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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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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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.
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ItemAn uneasy profession: defining the landscape architect in Australia 1912-1972( 2004)The profession of landscape architecture in Australia emerged as a result of a distinct set of social, cultural and political circumstances. These were in part linked to events and phenomenon through history and are described in this thesis as a proposed framework of practitioners who were associated with the occupational title 'landscape architect' between 1912 and 1972. But the profession's emergence in England, America and Australia can also be analysed and contrasted in terms of sociological concepts of professions. The sociological method deemed most applicable to the study of landscape architecture in Australia, a small profession relative to its closest neighbours of architecture and planning and a profession whose title is etymologically complex, was one that considered professions as operating in an interrelated system. This thesis explores the profession of landscape architecture in Australia in terms of how individuals who adopted the professional title (particularly when the profession began to become organised during the post World War II years) also positioned themselves in relation to other professions in planning and design. To a certain extent, defining a professional landscape architect involved analysing newly created opportunities for jurisdiction over work but also how individuals were able to effectively create a niche for their profession within the schema of existing work jurisdictions.
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ItemMaterialising the immaterial: social value and the conservation of recent everyday places( 2004)This thesis argues that recent everyday places can constitute significant cultural heritage. All places are cultural heritage, but only some are judged to be significant cultural heritage by professionals applying established criteria. Recent everyday places can play an essential role in people's lives, and become sites of strong emotional connection. In Australia and New Zealand, social value is the heritage criterion that recognises people's attachment to place. Recent everyday places are potentially significant cultural heritage if they have social value, yet they are difficult to accept as such, and they are rarely recognised in heritage conservation procedures. They do not fit preconceived notions of cultural heritage; their significance is not understood; and they have no established tradition of academic inquiry for support. The objective of this research is to examine the relation between recent everyday places and social value within the context of the contemporary Western heritage conservation frameworks. The thesis is an analytical study comprising two principal components: discourse review and analysis, and case study analysis. Discourse analysis draws upon two primary fields of inquiry. The first is contemporary Western heritage conservation discourse, including policy, legislation, charters, and literature. The second is multidisciplinary academic discourse that recognises everyday life, everyday objects, everyday places, and their values and meanings. The case study analyses apply a framework of current theoretical and practical conservation methodologies and methods to selected places in Australia and New Zealand. Findings from the research are two-fold: Firstly, social value is not adequately represented within established heritage conservation frameworks. Secondly, the acceptance of recent everyday places as significant cultural heritage is problematic because of the relation with social value. The major implication from the research findings is that recent everyday places with social value will not be accepted as culturally significant heritage until social value is adequately represented within the theoretical and methodological frameworks of contemporary Western heritage conservation. The inadequate representation of social value has implications for all heritage places with social value. The inclusion of social value in theoretical frameworks will have limited application until the methodological frameworks and methods can enable it to be maintained. Until this happens, important connections between people and place will continue to be neglected in the decision-making processes that are designed to create and maintain the quality of the built environment.
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ItemTourism planning and community consultation in metropolitan Melbourne( 2002)This thesis explores consultation in relation to tourism plans and tourism aspects plans. It examines the extent to which councils involve the community in plan formulation, and the main methods used for the purpose. Community consultation and participation have been investigated by a number of authors. It is a topic that originated in the 1960s and its importance has grown enormously over the years. It has now become a pre-requisite for many projects. In the area of planning, consultation and participation are terms that are used almost synonymously. In this thesis the terms consultation and participation are both used to indicate the involvement of the community. This study evaluates the actual extent of community participation, from an assessment of the approaches of councils, to the points on the Shand-Arnberg Participation Continuum that the consultation methods reach. The study has a number of revelations regarding the people involved in the consultation process, cost and time factors, and the extent to which the community is actually involved in the tourism plans that are formulated. The literature on the subject has indicated that this process has a tendency to exclude the ethnic communities, low income and other minority groups. The trend so far has been to involve the middle class and the articulate groups that dominate a community. However, major findings of this study include that consultation is neither related to the demographic characteristics of society, nor the income of councils. The findings of this research have implications for both, the councils and the general public, and the way tourism developments are planned.
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ItemWalter Richmond Butler: an English arts and crafts architect in Australia( 2002)Walter Richmond Butler was one of a generation of English architects who were trained in an era when the Anglo-Catholic architectural philosophies of A. W. N. Pugin and the moral aesthetic ideals of John Ruskin were still severed and the might of the industrial age was scorned. Architecture was inspired by the theories of the Arts and Crafts and buildings were intended to be wholly suitable and respectful of their situation, yet remain idiosyncratic, inventive, adventurous and original. Properly designed, an Arts and Crafts building sat comfortably in its environment, whilst being comfortable to live in and beautiful to look at. In all ways, it was meant to touch the soul of mankind. For English architects Arts and Crafts was about embracing their Englishness, but for Australian architects it was more complex. Melbourne architects, who sometimes behaved in a manner more British than those in the 'Old Country', had no (acceptable) local vernacular to avail themselves of and only a small number of architects - Rodney Alsop, Harold Desbrowe Annear, Robert Haddon, Walter R. Butler – stood out from the many who only seemed capable of designing one Melbourne ‘Queen Anne' building after another. Throughout his life there were two men that Butler admired and respected above all others: architects John Dando Sedding and W. R. Lethaby. Sedding was a highly passionate, dedicated and influential architect and Butler served as his Chief Assistant for three years before he migrated to Melbourne in 1888. Sedding was primarily concerned with church architecture and this was ref1ected in Butler's career: his most refined, eclectic and spiritual buildings were erected for the church. Lethaby was Butler's contemporary but Butler always held him in high esteem. Lethaby and Butler had trained with the same architect in Devon (albeit at different times) and both ended up working in London: Lethaby was Chief Assistant for Richard Norman Shaw when Butler filled the same position with Sedding. The two were close friends and. along with Ernest Gimson, Sidney and Ernest Barnsley and Robert Weir Schultz, formed an important group of friends. They would remain an inf1uence on each other throughout their careers. The friendship between Butler, Lethaby, Cimson, Schultz and the Barnsleys formed a key coterie in the London Arts and Crafts movement. These men were passionate Socialists and architectural theorists. They worked and socialized together, travelled throughout England and Europe and moulded and refined each other's theoretical understanding of architecture. The career of each man was profoundly affected by this period of their lives. Interestingly, of the six, only two remained dedicated architects: Butler and Schultz. Lethaby became an architectural theorist and educator, whilst Gimson and the two Barnsley brothers focussed on furniture manufacture. The inherent difficulties that Arts and Crafts architects faced combining practice and theory were evident in the professional direction that each man took. Butler migrated to Australia in 1888. In Melbourne he was able to establish a successful practice, which catered for wealthy and exclusive clientele, in a relatively short period of time. He had become one of Melbourne's leading architects within ten years of arriving in Australia, attracting large commissions, dominated by houses for wealthy Victorian pastoralists and industrialists. His buildings were all influenced to varying degrees by Arts and Crafts theory and throughout his career he was constantly seeking a balance, both between Arts and Crafts theory and stylistic realization and also between his Socialist beliefs and working for his largely capitalist clientele. Butler's career was profoundly affected by World War I. The architectural profession had changed, as did the type of commissions, and the scale of commissions, that were available. More importantly, Butler's career changed because of the death of his son Howard, who was killed in June 19I8, only months before the Armistice. Much of the work completed by Butler's firm, which still attracted a sizable number of commissions, appeared to have been designed by his partners from this time. Walter R. Butler was an important and influential member of the Arts and Crafts movement in Australia; he was the most direct link back to the English movement with which he had been so close. 'However, rather than adapting his theories to suit local conditions, as Arts and Crafts theory would dictate, stylistically his work was derived from the picturesque, and Old English and ‘Queen Anne’ buildings as practised by Richard Norman Shaw. Butler remained at all times an English Arts and Crafts architect in Australia.