Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses

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    Louis Reginald Williams
    Moore, Gladys Marie ( 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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    Tourism planning and community consultation in metropolitan Melbourne
    Inbakaran, Christina ( 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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    Walter Richmond Butler: an English arts and crafts architect in Australia
    Place, Katrina ( 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.