Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemRisk management in construction: the extent of use of formalised risk management procedures in construction management project delivery systems in the Victorian construction industry( 1996)The aim of this research is to determine the extent in use of formalised risk management procedures, in construction management project delivery system, in the Victorian construction industry. This has been undertaken by surveying and interviewing a number of organisations that provide construction management services in this sector of the Australian construction industry. The research aims to gauge the use of these procedures from the construction manager's point of view.
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ItemRefutations and conjectures: prolegomena to the study of architectonic themes( 1995)An examination, in two parts, of aspects of contemporary architecture concerned with issues of history, meaning and the practice of architecture as a form of intellectual discipline. The first part investigates the work of Italian born American architect, Romaldo Giurgola, one of the last architects in the lineage of Louis Kahn still abiding by many of the latter architect's architectural philosophy. The range of his works, built and unbuilt, are examined and seen to take up important theoretical and social themes in American architectural culture originating from the Jeffersonian era. Through an analysis of Giurgola's writings and theoretical statements on a range of issues his work is shown to contribute to a continuation of the tradition of modern architecture. The viability of this tradition is questioned, in the light of both theoretical and socio-political deficiences. Four Questions is an ontological interrogation of the meaning of a series of thematic terrains held to be significant for the formulation of a viable contemporary practice of architecture: the Public, The City, The House and Theory. Through an analysis of these themes, the study highlights what is seen to be a major shortcoming in the discourse of contemporary architectural culture- a lack of awareness of its acutely historical situation. Each section theorizes issues of architectural representation and relates these back to a condition of modernity. On this basis, those current trends which aim to locate the meaning of architectural work either in the field of social commitment, in the formulation of new urbanities or in new domestic typologies are criticized for insufficient awareness of the conditional and problematical nature of such pursuits. The last section, an excursus on architectural theory, indicates that an important species of contemporary architectural theory- Deconstruction- is indicative of a general trend that seeks to put aside the difficult conditionality of architectural production in the contemporary situation. Architectural theory which aims to share ground with philosophical discourses is argued to have become too abstract. As an alternative, it is suggested that the responsibility of the architectural theorist and the practitioner alike towards a discursive endeavour is located in a search for an engagement of architecture with reality which does not, however, sacrifice intellectual probity or transgress the limits of an architectonic definition of this reality. The projects included in the folio explore the small margin still allowable within a practice of architecture that seeks to explore the full range of architectural expression whilst maintaining the above described conditions of intellectual probity.
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ItemModelling visual complexity of landscapes( 1990)In the past, development projects such as transmission lines and other facilities have been constructed to meet the criterion of lowest cost. However, increasing community concern for the environment has led to changes in this attitude. In particular, concern over the visual impact of facilities such as transmission lines has led to the development of techniques to enable planners to assess the effect of these projects on the visual quality of the landscape. This study commences with a discussion of the techniques which have been developed to quantify the visual environment. The development of a computer-based method of analysis of the visual effect of transmission lines, devised by Hadrian et al (1988), is examined in detail. The importance of visual complexity of a landscape as a measure of the ability of the landscape to absorb changes is also examined. In general the study focuses on the development of a method for determining the visual complexity of a landscape scene from biophysical characteristics of the landscape. Two landscape areas were selected for the study which included three major landscape types of interest to transmission line planners. The landscaped scenes to be studied in each of these areas were photographed and their complexities as perceived by observers were determined. A series of measurements of biophysical data for the scenes was made using two methods which involved taking physical measurements directly from the photographs. Measurements for each scene were also taken from a Geographic Information System databases of the areas. These various biophysical measurements were then correlated with the perceived complexity and a number of models for the perceived complexity were developed. The best correlations were found to be those which related perceived visual complexity to landscape features recorded in the Geographic Information System database.