Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses

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    Australian flats : a comparison of Melbourne and Sydney flat developments in the interwar period
    Dunbar, Donald J ( 1998)
    The differences between the architecture of flats in Melbourne with flats built in Sydney during the 1920s and 1930s, suggests that these differences were manifest by factors in addition to topography. This study compares the development of architectural forms and expression in the two cities, discussing them in relation to concepts of architectural regionalism and modernism. The planning and urban redevelopment contexts result in differences in number, location, building height, lot size, site coverage, flat size, image, lifestyle and modern technology.
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    Participative techniques for urban environmental improvement
    Iyer-Raniga, Usha ( 1997)
    The aim of this research is to discover the characteristics for a successful participative bottom-up technique for urban environmental improvement. As we are nearing the end of the second millennium, the state of the environment is gradually being recognised as everyone's concern. Problems of air and water pollution, and rising population are even more acute in urban areas. Urban regions and urban people are facing environmental crises, some more severe than others. In some instances, urban people have responded to specific environmental problems at the local scale and have achieved some success. But often such responses tend to be ad hoc, and do not ensure continuity. Businesses and other structured organisations have used participative techniques to allow changes to take place at the lower levels of the organisational hierarchy. They have been used for several decades in the world of business, and have achieved some success. A review of different participative management techniques showed that some are structured, and some are not. Most of them rely on group interaction. It was found that two of the business techniques reviewed could be transferred to the community. They are the suggestion scheme and the quality circle techniques. The suggestion scheme is an unstructured technique and is based on individual initiative, whereas the quality circle is a structured technique and it is group-based. These techniques were adapted to the community, and were called the Community Suggestion Scheme and the Community Quality Circle. Since a trial would determine the effectiveness of the techniques in the community, a case study approach was used. The Community Suggestion Scheme and the Community Quality Circle were trialed in the community over a period of three years. The Habitat project in Western Melbourne was used as the umbrella organisation to carry out the trial. The Community Suggestion Scheme was trialed first, and was partly successful. It acted as a feeder for the Community Quality Circle. The Community Quality Circle was an unqualified success. The first Community Quality Circle formed - Habitat: Mount St. Josephs Community Quality Circle is still in operation showing that it is capable of being independent and self-managing. Certain characteristics for successful participative bottom-up environmental improvement processes emerged from the trials. Techniques need to be flexible and open to change and learning. They must take diverse approaches to problem-solving. Techniques that are group-based are more likely to succeed than individual-based techniques. Their structure should be flexible, not rigid, and techniques must be capable of self-perpetuation and self-management. The members should be given the opportunity to become familiar with each other. The support of an overarching umbrella organisation is essential for techniques to be successful in the community. Incorporating these characteristics allows the development of future participative methods for environmental improvement. The research shows that participative techniques can be used as a potent medium to instigate environmental improvement in urban areas.
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    An investigation into an urban community value systems model
    Abidin, Ismeth Samsurizal ( 1992)
    A standard practice of using factor scores to optimally classify communities into similar groups using one factor at a time would have been innefficient. A multivariate approach was then chosen to classify communities and iterative discriminant analysis followed to complete the classification. The algorithm used provided a measure of the probability of misclassifying initially grouped members into their most probable group. This statistical approach provided an efficient means for classifying members into their respective groups. The algorithm also yielded groups with interesting and stable supply or trade off surfaces. The qualities and characteristics of the supply surfaces were then able to be summarized using a two group discriminant analysis method. The actual nature of each one of their component slopes was analyzed by a dichotomous dummy dependent variable regression analysis. In the process of relating community values to attributes, the prices of land plus houses and the demand for them was found to indicate willingness to pay perceived net benefit or utility associated with each property. This provided a means of evaluating other related factors. Although the aggregated factor of accessibility was found to be conflicting and self compensatory it was found to be extremely important in their contribution to utility of a location, house or land. The other aggregated factors such as the environment, social and cost related factors however did contribute substantially to urban utility. The utility of a particular product needed for consumption by the community was then described in terms of the attributes or characteristics. A consumer demand approach was then used to relate communities trade-off surfaces to a single measure of residential land and property price. Multiple regression analysis confirmed that characteristics of land or building were separable and their individual contributions to demand can be evaluated at the transaction level of a particular property. The demand for each supply surface factor was also evaluated. The different levels of demand for characteristics reflected community values on substitution, trade off and indifference between characteristics. The supply and demand surfaces were seen to possess certain mathematical properties such as homogeniety and comparative statics. Such properties were therefore used to compare each of the different surfaces of communityvalue and to also provide insight into the behavioural mechanisms of each surface. The analysis of surfaces representing strategies for improving performance or the supply of desired characteristics in areas should carefully consider the nature of the areas's supply and demand surface structure. For example, the inner areas of Melbourne are relatively deprived in the supply of social characteristics but high in potential accessibility characteristics. This suggests that planning strategies should introduce or improve the social attributes of the area. Planners in inner areas should then integrate the positive element of accessibility into the overall community value structure. Other structures studied will also highlight and illustrate the usefulness of detailed analysis of community values. The studies attempt to relate the demand surface of a community to the supply surface of the area. The degree of fulfillment of demand is then a measure of the relative performance of a given area in relation to community needs and their values.
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    The development of group self build housing in Victoria
    Tan, Loke Mun ( 1992)
    This thesis involves the overall development and implementation of the Group Self Build Housing program for the Victorian State Government. It is an enabling strategy to help lower income people to achieve home-ownership by building their own homes. Public housing agencies everywhere, are now faced with the challenge of providing sufficient housing and other associated services to meet the needs of an ever increasing urban population. However, with limited resources, they are increasingly forced to act as "enablers" rather than direct providers. This is most prominent especially in the poorer developing countries where their housing problems are of a different magnitude. Housing agencies and governments have tried for many years to address their housing needs through various "more conventional" means. This was only capable of assisting a fraction of the people. Since then, a large proportion of them have turned to their own resources to house themselves. At times, they seemed capable of achieving this with the most minimal of governmental and social support. Such efforts by people to house themselves, have come to be known as "self help housing". Victoria's housing problems differ in scale from those of the poorer developing countries. Nevertheless, in a land where the national dream is that of "home-ownership", an increasing number of households are finding it more difficult to achieve this dream. Self help housing programs, through the generation of sweat equity can assist such households to acquire their home. The new program developed in this thesis, allows groups of families to work together on the construction of their homes. The effort that they contribute, will help lower the cost of their house and thus make home-ownership more affordable to them. Experience from existing self help housing schemes in Victoria and overseas provided the foundation for the development of this new program. A Victorian prototype program was then developed and tested over a two year period through a two staged pilot program where 52 households were assisted into home-ownership. Five pilot projects, each with between ten to twelve households were successfully completed and the lessons learnt from them were used to implement a mainstream Group Self Build housing program for the State Government. The success of this program was instrumental in increasing efficiencies to self help housing programs operating in Victoria and also offered another option for Victorians to achieve home-ownership..
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    Public transport policy and land use in Melbourne and Toronto, 1950 to 1990
    Mees, Paul Andrew ( 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.