Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemThe role of social and built environments in supporting older adults´ social interaction( 2018)The social and built environments at the neighbourhood level have been linked to older adults´ neighbourhood social interaction which, in turn, contributes towards ageing-in-place, wellbeing, and quality of life (QoL). Currently, however, there is no clear understanding about the relative strength and nature of these relationships across a diverse range of neighbourhood features. Moreover, previous research has paid relatively little attention to older adults’ social interaction in various types of third places. Additionally, the majority of previous studies in the urban planning context have concentrated on the quantity of social interaction, despite the fact that satisfaction with social interaction may be more important to older adults’ wellbeing. This research has two aims. First, it seeks to better understand the relationship between the social environment and built environment measures (including third places) with older adults´ social interaction. Second, it investigates this relationship through both frequency of social interaction and satisfaction with it. From the CSIRO Survey of Community Wellbeing and Responding to Change (n = 476) older adults´ individual views were obtained in relation to their social interaction and their perceptions of the social and built environments in six Local Government Areas (LGAs) in inner and outer urban areas of Metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. Older adults were defined as people aged 55 years and above. Participants’ addresses were geo-coded and 14 built environment measures were investigated in their neighbourhoods using various buffer areas (road network distances that ranged from 100m to 1000m). Using mediation analyses, perceived social environment measures were found to be stronger predictors of social interaction frequency and satisfaction than perceived and objective built environment measures; however, some types of perceived third places were significant predictors of social interaction. The analyses showed that belonging to suburb, sense of community, participation in community activities, footpaths, and cafes, bars and restaurants predicted social interaction frequency. Social interaction frequency, belonging to suburb, sense of community and services were significant for predicting social interaction satisfaction. The model findings were then cross-validated with qualitative data. Two focus groups were conducted with LGA policymakers and 25 interviews conducted with older adults from the same LGA areas where the CSIRO survey was conducted. The qualitative study supported the findings from the quantitative analysis, and further identified that follow-up studies should consider older adults´ personal preferences (such as lifestyle) and the quality of the built environment, especially focusing on detailed features of their immediate environment such as quality of footpaths and the micro physical environment. These results indicate that there is an opportunity for government policymakers and planners at all levels, but also for nongovernment organisations and community groups, to actively pay attention to improving social environments, especially community spirit, to improve the sense of belonging in local areas and to maximise older adults’ participation in different community activities to support ageing-in-place and the overall wellbeing and QoL of older adults. Future research directions to contribute further to these outcomes are identified.
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ItemIntegrated planning with social logics in Melbourne and Buenos Aires( 2017)This thesis reveals both the formal structures and the informal strategies that support the application of social logics in integrated planning practices in Melbourne, Australia and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Integrated planning has been promoted in both cities since the early-1990s to overcome the shortfalls of traditional urban policy, including through programs that spatially target inequality and bring together multiple stakeholders for more coordinated policy responses. Through qualitative and comparative methods, this doctoral study examined multiple experiences of integrated planning focused on redressing disadvantage across both metropolitan settings. It employed a conceptual framework for understanding how to reduce disadvantage through planning by marrying the Theory of Social Logics (Fincher and Iveson, 2008) and understandings of practical wisdom (inter alia: Davoudi, 2015; Hillier, 2002; Flyvbjerg, 2001). This thesis reports the research findings, commencing with a localised and grounded understanding of integrated planning and then expounding the conditions necessary for integrated planning with social logics to occur and be sustained over time. In order to better understand the challenges to integrated planning for the reduction disadvantage, it also reports in detail the common barriers faced in formal policy and governance structures. The thesis also describes the informal strategies and tactics of urban planners in pursuing social logics despite the uncertain and at times unfavourable conditions revealed. Finally, it offers recommendations for the design of policy and urban governance structures to pursue integrated planning for reducing disadvantage, as well as a theoretical proposition for a phronetic Theory of Social Logics.
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ItemTell him he's dreaming: the polemical drawing in postwar Melbourne( 2017)Using the theories of Robin Evans and of Marco Frascari, this research identifies and describes a new kind of architects’ drawings, namely polemical drawings, which are characterised by their communication of architects’ ideologies, and skilful use of entourage, with an emphasis on human entourage. This research arose out of the pervasive and persistent appeal of architects’ drawings, especially hand-drawings. By showing the human hand, they have become, in recent decades, subject to fetishisation, and it has been argued that hand-drawings are better tools for design thinking than digital drawings. More importantly, architects’ drawings on the whole present themselves powerfully as artefacts, where they encapsulate not only architecture of a particular place and time, but also cultural, historical, political, and social aspects. Polemical drawings are notable in their articulation of the inherent qualities of architects’ drawings, such as cosmopoiesis (world-making) and storytelling, to convey their polemics to viewers. This research focuses on the context of Melbourne in the decades following World War II’s end, and the polemical drawings by William Hardy Wilson, Robin Boyd, and Edmond and Corrigan, where Hardy Wilson is significant as a proto-polemicist in Australian architecture, and Boyd and Edmond and Corrigan are, respectively, icons of Australia’s Modern and Postmodern movements. Through reading these architects’ polemical drawings, this research considers use of polemical drawings in Australia and Melbourne, where these drawings largely evince twentieth-century architects’ shifting attitudes towards suburbia and its ‘bad’ taste lifestyle, and where these attitudes are underpinned by questions of authenticity and identity in Australian architecture. This research shows the extent to which polemical drawings are engaged with their context, as seen in the reciprocal relationship between polemical drawings and postwar Melbourne, and how postwar Melbourne was demonstrably compelling for the promulgation of polemical drawings. With consideration of the potential of architects’ drawings as artefacts, reading polemical drawings shows itself to be a novel and useful tool towards understanding or revealing more about their context. This research proposes that the reading of polemical drawings would be a strong addition to historians’ analytical repertoires, as approaches similar to this research may be applied to other places and times.
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ItemPlanning for dogs in urban environments( 2016)Dogs are the most common pet in Australia and increasingly occupy both social and cultural norms. There is a growing interest in more-than-human geography and my thesis extends this critical concern to the planning of urban environments as a human habitat. Contemporary literature in more-than-human geography typically and unconsciously anthropomorphises the experience of those other species and in turn accounts for other species from a human perspective. My thesis recognises this gap and endeavours to provide a critical account of planning for dogs through a lens of justice for animals. My research problem is predicated on the basis that Australian society lacks consensus on the appropriate treatment of dogs in urban environments, reflecting in local differentiation of opportunities available to dogs and yielding different outcomes of justice for dogs. My thesis accordingly examines how institutions and planners affect such freedoms through their language and actions. My thesis comprises a similar systems case study design that examines the phenomenon of planning for dogs using the case of Melbourne, a city of four million people and the capital of the state of Victoria, Australia, through the institutional discourse of eight representative councils (local government authorities). In order to critically address the fundamental uncertainty of anthropomorphism introduced by the dependent companion relationship, I elect to examine the discourse of government institutions as a credible, consistent and comparable reflection of society. Themes and theory emerge from the data through a disciplined application of qualitative content analysis underpinning a grounded theorisation of planning for dogs in cities. An operational framework describing justice for dogs is developed from first principles, suggesting the importance of animal management, open space planning and urban planning professions in planning for dogs. These roles demonstrate a clear ontological distinction, with the dominance of ontology shown to be exceedingly important to understanding planning for dogs. In operationalising a justice for dogs, I capture the pervasive anthropocentrism of planning which manifests in the animal management practices of councils and in how human agency is defined and exercised in the process and outcomes of planning for dogs. Whilst my thesis is ostensibly about planning urban environments and the role of local government, it also contributes to the social sciences more broadly. My approach distinguishes from what may be typical to other more-than-human geography literature through its treatment of planning for dogs as attending to underlying considerations of justice for dogs. A natural concordance with the justice as capabilities (derived from the Capabilities Approach espoused by Sen and Nussbaum) emerges, suggesting more authentic and just outcomes for dogs than in the utilitarian anthropocentric tradition where actions are guided by the demarcation of humans from animals. My thesis is a valuable contribution to this growing body of more-than-human geography literature and advances the philosophy of planning of urban environments beyond humanity, in doing so strengthening the bonds which connect the broader social sciences.
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ItemThe evolution of central Melbourne: a morphological analysis 1837-2011( 2011)Melbourne's colonial core has been influenced by diverse political, economic and social relations intersecting with planning and urban design concepts: gold rush, periodic bursts of speculation, World Wars, and waves of immigration. These relations reflect the city's process of urban transformation and are typified by cycles of boom and bust. This research examines the characteristics of the major morphological periods associated with specific planning ideologies and contemporary influences of politics, economy and culture. In addition to assessing the morphological history of the city's core by reproducing a series of maps, the city's morphological history is analysed, particularly in terms of its spatial and block form, from a colonial to a modern context. This study therefore outlines the morphological evolution of an urban organism: the physical transformation of central Melbourne from 1835 until 2011. It gives special attention to the characteristics of the physical changes that have occurred; the socio- economic factors responsible; and the precise treatment of data sources which record those transformations. The compilation of data from state and institutional libraries, planning authorities and regulating agencies related to fire protection and water supply is described. The various types of physical changes undergone by the city centre, including functional alterations, plot division (or amalgamation), rebuilding and additions to existing structures, are analysed. The variations over time in the locations of these changes are examined in relation to the characteristics of contemporary social factors. Morphological mapping has been widely used in this research. The transformation of central Melbourne has been precisely documented and measured in its history through nine sets of figure-ground maps from 1837-2005, transcribed from historical block plans and maps. A thorough anatomical analysis depicts a vivid panorama at every stage of growth of central Melbourne. What is revealed is a city transformed from a singular civic vision to a layered and collaged image, and at the same time, the imprint of the original colonial street grid remains. This transformation signifies the morphological evolution of central Melbourne. This comprehensive morphological study is the first of its kind in relation to the historical transformation of an Australian capital city.
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ItemMigrants' houses: the importance of housing form in migrants' settlement( 2010)Literature on the built form of the house and its meaning for migrants’ home-building has been inadequate and scarce. In order to address the insufficiency in the literature, this thesis constructs a theoretical framework based on various fields of study, in addition to existing critical studies concerning the immigrants’ experience in the city in various scales. These fields are the notion of home-building practices and the concepts embedded within it of home and house. The theoretical framework provides a tool for the examination of different migrant groups and their ways of home-building, through which each migrant group can be examined and discussed. The research examines four migrant groups in two metropolitan cities (Melbourne and Tel Aviv) in two countries of destination (Australia and Israel) and two periods of time of migration (the 1950s-1960s and the 1990s-2000s). The four groups are Italians and Chinese in Melbourne, and Moroccans and Russians (from the FSU) in Tel Aviv. Qualitative data from forty-six in-depth interviews with migrants in their home-environments, and a short survey of real-estate agents in the two cities have been gathered to answer the research question: what is the role of housing form in the process of migrants’ home-building? This thesis argues that the built form of the house is meaningful in a range of diverse ways during the process of home-building, and that each migrant group fosters one key feeling over other feelings in their home-building (Hage, 1997: 102). Italians in Melbourne enhance the feeling of familiarity by bridging their Italian past and the Australian environment through their home-building, while Chinese in Melbourne maximise the feeling of sense of possibility in their home-building to improve their situation in Australian society. Moroccans in Tel Aviv foster the feeling of community in their home-building to assist them with educating the next generation and Israeli society about the rich past of Moroccan Jews, and Russians in Tel Aviv, who appeared to be more diverse than other groups, develop the feeling of security in their home-building to either integrate in the Israeli environment or replicate past life through the reproduction of past home-environments. The way groups differ in their specific home-building depends on their specific circumstances of migration, namely the origin country, country of destination and period of migration, as well as the historical, economic and social contexts around migration. Yet, it is argued that the importance of the house is influenced not only by the ethnic origin of its dwellers, but also by other identity lines of the migrants, such as their age at the time of migration or their origin and class in the homeland. The thesis argues that houses of migrants do not always represent the ethnic origin of their dwellers, as has often been suggested in the literature. But they do represent the relationship their owners have with the dominant society, which influences the level of visibility of the migrant’s presence and the extent to which it is conveyed through the house. It is also argued that migrants’ houses are imagined in a gendered view, though this appears diverse and complicated. Another finding is that migrants’ houses are understood as dynamic, although in a different way for different groups. They are transnational homes in many senses, although the way migrants regard their house depends on their age and their ability to adjust to recent technological and global changes that also affect housing. Another finding is that houses of migrants are forms of cultural capital through which power relations between migrant groups and members of the dominant society are being constructed and contested. Houses of migrants are also sites of the everyday, where some resist these capital forces through the creation of an everyday environment. Finally, materiality appears to be significant in the migrants’ house with the abundant presence of objects denoting nostalgia such as souvenirs and collections inside the house, but this also differs among different ethnic groups and different age groups among participants.