Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses

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    Transformation of Jalan Malioboro, Yogyakarta : the morphology and dynamics of a Javanese street
    Wibisono, Bambang Hari ( 2001)
    Streets are an important element of urban form and function. For their future development it is essential to understand the processes of transformation they have undergone in the past. This thesis is specifically concerned with Jalan Malioboro, the principal street of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, which has had many historic roles and has undergone many transformations since its establishment in 1756. The various plans and regulations put forward in the past for the development of this street have proved to be inadequate to manage its invaluable but fragile local character. The aim of this research project is to understand and define the prevailing processes and forces that have brought about the transformation of Jalan Malioboro's streetscape since its establishment up to the present. Two approaches were used: morphological analysis for the physical-spatial characteristics of the streetscape through graphical representations and their qualitative descriptions; and socio-cultural analysis of the functions, meanings and activities taking place on the street, also done descriptively and qualitatively. A retrospective method was applied to reveal the processes that had occurred in the past and a prospective method to analyse the current condition and envisage its prospects. The overall process of transformation shows both continuities and changes of both the morphology and functions and meanings of Jalan Malioboro. The only true continuity is that of the very original axis. Everything else was and is in constant flux depending upon the contemporary forces. Although Jalan Malioboro forms a prominent linear space that provides a vista from Kraton to Tugu as part of a cosmological axis, it has grown spontaneously and incrementally. Socioculturally, the most striking transformation has been from its royal ceremonial function to its current predominant commercial function. The processes of transformation also demonstrate the dialectic between the form and function of the spaces along Jalan Malioboro, which has produced a hybridised and lively street. Its linearity, an orderly form derived from its function as a cosmological axis, has had superimposed on it different forms and activities, thus producing an ambiguous and chaotic streetscape. There are five key forces that have brought about the transformation: (a) the religious syncretism of the Javanese culture; (b) the political subversion, (c) lack of planning control, (d) modernisation, commercialisation and commodification of space; and (e) the 1997 economic downturn. Any development efforts for Jalan Malioboro arising from an examination of its process of transformation should attempt to ensure that its cultural significance, including its complexity and the dynamism of the street environment, is maintained.
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    The impact of producer services on Ho Chi Minh City
    Nguyen, Nha Thanh ( 2008)
    Services industry has emerged as an important sector underpinning the economy, especially those in developed countries, and spanned to lower tier countries through inflows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and globalisation. Producer services, as a significant service component, experienced the growth in terms of activity and establishments in the metropolitan areas and then shaped (or reshaped) their most central district (area). Ho Chi Minh City, as the largest city of Vietnam, plays an important role as a gateway city in attracting FDI which is believed a hitch for the current fast economic growth after the country promulgated the open policy in 1986. Within this context, producer services have emerged in this city. It was found that their growth closely relates to the flows of FDI. That outcome suggests that there are important differences between Non- Vietnamese and Vietnamese firms in the development of this sector and in the spatial patterns. The aim of this research is to explore the role of producer services and identify how their growth, through the numbers and types, influences Ho Chi Minh City in the spatial aspects; particularly the research focuses on the location of producer service firms in the city's central area. The outcome of the research will provide insight on the link between the producer service and the development of a large city of an emerging economy. In a local planning perspective, the thesis, as one of the first specific studies on the producer services in Vietnam, has it own enthusiasm to contribute its understanding and findings to the current urban planning to cope with the rapidly changing economy in a global era. In search of the role of producer services in the national economy and their spatial influences, the research has used the Yellow Pages Data as the major approach for its analyses due to the current lack of data on service employment and limited sectoral information. Questionnaire and interviews survey have also been carried out to enrich and justify the information. Given an important factor that the emergence of producer services in Vietnam relied on FDI, the analyses of the research basically based on the nationality framework in order to uncover the significance of the two groups of firms: Non Vietnamese and Vietnamese. The research has also embedded the city planning policy as its implication in order to provide insightful information for the future location and growth of producer services.
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    Urban dispersal around Kumasi, Ghana
    Owusu-Ansah, Justice Kufour ( 2008)
    Kumasi, the second largest Ghanaian city, has grown rapidly recently and dispersed into its surrounding rural region. The outcome is that large numbers of incomplete houses and overgrown housing plots are spread across a large front in an unplanned and uncoordinated manner. The research used published data and interviews with homebuilders and city officials to develop an understanding of that outcome. Although transportation networks figure prominently in urban dispersal studies in western cities, this research found that transportation had less significant influence on the outcome. It found that the uncoordinated urban dispersal reflects uncertainties in land ownership shaped by administrative fragmentation and ineffective regulatory controls. These are expressed in land ownership and chieftaincy disputes, the difficult application of official regulations alongside traditional mechanisms, and gridlock in the complex framework for development controls. The results suggest some changes in local and regional actions to improve the urban outcomes. Key challenges include reorganising land development management structures, better land information systems and a rethink of ways to finance infrastructure investment in new subdivisions. In addition, improvements in housing financing mechanisms and property taxation could minimise land banking and thereby encourage speedy home construction. The links between official land administration and the practices of traditional authorities needs to be rationalised in order to enhance the system of land management. The research has provided new perspectives on suburban development with implications for urban management in low-income countries.
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    Teletechnologies, place and community
    Wilken, Rowan Cameron ( 2006)
    This thesis discovered how notions of place and community circulate in the literature on various forms of teletechnologies and place-making. To do this, its aim was, first, to understand the interactions and interconnections between teletechnologies (or, information and communications technologies), place, and community, both within and outside of the literature on teletechnologies, and, second, to ascertain what relevance place and community might continue to have in the electronic age. The research was carried out using textual analysis and was developed within an interdisciplinary framework which ranged across quite diverse (con)textual terrain. The texts examined were drawn from a range of disciplinary fields, including media and communications, philosophy, sociology, literature, urban design, and architectural theory. The results of this examination reveal that the notions of place and community circulate in complex and at times contradictory ways in relation to information and communications technologies. Yet, in overall terms, the study revealed that these notions are of enduring relevance in understanding how we think about and experience who we are, where we are, and the ways that we interact and relate with one another. Nevertheless, this study also revealed the need for more careful articulation of intended meanings and possible implications when engaging with and employing ideas of place and community. Moreover, there is significant scope for further theoretical refinement of ideas of place and community in light of the impacts of and interconnections with teletechnologies. In response to the study findings, the thesis developed a three-part proposal to accommodate the complex interconnections between teletechnologies, the spaces and place in which we live, and various forms of social engagement. The proposal provides a theoretical framework which addresses: (1) the complicated interactions between the `actual' and the `virtual'; (2) an alternative and `non restrictive' approach to thinking about community; and (3) an account of place which emphasises openness, reIationality, and its heavily mediated nature. This tripartite proposal provides a series of productive initial steps towards the development of a fuller, more unified, and theoretically coherent response to these areas and the issues they raise. This work contributes to knowledge on the interactions and interconnections between teletechnologies, place and community. In particular, it challenges the way that the notions of place and community are understood to circulate in relation to, and how they operate in tandem with, the social as well as wider uses of teletechnologies. Finally and fundamentally it underscores the enduring importance of ideas of place and community in the present age, and the urgent need to continue to think about and engage with these ideas.
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    Marine cities 1958 to 1978 : architectural experiments and ocean systems
    Raisbeck, Peter Francis ( 2005)
    This thesis recovers architectural designs for marine cities on and under the seas between the years 1956 and 1978. It comprehensively documents over 50 projects that fall into this distinct category redressing gaps in recent scholarship. The architects of these projects were not merely fantasists but employed overarching notions and methods related to General Systems Theory to engage with the Cold. War political narratives of the period. The thesis tests the hypothesis that in their designs for marine cities - both floating and underwater - architects drew upon diverse narratives circulating in popular culture related to and generated from the prevailing Cold War geopolitical context. The first section of the thesis draws on widely dispersed primary and secondary material, and this establishes a chronological and, contextual history of marine cities. During this Cold War era, popular culture was saturated with images of cities on other planets and under the oceans. At the same time, architects in Japan, England and France produced so called utopian proposals for schemes on and under the seas. In contrast to outer space, architects saw the colonisation of inner space as a more immediate possibility. During the 1960s up to the mid 1970s, marine cities were included in the period's contemporary historical texts as they were developed. The architectural high-point of all this activity was the construction of Kikutake's Aquapolis at the Okinawa Oceanic Expo of 1975. However, by this time these projects had become targets of the increasing criticism of modernist architecture. These critiques tended to exclude and foreclose the engagement of architecture with technology. As a result, marine cities became wrongly associated with the shibboleths of utopia, Science Fiction and megastructure. In the second section of the thesis, the narratives circulating in popular culture which architects drew upon in their designs for these cities are identified and examined. To achieve this, selected marine cities are examined at a number of different spatial scales. This aids an understanding of the way in which these narratives, and their associated technologies, were transmitted to, actively assimilated into, and given status within architectural discourse. This methodology assists in mapping the circulation and uses of technology in the collective architectural imagination. This analysis concludes that the architects of marine cities drew upon a broad systems framework less related to cybernetics and more directly concerned with holistic governance, biological notions of structural organisation, innovations in production, and life support systems.
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    Reading the present day Bangkok : changing attitudes to meanings of place
    Noparatnaraporn, Cuttaleeya ( 2005)
    What we read is shaped by the way we read and interpret it, and vice versa. The dialectic associations between the theoretical and methodological concerns of the reading of place - what to read, how to read and how to interpret - have formed the framework for this thesis. Consequent on directionless development over the last few decades, the dramatic and arguably retrogressive changes to Bangkok evoke the need to revise one's understanding of Thai space and places in the present time. How have variously surviving and emerging qualities (re)shaped and (re)constituted the intermixed characteristics of `modern' Bangkok? The subtleties of Thai culture, which have been concretized and integrated into Thai spaces, people and their relationships at many levels, create difficulties in reading (whoever the reader might be) and in interpreting the `authenticity' of Thai space and place. The thesis investigates `authentic' qualities which contribute to the uniqueness of place, and methods of reading and interpreting them in Thai present-day contexts. Three case studies - Ban Bangraonok in Nonthaburi, Wat Paknam Fang Tai and its surroundings in Thonburi, and Soi On-nut 29 to Soi On-nut 33/1 in Suan Luang, Bangkok - were selected as sites to read the transformations of places in the present day. Various strategies, approaches and techniques were used to generate a suitable method of reading and interpreting place in Thai present-day contexts, comprising case study, qualitative research methods and field study, grounded theory, documentation, observation, in-depth interviewing, mapping analysis and content analysis of people's own accounts. The synthesis of professional and local wisdom as well as theoretical and methodological knowledge of place generates initial lenses for the reading and analysing of these actual places. The physical modifications of each place were compared with people's changing behavioural associations and ascribed meanings, gained from their experience of everyday living. The study confirms that place, its characteristics and its constituting processes, are dynamic and constantly changing over time - physical changes have affected the way residents associate with, perceive, and derive meaning from their environments. The constantly diversifying phenomena of Bangkok's space and the need for subtle understanding, and for specific vocabularies for its representation, are manifested in two main aspects. The first is the diversity of ways and degrees in which the richness and complexity of modern Bangkok (muang mai) in constituted in the surviving notions of the centrality of khlong and the unbounded, border-less nature of indigenous space. The second aspect presents different perceptions and formations (fragmentations) of space and place in the conceptual, practical, and political spheres of community life, which contribute to the well-rounded knowledge of place in various dimensions of its reading. Additionally, the readings also manifest ontological dilemmas in dealing with the reading of changes and deconstructing processes across time and space. The constituting processes of place, the overall qualities of place, and the methodological problem of reading changes over time through differences of spaces are highlighted as important aspects of reading that throw light on the comprehension of place and ideas of 'authenticity'. In contrast to much literature about place-making, this thesis has revealed that physical appearance is not a major concern for Thai people. Rather social, psychological and spiritual values, or the underlying meanings of place, are the keys to comprehending and achieving a deeper level of understanding of the cultural sensibility subsisting in a Thai sense of place. The research also accentuates that local viewpoints and insights should not be overlooked in the process of reading place. The bottom-up view offers some clues to how place, elsewhere in Thailand or arguably other places in other contexts and times, can be read and interpreted from local points of view in order to find implications for what places might be moving towards.
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    Decentralized municipal government for successful urban development in Nepal
    Karna, Suman Kumar ( 2004)
    Decentralization in Nepal's absolute monarchy system, which ended in the 1990s, was used as a tool for creating a monolithic, impenetrable political power structure in the country by extending the political base of the regime and by propagating its "partyless" character right down to the local settlement level. The 1990 constitution proclaims to involve more and more citizens in governance through the process of decentralization, for equitable distribution of the benefits of democracy across the nation. Subsequently, the Local Self-governance Act (LSGA) 1999 facilitated the process of decentralization, with greater authority and responsibilities going to local governments, and this has the potential to increase urban productivity and to enable conditions for more sustainable urban development. The central question pursued in this research relates to the relative roles of three sets of factors in accounting for the effectiveness of local self-governance, and thereby of local development in the great diversity of local government areas of Nepal, and to the interactions between those three sets of factors. The factors or conditions are: 1) the distribution of authority and power (both guaranteed in law and delegated), 2) the quality of local leadership (dependent on vision or the quality of ideas, the ability to communicate such ideas and to have them popularly embraced, and on political stability), and 3) available resources (both financial and linked to the nature of the area). The exploration of this question was effected through broad observations of the system and its evolution since 1999, and more specifically by detailed study of 14 of Nepal's 58 constituted municipalities. The introduction of LSGA 1999 did not only offer solutions to municipal problems, but also and in contrast it has added several fresh challenges and sometimes confusions and contradictions in the management of local development on the ground. The distribution of authority and . power at different levels of both elected representatives and municipal staff is inappropriate and dysfunctional and that is damaging the growth of municipalities. It is the likely reason behind larger conflicts and slow progress in municipal development of Nepal. Leadership in municipalities is generally weak and ineffective and leaders lack confidence in developing a vision which can be shared among all potential stake-holders. A significant though variable resource gap is the reality for a majority of municipalities studied while exploitation of new revenue opportunities provided by the new Act is inhibited by low levels of both leadership, vision in resource planning, and skills in implementation. The findings revealed that the institutional structure of municipalities needs reform to enable them to work based on their fullest potential. Municipalities possess weak capacity (administrative, managerial, and technical) which is far below the required standard, and this is mainly because of inappropriate selection processes for local staff, and simultaneously their poor education and training facilities. Introduction of the new Act has added to the responsibility of central government as their role in strengthening the overall capacity of municipalities is vital. Political parties too have to reorient their involvement in municipal government and play a more strategic role in producing local leaders who are smart players in local development, including in the political skills of mobilising local support and participation. Participation takes on special significance in the changed environment and thus needs to be practised in all sectors, including to enhance the resource mobilization prospects of municipalities.