-income group in Dhaka drives economic growth, outpacing other income groups. Since housing in Dhaka is unaffordable and socio-economic constraints limit their choices, middle-income households usually live in compact or congested domestic environments (i.e., high-density housing). For housing affordability, housing providers develop small-sized dwelling units (flats or apartments) for middle and lower-middle-income groups instead of targeting upper-income groups, considering mainly physical design components (e.g., size, layout and configurations) in architectural design decisions. Architectural design solutions may not improve occupants' mental well-being without clear perceptions of users' physical and psychological responses. According to the initial survey and literature review, indoor environmental quality deteriorates in congested domestic environments and affects occupants' mental well-being (psychological responses, such as comfortable feelings). The literature review revealed that each element of a household living environment positively or negatively impacts occupants' physical perceptions and psychological responses. Thus, the design of a domestic indoor environment affects occupants' mental well-being which needs to be incorporated into architectural design decisions. Occupants' psychological response can be promoted by changing domestic indoor conditions and adjusting their subjective perceptions of household experiences. Knowledge about the household experiences of middle-income occupants (as users) is still elusive in Bangladesh. This study explores users' household experiences of psychological perceptions and physical responses in order to formulate customised design outcomes that can improve the mental well-being of occupants. To comprehensively understand middle-income occupants' domestic experiences, high-density urban housing has been selected for the study context in Dhaka. Mixed mode research design combining qualitative and quantitative strategies, incorporating literature reviews, structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, was conducted for numerical (association rules mining) and contextual (text mining) analysis and interpretation. Data was collected from fifty domestic units (flats or apartments) in urban housing in Dhaka. Therefore, in-depth data interpretation through machine learning algorithms (Association rules ‘Apriori’) has been conducted considering the correlation between twelve environmental design factors and ten spatial attributes, including occupants' preferences or restrictions aims to contribute to an architectural design methodological framework for middle-income occupants in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Occupants' narratives and photos serve as background evidence to extract design preferences or restrictions in domestic settings based on their socio-cultural aspects of environments. According to the study, different domestic spaces (e.g., master bedroom, child bedroom, attached toilet, common toilet, kitchen, dining room, living room, balcony and corridor) have different physical and psychological responses to their occupants. Considering the overall analysis, users' psychological perception determines design preferences. However, demand is also refined by the context in which users exist. It is pertinent to note that socio-cultural aspects of environmental factors influence occupants' perceptions in their domestic settings. Users continuously perceive their surrounding domestic living environments through physical responses and psychological perceptions. As a result, users' future design preferences differ from one space to another in a domestic setting. This study identified user behavioural patterns and concluded that seasonal changes, location, functionality, frequency of usage and attachment (i.e., user experience) of the spaces surveyed affect users' physical and psychological perceptions of comfort feelings (as mental well-being). It argues that environmental design solutions alone may not be sufficient to enhance occupants' physical and psychological response unless the users' socio-cultural context are considered. Occupants’ preferences are formed and decision-making is guided. Architectural design parameters can be prioritised by evaluating occupants' experiences in their domestic environments. Understanding such middle-income occupants' experiences within their residential environments is vital for determining and shaping architectural design parameters or factors. Not only that, but it states that only numerical data cannot accurately predict fundamental preference factors in architectural design decisions. The contextual analysis confirmed some numerical variations through users’ sentiments. From a users’ contextual perspective, occupants seem to view some spatial factors as more relevant to their psychological comfort than other environmental factors. This is because spatial factors such as functionality and usability directly influence how occupants interact with and use them. These preferences are also correlated with middle-income residents' complex socio-cultural contextual situations. These preferences can be applied to architectural design articulation to improve the association between users' physical and psychological needs and demands (subjectivity and objectivity) in their domestic living environment. This ‘Environmental Experience Design (EXD)’ framework combines three factors - user context, physical and psychological responses (as mental well-being i.e., moods/feelings/emotions) and design aspects (spatial and environmental) in the high-density domestic environment for middle-income occupants in Dhaka. EXD frameworks contribute to systematising architectural decision-making as tools and prioritising domestic environment design components by assessing occupants' physical and psychological needs and demands through their household experiences, which is the underlying motivation for this study. Consequently, these outcomes contribute to initiating a 'Customised Design Outcomes' approach in Bangladesh's housing sectors that may meet today's diverse housing market demands. Even though this methodological framework integrating machine learning algorithms is aimed at middle-income occupants of Dhaka, it may also contribute to other architectural design domains locally and globally. Implementing the EXD framework through occupant experiences can also be used to build state-of-the-art housing developments or retrofit high-density housing to improve occupants' psychological perception in their living environments.
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    Access, participation, and inclusion: the gender-disability-violence-service planning nexus and the role of integrated planning policy in addressing the right to adequate services
    Yon, Alicia Prisca ( 2023-06)
    This thesis is built around the help-seeking experiences of women with disabilities facing violence in peri-urban Australia; their socio-spatial barriers to mainstream social services; and how an integrated policy approach, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), could improve their access to those services. I invoke several human rights-based theoretical imperatives that support the argument that all humans, irrespective of their identity, are entitled to certain inalienable rights that enable them to participate fully in everyday life. These include the ‘right to the city’ (Lefebvre, 1996/1968), ‘intersectionality’ (Crenshaw, 1989) and ‘just diversity’ (Fincher & Iveson, 2008) to conceptualise an integrated policy framework to address the interlocking inequalities of gender and disability as compounded by violence and locational disadvantage. My narrative unfolds through an examination of one of the NDIS trial sites (Barwon) in a peri-urban setting in the State of Victoria, Australia. I specifically explore how the NDIS reliance on its service interface and partnerships can drive an integrated approach to the design and delivery of violence response services. I employed a multi-method approach involving policy diagnoses and interviews. My findings revealed a mismatch between need and service provision and confirmed a lack of consideration of non-physical barriers and diversity in service planning. The main themes derived from my empirical analyses (broader access, holistic integration and transformative representation) were paired with my theoretical themes (recognition, redistribution and participation) to establish the right to the reimagined peri-urban city for producing counter-space to exclusion. I argue against the right to the city’s universalism in favour of a relational and targeted approach. Shifting current planning thought, discourse and practice from abstract homogenous constructions of the female disabled body to a fuller understanding of its complexities and associated oppressions (violence) and discrimination (locational disadvantage) and their relationship to access is fundamental to achieving the right to the reimagined peri-urban city.
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    Public transport and disruptive technology. How the past shapes future urban possibilities
    Lawrie, Iain James ( 2023-07)
    Emerging new mobilities innovations in ‘Mobility as a Service’ (MaaS) and connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) have the potential to disrupt existing public transport systems. Key literature suggests societal outcomes will be optimised where public transport is integrated with these new technologies to maintain a core role in a city’s transport offering; a ‘transit-fusion’. However, capacity to implement such policies differ significantly; cities are constrained by their past choices. Equally, fleets of private autonomous vehicles may offer very low-cost travel, complicating efforts to integrate the mode with public transport. The principal aim of this study is thus to understand how MaaS and ultimately fully independent CAVs may impact public transport in different city typologies. The research uses an adapted multivalent path dependence framework, addressing the research aim by considering the trajectory of three distinct urban typologies: Los Angeles, Singapore and Melbourne. The multivalent approach suggests outcomes will be influenced by an interplay of technical built form infrastructure, institutional governance arrangements and discursive ‘storylines’ held by policy actors. Historic and contemporary data on technical and institutional elements was gathered from documentary sources. Discursive data was gathered through interviews with policy actors in each city. Los Angeles and Singapore were selected as ‘critical’ cases, representing ‘least’ and ‘most’ likely cities to successfully implement ‘transit fusion’ approaches. Melbourne was selected as a representative case. The findings suggest that path dependent urban forms, governance and ‘storylines’ will have substantial influence over how MaaS and CAVs may emerge and interact with public transport. MaaS presents as a problematic approach, offering little advantage over the dominant existing modes in each city. The market for multi-modal MaaS is limited by public transport which is insufficient in Los Angeles and Melbourne and by transit which is too good in Singapore. MaaS, with current technologies is thus likely to have limited impact on public transport in these typologies – although it may have success elsewhere. However, the advent of fully independent CAVs has potential for disruptive change to public transport. This is facilitated by a complementarity between pre-existing infrastructure supporting private vehicles and the needs of CAVs. In this context, for ‘transit-fusion’ outcomes to succeed, clear alignment of institutional and discursive support is required. On balance this alignment was seen in Los Angeles and Singapore, but less so in Melbourne.
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    Comparison of measured and perceived fundamental characteristics to identify strategies for increasing the rate of daily walking in suburban areas
    Panawannage, Thanuja Dilrucshi Nandapala ( 2020-07)
    Future cities will increasingly face health, socio-economic and environmental problems, including disease, social isolation, economic breakdown, excessive carbon dioxide emissions, climate change, and fossil fuel depletion. The planning and design of neighbourhoods which provide high levels of pedestrian accessibility to daily needs destinations such as schools, grocery shops, greenspaces and public transport could contribute to solutions to these problems by the reduction of car-based travel. Future cities need to be walkable based on solutions that can be achieved through better planning and design which takes into consideration accessibility as well as Key Urban Place Characteristics (KUPCs). The author considers walkability to be formed by two factors: the first, accessibility, is the distance to daily needs destinations, and the second is KUPCs, the safety and security, comfort, and attractiveness of the walk to those daily needs’ destinations. Although many suburban neighbourhoods in Melbourne have good access to daily needs, people who live in these areas often choose to drive to their destinations rather than walk. This may be due to negative perceptions of the place and the lack of fundamental place characteristics. The aim of this research is to identify strategies to increase rates of daily walking based on an understanding of the relationship between urban place characteristics and accessibility in suburban neighbourhoods. Therefore, the author has chosen four case studies; two international best practice case studies to validate a theoretical framework obtained from the best practice literature, and an in-depth examination of two local case studies in Melbourne using the validated theoretical framework to assess the scale of walkability in the most accessible areas in selected suburban samples. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used in this study, in keeping with a sequential explanatory design mixed-method approach. Data collection was conducted using mapping, urban informatics, desktop analysis, field observations of KUPCs, and face-to-face interviews with residents. The analysis of walking-related values using key research studies provided opportunities to reveal the most important characteristics needed for walking to daily needs in the case studies. These results were used to identify strategies for increasing the rate of daily walking in suburban areas.
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    Yard trees in a small to medium sized city in China
    Zhang, Ang ( 2023-05)
    This study is the first investigation of trees in private yards in China. Physical characteristics, rural-urban variation, impact factors, individual preferences, and governance regarding private yard trees were addressed in a combination of fieldwork, questionnaires among residents, and interviews with local governors. Six villages and two communities were examined for yard trees in Zhoukou, a city classified as a small-to-medium city. Trees in private yards were small trees constrained by a generally small-sized yard. There was a decline in the number of private yards and a decline in yard trees from rural to urban areas; however, residents and governors showed supportive attitudes towards more planting of yard trees. A small number of species dominated the yard landscape, and they were related to edibility and the symbolism of the tree. Interviews with governors of the villages showed that yard trees should be better protected, especially in rural areas. Although small in size, yards in small and medium-sized cities contribute to the city canopy and the urban forest and there is a need to foster public awareness about the value of trees and tree planting on a wider scale. This study showed that trees in private yards need to be included in decision making. Governments could set specific aims and strategies for both private and public greenspace to enhance urban greening; for example, there is a need to compensate the small number and limited range of species found in private yards with large trees and a greater range of species in public space, especially native species, to enhance species diversity in Chinese cities.