Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemReducing greenhouse gas emissions from residential buildings in Australia : impact, opportunities and barriers impeding progress( 2003)The quest underlying this research is improved understanding of greenhouse gas reductions attributable to residential buildings in Australia. Past efforts to reduce CO2 emissions from residential buildings in Australia focus predominantly on operational energy and to a lesser extent CO2 emissions attributable to energy embodied in the building structure, i.e. an individual dwelling and its site. The emissions and corresponding opportunities associated with the life support systems servicing the dwelling, e.g. water supply, food supply, sewage disposal, are still relatively unexplored. The first part of this research takes a wider view by including the life support systems. As a demonstration of how the impact of the life support systems can be studied, water supply and sewage disposal are explored in detail. Once potential opportunities for reduction are identified, these opportunities also need to be realised. Both the theory and practice of energy conservation in residential buildings worldwide, and in Australia, have been there since the 60s and 70s. However, there is evidence that implementation in Australia has not transferred into the mainstream as yet. Efforts have been made to identify the barriers impeding progress to energy efficiency. These are mostly based on personal observation. Structured methods based on empirical data are restricted to individual key players such as architects or householders. Empirical studies of a limited cross section of the key players have been carried out overseas but are restricted to commercial buildings. These studies have also been isolated attempts and not as part of an overall management strategy. In the second part of this research a diversity of needs and barriers faced by a wide cross section of key players is identified empirically, as part of an overall management strategy aimed at achieving energy and related CO2 reductions from residential buildings in Australia. Energy reduction is taken to include operational energy, embodied energy and the energy associated with the life support systems of a dwelling. It is proposed that both these domains of opportunity identified present opportunities for significant reductions in CO2 emissions from residential buildings in Australia.
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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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ItemThe order of housing things : public housing policy discourse in New Zealand and Australia, 1983-1999( 2001)The purpose of this thesis is to examine discourses of housing assistance to understand how empirical knowledge came to be effected in the state housing assistance arrangements of New Zealand and Australia. To achieve this purpose a discursive methodology was crafted to account for both the constitution of empirical knowledge, and the bureaucratic apparatus by which housing assistance is administered. By pursuing the theoretical insights of US pragmatist thinkers, and recent French post-structuralist authors, empirical knowledge in the thesis was understood as a series of regular relations between abstract categories of 'things' or 'statements', as enunciated in the utterances of housing assistance policy actors and agents. Similarly the state was viewed as a discursive apparatus, which operates to constitute reality through the enunciation of this empirical order of things. The results of the methodological strategy were to be found in the empirical case studies of housing assistance in New Zealand and Australia during the period 1983 to 1999. In New Zealand a regular arrangement of housing policy discourse operated. until 1990. This 'order of housing things' constituted its subjects as unable to operate effectively in the housing market, thus requiring direct intervention via the housing assistance apparatus to ensure their needs were met. After 1990, this arrangement was replaced by an order in which the market was constituted as able to efficiently allocate housing to those in need, with maintenance of an adequate income becoming the sole basis for state action. In Australia, the order of housing things has consistently been one in which the directly provided subsidised state housing is the enunciated and practiced 'truth' of housing assistance. While alternative orders have been enunciated, such as the provision of assistance solely through an income payment, none of these alternatives obtained the status of the incumbent order during the study period. The thesis contributes to social scientific understanding through the careful and extensive empirical analysis of public housing policy in the two countries under consideration. Added to this understanding are the detailed theoretical explorations, which tease out recent post-structural approaches to discourse and the state, and which provide methodological solutions to questions of the nexus between empirical reality, language, practice, subjects and government policy.
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ItemProcess dynamics : buffer management in building project operations( 2000)The management of uncertainty and complexity is necessary for performance in the management of building projects. This thesis explores lean production and its engagement of uncertainty and complexity to ascertain the means by which lean thinking can best be used to enhance building project performance. As uncertainty and complexity impede performance, they are often managed in ways that will minimise their impact. Buffers like excess inventory and deliberate delays have been used to shield operations from the effects of uncertainty and complexity to improve levels of performance. However, lean thinking argues that the use of buffers to shield uncertainty and complexity from operations is wasteful and induces operational inertia. It eliminates these buffers and utilises operating capacity as an alternative to enable a more efficiently responsive engagement of uncertainty and complexity. Thus, the purpose of buffers changes in lean operations from that of a shield to that of enhancing accommodative capabilities. Buffers are therefore considered necessary, and the concept of process dynamics is introduced to consolidate the management of buffers. Process dynamics encapsulates the insight from lean thinking about the efficiently responsive accommodation of uncertainty and complexity. Building projects require the provision of choice and variety under conditions of considerable uncertainty. Projects structures are arranged to provide variety, yet contend poorly with the uncertainty and complexity present. The consequence is waste that leads to prolonged duration and increased costs. The provision of choice and variety means that some degree of uncertainty and complexity is intrinsic to high levels of performance. Consequently, approaches that better accommodate, rather than shield uncertainty and complexity can improve time and cost performance while still enabling the provision of wide product variety. Levels of wasteful practice in building projects are described through the meta-analysis of past studies into deficient practices in building projects. This analysis confirmed the high levels of waste. The process dynamics concept is tested through a simulation model. This model indicates the performance improvement from deploying buffers under the process dynamics regime. The results indicate that process dynamics provides the means for utilising lean thinking in the management of building projects to maximise performance outcomes.
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ItemRural road management using visual assessment techniques( 1991)This thesis explores the management of rural road landscapes using information derived from visual assessments of these landscapes. Visual assessments of landscapes have previously been mainly restricted to investigating scenic/aesthetic matters. However the methods used in these assessments seem to be appropriate for assessing other matters and have potential for application in the management of multi-use resources in rural roadsides. In this thesis, the responses to rood landscapes of three expert groups and a public user group are considered. The expert groups responded to the rural road landscapes with reference to their areas of expertise - landscape architects evaluated for scenic beauty, ecologists for ecological significance and fire experts for fire hazard potential. The public group responded to the landscape scenes for their preference (for a Sunday afternoon recreational drive). Based on these responses, estimation values, which are numerical representations of the importance of landscape scenes relative to each other, are derived. Policies - multiple linear and non-linear regression equations which statistically represent the average responses of each of the groups to various roadside features - are also developed. Policies make explicit the relationship between changes in selected landscape features and groups' responses to those landscapes. As this study has a management focus, only measurable and manageable landscape features of rural road reserves are considered in developing policies. In exploring the application of estimation values and policies in the management of rural road reserves, the relationship between the responses of individuals and those of the groups to which the individuals belong is examined, using a technique called policy capturing. The results of this study indicate that for the four main groups, within group differences exist in the way in which group policies can be used to describe people's responses. The results of this study indicate that the average response of the experts accounts for the majority of their group's members' response but this is not the case for the public group. It is also found that, given the same landscape features, the amount of variance (multiple R2 value) associated with a group's policy was generally larger than that associated with those policies for its individual members. The findings in the present research complement those in non-landscape research, but contrast with the only other landscape research application of policy capturing. Finally, this study shows ways in which information based on the group policies can be used in the management of rural roads. Five theoretical courses of action are investigated with respect to two landscapes - annual burning, annual slashing, tree planting, road widening, and do-nothing. These five courses of action are referred to as management options, and are theoretically applied over ten- and fifty-year planning periods. Only one management option, annual slashing, is found to be successful. The results seem to indicate that, for the landscapes examined, often the best option may be to do nothing.
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ItemTowards the development of a transport energy policy for Australia( 1983)The existing pattern of transport energy use in Australia has been established and the feasibility of reducing such energy use by various strategies has been assessed. Constraints have been identified, and the role of governments and industry in the implementation of such changes by fiscal and regulatory policies has been examined and recommendations made for their adoption by Australian state and national governments.
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ItemThe valuation of road safety for public decision making : with application to Australia( 1982)This study investigates the proper valuation of the social and economic consequences of road accidents in guiding public decision-making and policy on accident research and road safety. The work is in three stages: (i) a review and assessment of road accident cost studies; (ii) the estimation, presentation and appraisal of comprehensive social costs of road accidents for Australia in a recent year; and (iii) a critique of the theoretical and empirical economic literature on the 'value of life', and its implications for the valuation of road safety. The theme of the study is the conflict between the two approaches to the valuation of safety: the practice of treating road accidents as social costs and the alternative concept of direct economic valuation of life and the avoidance of risk. Neither approach has yet produced definitive empirical results and there remain unresolved valuation problems affecting public sector assessments of safety. 1978 Australian accident costs are estimated in a modified 'societal' cost framework which is proposed as a compromise between the two valuation approaches. The composition of this framework Is examined, especially the valuation of fatalities in terms of foregone income. Problems identified include the income concept chosen, the treatment of those not earning, the effects of the age distribution of the accident sample, and the role of the discount rate. The study gives particular attention to the skewed distributions of average accident costs which renders them misleading in use. A method is proposed to simulate accident cost distributions according to injury severity by fitting probability distributions. Finally a critique of the extensive recent literature on the economics of the value of life and safety is undertaken to assess the relevance of this approach to public sector decision making, and its relationship to accident cost studies. This approach, proposes willingness to pay for reduction in risk of death as the correct safety valuation concept, with suggested application in road safety, public health, and environmental pollution policy. Recent empirical studies using this valuation concept are examined, and appear to produce plausible results. A useful but controversial suggested elasticity relationship between willingness-to-pay valuation of life and the foregone income method is also discussed. Some preliminary conclusions are presented about the conceptual and empirical feasibility of valuing road safety, and about the limitations of the 1978 Australian estimates as parameters to guide public policy on road safety.
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ItemUrban consolidation and transport( 2004)There has been wide debate about the way that Australian Cities are developing and the ensuing travel outcomes of that development. Concerned commentators have suggested that by altering the way these cities are developing may result in reduction in the use of automobiles for mobility and an ensuing rise in walking, cycling and public transport use by increasing residential densities through Urban Consolidation policy and other instruments available to planners. In Melbourne since the early 1990s there has been a boom in residential development in and around the inner city, yet at the same time other areas close by have remained relatively unchanged from these population and dwelling stock increases. The focus of this report was to compare the commuting and car ownership characteristics of exiting areas with those altered b the policy of urban consolidation. This was done in order to see whether travel patterns were indeed changed by the re-population and revitalisation of dwelling stock and if the ensuing patterns showed reductions in car travel, more walking, cycling and public transport as suggested y advocates of the Compact City notion. Although there were variations in the travel patterns of both areas, the comparison shows that there are generally lower mode shares in public transport, similar shares of driving and differences in walking and cycling in the selected consolidated areas compared to the travel patterns produced from existing development. Thus this research challenges the conventional wisdom amongst contemporary urban planners that substantial increases in density will improve public transport, walking and cycling mode shares at the expense of car travel.
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ItemPublic transport policy and land use in Melbourne and Toronto, 1950 to 1990( 1997-01)This study examines the reasons behind the decline in public transport patronage in Melbourne between 1950 and 1990, through a comparison with Toronto. The share of urban travel undertaken by public transport has declined since the Second World War in all developed countries, but public transport patronage in Melbourne appears to have declined more rapidly than in most other industrialised cities. Public transport has, however, gained or held ground in Toronto, where the form of development is similar in many ways to Melbourne. Most accounts of Toronto’s success (particularly in Australia) regard transport/land-use integration as the critical factor. The contrasting analysis maintains that Melbourne’s urban form has changed over this period to a dispersed, car-oriented pattern. This study evaluates a different interpretation of the ‘Toronto model’. This is that Toronto has undergone similar urban changes to Melbourne since the war, but has found a way of operating public transport successfully in a relatively dispersed environment. The contrast with Melbourne, then, is not primarily in land-use patterns, but in policies towards the operation of public transport.
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ItemLouis Reginald Williams( 2001)Louis Reginald Williams was Victoria's, and probably Australia's major ecclesiastical architect of the Arts and Crafts tradition from the 1920s to the 1970s. At a time when churches were largely outside the realm of cutting edge architecture, he was able to maintain a traditional regard for quality, craftsmanship and architectural integrity. He produced fine rather than exciting architecture, but contrasted strongly with some of his more experimental contemporaries. He was a gentleman architect, liked and respected by other architects, practising to the age of eighty-six and becoming a landmark of the architectural scene. Williams was born in Tasmania in 1890, where he attended school at Queens College, and was brought up in a strict religious environment. His father owned a large furniture manufacturing warehouse and hoped his son would take over the business. However Williams's great interest in churches led him into architecture, where he was fortunate to receive his training from one of the prominent architects of the day, Alexander North, who was Tasmania's Anglican Diocesan Architect. Williams later became North's junior partner, and after moving to the mainland about 1912 they set up their practice in Melbourne. Ecclesiastical architecture was foremost in Williams's own practice and during more than sixty-five years in this specialised field he was responsible for designing numerous churches, chapels, vicarages, Sunday schools, kindergartens, and church halls. He also carried out some domestic and commercial commissions. For a lengthy period he was Diocesan Architect to Bathurst and Grafton. He was advisory architect to the Chapter of the Goulburn Cathedral, and designed buildings for the Dioceses of Adelaide, North Queensland, the Dioceses of Perth and Bunbury in Western Australia, Devonport and Railton, as well as every Diocese in Victoria. He became the most sought after ecclesiastical architect of his time, and his churches are to be found throughout Australia. The Anglican Church was Williams's major client, for whom he carried out the majority of buildings in Victoria. He also worked for the Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Christian Scientists. His commission was usually to design a church to accommodate a certain number of people, within a set budget. Discussions with the client included siting the building, which materials would be used inside and out, and the important issue of style. He insisted that he design all the furniture and fittings so that they harmonised with the architecture. He worked under few restrictions, but kept the client fully informed as the work progressed, advising on lighting, stained glass, metalwork, altar furnishings, church plate, wood and stone carvings, murals, opus sectile mosaics, floor coverings, &c. He was strict, but very fair, and no shoddy work was tolerated. He has left a legacy of fine buildings ranging from small concrete and timber bush churches to large suburban brick buildings, including one cathedral and the completion of two others. He was a gracious man, whose first love was architecture, but he also had diverse interests, such as painting, photography and mountain climbing. He was well respected as a man who treated everyone with courtesy, regardless of their status. He never found it necessary to raise his voice on the site or in the•office, and managed unsophisticated committees with considerable aplomb. The author was private secretary to Williams for four years until about World War II when much architectural work was suspended. He moved his practice from his Queen Street offices to his Brighton home and remained there for the rest of his professional life. As no in-depth study has been made of his work to date, the present thesis aims to consider many of his buildings, and some of the innovations he introduced into his architecture to create a sense of space throughout the church, and a more comfortable environment for congregations in hot climates. He excelled in his designs for furniture and fittings and gathered around him a coterie of trusted craftsmen with whom he worked often and best. He earned the respect of his colleagues, staff, churchmen, builders, artisans and artists, and is remembered with affection by all those who knew him well.