Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemWomen and their career progression in the Australian construction industry( 2013)This comprehensive study of women and their career progression in construction makes five substantial research contributions: longitudinal data on Australian women's participation rates; the development and validation of a career advancement measure; empirical validation that women experience 'contest'career mobility; evidence a gender inclusivity continuum exists in construction; and the development of a career typology model for professional women in construction. Construction, an industry with an image of being macho, confrontational and riven with conflict, has not yet embraced gender diversity, despite the improvements this can make to corporate performance and the industry's ongoing skills shortages. The purpose of this research was to investigate women's participation in Australian construction and the career advancement of professional women in the industry. It involved three studies with Study 1 using secondary longitudinal data and Studies 2 and 3 involving both qualitative and quantitative methods. While it is well understood that construction is male-dominated, previous research had not investigated if this has changed and what roles women undertake within construction in Australia. Study 1 revealed that since the early 1990s female participation has been relatively stagnant overall, as well as within the construction trades. As well as identifying women's participation in many non-traditional roles, this study verified patterns of horizontal and vertical segregation. In addition, a significant disparity between women's increasing participation rates in professional roles and declining rates within management in construction prompted a study of professional women's career advancement. To date, research on women's careers in construction has focussed predominantly on barriers they experience (most of which are outside their control) and explanations for their under-achievement. However, in today's industry some women are advancing, so it is timely to understand organisational, interpersonal and individual factors which facilitate this process. Many theories can be used to explain women's advancement (the extrinsic component of career success) including: homophily; organisational support theory; theory of work adjustment; values congruence theory; social capital theory; human capital theory; trait theory; role scarcity theory; and role accumulation theory. Before an investigation of career advancement could be undertaken, a five-round Delphi study (Study 2) was conducted to develop and validate a scale to measure career advancement suitable for Australian construction. Study 3, a cross-sectional correlational field study involving 456 professional women, applied this new scale and investigated factors that affect women's career advancement. Individual factors, in particular human capital variables, rather than interpersonal and organisational factors were found to have the greatest influence on women's career advancement. This finding, contrary to previous research, indicates a 'contest', rather than 'sponsored'(the typical male pattern), career mobility path. Study 3 also tested a model developed to specifically explain women's advancement and investigated aspects the intrinsic component of career success known to be important to women. While this research did not find support for the model, the results indicate the experiences of women differ and that a gender inclusivity continuum exists in construction. A career typology model was developed which explains the career experiences and progression of professional women in construction. The development of the gender inclusivity continuum and the career typology are major theoretical contributions to women in construction research. The finding that interpersonal and organisational factors were not predictors of women's career advancement in construction was significant, as it counters the viewpoint of the majority previous research in the area. Lastly, the discovery that women follow a 'contest'career mobility pattern contributes significantly to both research in construction, as well as research exploring professional women's careers.
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ItemBeneath the veneer : negotiating British and colonial Australian relationships in Queensland domestic interiors, 1880-1901( 2012)Australian histories of design have largely characterised furnished interiors as passive imitations of European models, with Australia seen as marginalised by time and distance, and lacking in agency from the centres of international design. These interpretations have over-shadowed a range of cultural meanings attached to furnishings at this time. The examination of the discourse of design, business trade and consumer choice on furniture in this thesis, using the case study of Queensland in the late nineteenth century, exposed the dynamic co-dependent relationship between Britain and the Australian colonies, where issues around the materials and making of furniture figured prominently in the construction of colonial identity. Using a wide range of primary source material, including furnishing guides, trade journals and catalogues, parliamentary debates and inventories, the study showed that colonial Australians used their knowledge of the material and cultural aspects of furnishing acquired from British-based texts to maintain the overall appearance of British genteel middle-class interiors. Colonial Australians faced contested local issues around climate, local materials, race and labour relations, which saw colonial loyalty divided between Britain and their local industries. In response, they adopted new construction and branding techniques to subtlety distinguish locally made items from British ones based on native timbers, their functional performance and the employment of local European labour, rather than their visible aesthetic design. This thesis contributes further context for Australian interiors, and argues that the inclusion of more detailed business histories for objects designed for global consumption, such as domestic furniture, are required understand the subtle transfers of cultural meaning between imperial powers and settler nations which change over time. Ultimately, a combination of locally made and imported items and practices observable in different rooms of the home reflected the composite or hybrid nature of an emerging colonial Australian identity. Issues of materials and labour revealed agency on the part of colonies, which has hitherto been obscured by an over-reliance on surviving images of complete interiors and single nation studies. This is to certify that: - the thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD except where indicated in the Preface; - due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used; - the thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices.
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ItemArchitectural design studio and the real world out there : an investigation of content in Architectural Design Studio at three faculties of Architecture in Australia from years 1-5 (2003-2007)( 2011)In Anglophone countries, architects appear disengaged from the public realm despite professional bodies' policies. Critics frequently blame architectural education's core pedagogy, design studio. This research examined studio handouts from Australian universities against professional design brief criteria, and by discourse analysis, seeing how studios might contribute. Few studios aimed to solve problems, most focusing on form-making and aesthetics, under-stressing social, environmental and financial issues, sometimes unintentionally. But rare, conceptually 'thicker' proposals often targeted social housing and engagements with the 'real world.'
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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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ItemNational identity, Australian plants, and the natural garden in post-WWII Australia, 1945 to 1986( 2015)Dramatic changes to Australian cultural life following the Second World War prompted the search for new understandings of Australia’s national identity. Between 1945 and 1986, post-WWII Australian plant and natural gardens and the ideas and activities associated with their promotion, legitimation, and creation served important functions in the reformulation of Australian identity and nationalism. These gardens, ideas, and activities provided spaces for the development and articulation of distinctly national forms of cultural expression. They also offered a way for Australians to imagine a national community, and conceive new foundational myths. This thesis explores the ways in which Australian plant and natural gardens served, or reflected, national identity formulation and nationalism. It does this by investigating a rich and diverse body of sources which include: archival and documentary materials; popular gardening and horticultural literature, popular natural history writing, nursery catalogues, other popular media, garden design treatises, and professional landscape design discourses contemporary with the period studied; oral testimony; and. two physical places. This thesis also considers a range of events and activities related to Australian plant gardens which produced and disseminated knowledge and enthusiasm, the social spaces in which these occurred, and a network of native plant enthusiasts. Importantly for this thesis, the wide spectrum of views provided by this multiplicity of sources allows several voices and stories to emerge, thus helping to question current generalised views of the time and space under consideration. The first part of this thesis presents an innovative framework for the analysis and interpretation of national identity and nationalism through the prism of garden history and garden making. The second part examines the cultural activities and ideas that legitimated post-WWII Australian plant and natural gardens. Two case studies examining the post-WWII histories of the Canberra Botanic Gardens in Canberra, the Federal capital of the Commonwealth of Australia, and Royal Park in Melbourne, the capital city in the state of Victoria, follow in the third part. These case studies enable detailed exploration of state-sponsored and managed Australian plant gardens, one at a national scale and the other at a local government level. The case studies reveal the different functions and ways in which public Australian plant and natural gardens of the post-WWII period reflected attempts to formulate understandings of national identity and nationalism. By developing a theoretical and evidence-based discourse and applying it to the analysis of relevant archival documentation, oral testimony, ideas, and physical places, this thesis provides a new and richer understanding of the ways in which Australia’s national identity was shaped through garden making.
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ItemColony and climate: positioning public architecture in Queensland, 1859-1909( 2010)Since the writing of the first substantive national histories of Australian architecture, the development of architecture in Queensland has been positioned as different from that of the southern Australian states and former British colonies. An essential platform for this difference has been an assumption about the influence of a hot and humid climate contributing to the development of a distinctive, climatically responsive architecture, most notably the traditional Queensland house, or `Queenslander', which developed in the late nineteenth century and has since come to define an image of Queensland architecture,, and indeed Queensland identity. Queensland's nineteenth century civic buildings have received less critical attention in this romantic construction of a historical tradition of climatically attuned Queensland architecture, as historians have grappled to reconcile the representational imperatives of civic structures with the exigencies of a hot place. This thesis examines public architecture in Queensland — Britain's largest nineteenth century settler colony in the tropics — from the separation of the colony in 1859, through to the early years of the twentieth century, subsequent to the Federation of the Australian nation in 1901. The thesis uses a nineteenth century idea of `appropriateness' — defined in terms of design coherence, both within buildings and in relation to their settings — to examine the design choices that impacted the realisation of these buildings. It argues that Queensland's nineteenth century public buildings represent a collective search for appropriate public architecture specific to its colonial context, influenced by colonial aspiration, political and personal ambitions as well as Queensland's position as a settler society in unfamiliar, sub-tropical and tropical surrounds, all which influenced stylistic choice and expression. By locating the issue of climatic response within a broader matrix of concerns, the thesis questions the potentially anachronistic construction of a historical tradition of climatically responsive architecture in the former colony. The thesis contends that it is not possible to understand responses to climate in the public building without first understanding the motivations behind their design.