Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemMaking Civic Space: A Comparative Study of Civic Space Design in the Contemporary Settler Societies of Australia and New Zealand( 2019)Designers in settler colonial cities around the world are being asked to respond to the demands of decolonisation as nations increasingly acknowledge their ethical obligations to redress colonialism. This thesis explores the state of decolonising practice in design through the lens of civic space in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, as compared through two exemplary projects - Adelaide’s Victoria Square/Tarndanyangga and Wellington’s Waterfront. The politics of settler nations are intrinsically spatial, as legislative and symbolic processes of sovereignty negotiate territory. Traversing conflicting layers of history in the spatial present is very complex, as physical ecologies and topographies both disrupt and support the legacy of colonialism. This research examines the textual, conceptual, spatial and architectural modes of practice which together collectively ‘make’ civic space. Civic space offers the opportunity to explore shared histories, experiences and practices, between indigenous and settler subjectivities However, the very notion of ‘civic’ is problematic within the settler context, where space and politics are inherently ‘unsettled’. The study considers the approaches to the design of civic space from placemaking and planning through to the scales of landscape architecture and architecture. This study found that despite progress and good-will on the part of design practitioners and stakeholders, the position of designers in Australia continues to be compromised by the arrested development of reconciliation in terms of legislation, governance and the redress of history. In the absence of meaningful change, designers are reliant on creative placemaking practices of acknowledgment, applied through techniques of interpretation and curation. When viewed in contrast, the constructs established by the legislative and policy redress of New Zealand have provided designers with a stronger footing from which to explore finer grade spatial design responses to decolonisation. When viewed together these two spaces offer a revealing collision of design, policy and indigenous reconciliation.
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ItemParticipation in architecture: agonism in practice( 2018)Literature about participation in architecture promised architecture the restoration of a moral dimension, arguing that participation would offer opportunities for empowerment and deliver broad benefits. To its disservice, the field of participation has been dominated by a rational ideology, and a focus on agreement and decision-making – incorporated in the term ‘consensus’. The dominant approach to participation has been at the expense of difference, passions, arguments, resistances and tensions present in the participatory process – incorporated here in the term ‘agonism’. Exacerbating this gap between consensus and agonism, a lack of real-world examples and analysis of everyday participation, has led to a quite limited practical language about participation or descriptions of the concrete process of participation in action, and arguably an avoidance to design and critique participatory processes in architecture and urban design. This Doctor of Philosophy attempts to do participation in architecture through a series of Creative Works in practice, by carefully considering approach, and, designing for difference and bottom-up empowerment of others with social, physical, emotional and psychological benefits specific to each project. The methodology exposed the realities of participation in architectural design practice with communities, highlighting social themes for exploration and multiple modes for practice. This research project demonstrates that agonism is an action-orientated way forward for participation, arguing that the tension between architecture and participation is actually productive. It concludes that difference rather than consensus is crucial to participation, suggesting for architectural and urban design practice that the philosophical role of an architect is to consciously create and maintain opportunities to keep alive the participatory process in the world, by critically designing participation.
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ItemSupercharged paintings move towards light and space( 2018)This project considers certain connections between the so-called art world and global social mobility. Is the ubiquity of some universal aesthetic frameworks implicitly promoting the ever-expanding cultural class to become even more seduced by the forces of late-capitalism? The thesis, which comprises a dissertation presented in conjunction with a studio-based investigation, is centred around three distinct, but inter-related templates for display: the generic living room TV wall unit; the painted canvas; and the gallery. I consider how each format conditions our reception of cultural information by influencing our sense of individuality, whilst as the same time signalling our inclusion in a unified non-culturally specific world view that is rooted in western modernism. Significantly, these three selected display arenas all convey a sense of universality—not necessarily through specific content, but rather through their inherent structures. I argue that these successful systems of display potentially mask otherwise visible signs of power through implicit democratic ideologies disseminated via inspirational design trends. Considered together, I demonstrate that all three offer insights into the underlying function of international systems of cultural exchange. A substantial part of this research considers the homogenising effect of Internet image-searching, especially in relation to notions of class and sophistication at a time characterised by a global democratisation of desire and appreciation for ‘good’ design principles. The artworks I have produced in conjunction with this dissertation are designed to critically engage and antagonise the already fuzzy intersection of art, architecture and design. Accordingly, I have sought to produce works that are less distinguished by traditional art-making decisions but rather emphasise compositions, materials, and principles associated within modernist and minimalist infused trends in design and architecture. This strategy seeks to recode the sublime grandeur of late-formalist abstract paintings as a kind-of banal realism perhaps more associated with marketing and pop consumerism. The physical creation of individual artworks has taken place in accordance with two predominate modes of production. Firstly, and in reference to painting, wall mounted sculptural relief works incorporating materials such as Formica composite wood panelling, plywood, hardwood, acrylic paint, enamel paint, glass, vinyl flooring, composite stone samples, imitation plants, real-plants, pots, fluorescent lights, and found objects, were produced. The second mode of production is in the digital realm, and includes digital photographic montages (combining online images with my own photography), video (using online content and making interventions within it) and creating audio tracks (to accompany the video works). Considered together, these modes of production are used as tools to psychologically position the viewer in a space in which materials, surfaces and compositions, might trigger considerations of social mobility, our relationships to design, and finally, notions of personal intimacy and memory that are activated through smart-screen technologies.
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ItemArchitecture and the design of therapeutic environments: the case of self harm( 2017)This thesis finds that specific design interventions in the spaces providing therapy can improve therapeutic outcomes for those who self harm. Therapeutic interventions for this service user group typically involve various forms of talking therapy, and/or medications. However these service users are amongst the most clinically challenging to treat. The physical environments in which therapy takes place have not been thoroughly examined for their contribution to therapeutic outcomes. Despite a large body of literature affirming the links between good design practice and mental wellbeing, there is a paucity of research addressing specific environmental needs of service users who self harm. Further, existing design guidance is often generic in nature, describing broad principles to be achieved through design, but offering little tangible advice for the designer to integrate these principles into a realised built environment. The research involved an exploratory qualitative design that utilised a triangulated strategy; the method of data collection included three data collection methods: systematic literature review, multi-stakeholder interviews and case study observation. Key findings from the scoping review included the paucity of design guidance for therapeutic environments and counselling workspaces specifically, and that there is no published research examining the design of therapeutic spaces for individuals who self harm, specifically. Key findings from the semi-structured multi-stakeholder interviews included a deeper understanding of the perceptions of spatiality of individuals who self harm, aspects of therapeutic environments that are supportive or unsupportive and in what ways this occurs, and potential design strategies to assist therapeutic activities and psychological engagement. Analysing built therapeutic environments found that there is a limited inclusion or implementation of design recommendations uncovered in this research in existing built spaces. Through the analysis undertaken of the literature, interviews with service users, therapists/counsellors, carers, architects and design researchers, together with a case study examination of existing built therapeutic environments, a series of design recommendations were derived. These principles have been developed from environmental aspects which were commented on by those who self harm, and supported by other interview participant groups and observations in the field. The findings from this thesis are indicative that the design recommendations assist therapeutic outcomes. However, as indicated through the exploratory qualitative analysis undertaken, the built environment is a meaningful agent in therapy. What emerged from the study was the notion that for individuals who self harm, the built environment is not merely the housing of therapy, but an active participant in the therapeutic process. The counselling workspace may be a platform for therapy to unfold in a physical sense, providing aspects such as physical privacy and safety features, but offers many more psychological support mechanisms if designed/manifested in a particular way, including psychological safety and relief, negotiation of relationships, non-verbal communication opportunities, increased body awareness, reduced dissociation, increased sensory engagement and perception, and opportunities for the development of the self. The counselling workspace has active roles in therapy, including being a mediator between therapist and service user and helping to clarify and establish boundaries, being a vehicle for communication, and being a testing ground for the problem solving abilities and aspects of the self. When the built environment design initiatives outlined in this thesis are considered carefully and articulated through design and the curation of space, architects/designers may provide a platform of engagement through counselling workspaces, resulting in positive therapeutic effect. If the design recommendations were to be integrated into the built environments delivering mental health services to individuals who self harm, then the misgivings, difficulties or negative psychological interferences reported by the service users would be mollified and/or eliminated. Therefore, therapy and therapeutic outcomes would be assisted. In this situation, counter-productive stimuli are removed or reduced, assisting the service users to maximise the benefits of their therapy.
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ItemConstructing publicness: politics and the role of design in Melbourne's grid since the 1990s( 2016)During the 1990s the developmental trajectory of inner Melbourne shifted dramatically and the city became the site of an entrepreneurial strategy of urban development. Within the inner grid, spatial interventions grounded this redirection, and a number of the city's open spaces became of utility in catalysing growth. This thesis explores the role of the design of public open spaces within the development of Melbourne's inner grid since the 1990s and investigates the implications on public life within these spaces. Focusing on City Square and Federation Square, analysis draws Upson ideas from contemporary political philosophy in order to understand the political capacities of these spaces and the forms of citizenship they produce. Influenced by numerous factors, Melbourne's inner grid evolved with a scarcity public open spaces and a strong economic focus. This has continually prevented the securing of such spaces and consistently privileged economic concerns over social utility in the creation of new spaces. This focus on the financial aspects of public spaces was heightened during the entrepreneurial shift of the 1990s and design became of importance in satisfying the emerging imperatives of development. Theories of design dominant in the 1990s, particularity deconstructivist methodologies of design and the urban design approach of Jan Gehl, found expression in spaces created and operated well within the broader entrepreneurial paradigm. Both approaches relied heavily on the use of architectural program to catalyse the animation of urban space, and within the resultant spaces there exists a conflation of civicness with programmed activities and consumptive practices. Within spaces analysed, design has proven instrumental in producing forms of citizenship and transforming notions of publicness in space.
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ItemImmersed at the water's edge: three imaginings of nature in the modern public pool( 2015)This thesis examines the architecture of modern waterside public swimming pools to ex-plore the nexus between architecture, nature and the body. Prominent architectural historians have largely overlooked the modern public pool, although it records a trajectory of major architectural themes of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Maturing as an architectural type during the 1920s and 1930s it has enjoyed four waves of development since this period, but it also highlights themes of leisure and nature, body and health, gender and class. Furthermore, the architecture of modern public pools located within or adjacent to existing bodies of water, such as the sea or river, is also revealing of how architecture relates to nature. The cultural artifice of the swimming pool that frames and controls a body of water positioned in relation to a natural body of water, brings to the fore a compelling spatial and cultural juxtaposition. In particular, this thesis argues that the architecture of modern waterside pools reveals dif-ferent imaginings of nature that manifest as three distinct design modes. This is demonstrated through an examination of seven case studies constructed between 1934-2004 from Europe and Australia. I describe these design modes as the Hydrophobic Pool: an architecture that contrasts its natural surrounds, the Hydrophilic Pool: an architecture that integrates with its natural surrounds, and the Hydromimetic Pool: an architecture that mimics its natural surrounds. Given the feeling of water against the skin stimulates senses unique to this architectural type, the thesis also employs and develops autoethnographic methods from the field of anthropology in order to explore how these conditions of architecture and nature are experienced. This has been tested using my own body as a public vehicle for research alongside spatial and visual forms of analyses commonly adopted with-in architectural histories. Framing a study of the modern waterside pool around these interrelations of architecture, nature and the body contributes to an alternate reading of this architectural type. In addition, the thesis raises broader questions regarding the formation of architectural history and critique and how might we better consider how architecture is inhabited and experienced.
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ItemMexican vernacular architecture of the Papaloapan River: ritualized architecture( 2015)The Papaloapan River in eastern Mexico is a rich region historically, culturally and naturally. These characteristics are also reflected in the region’s vernacular architecture. This fascination with the built environment led me to carry out research for my PhD on the indigenous houses there, based on the historical, physical and cultural evidence that still exists in most of indigenous communities, which is manifested in the simplicity of the forms of the houses and the construction of the spaces. In 2012 and 2013 I lived with the Mazatec people in several communities in the highlands and lowlands of the Papaloapan for a total of five months, an experience which allowed me to understand how the design and construction of their houses are grounded in many traditions. This thesis undertakes a comprehensive study of the Mazatec indigenous house. The combination of architectural and ethnographical approaches in my research led me to make a number of significant research findings in contributing to a greater cross-cultural understanding of the Mazatec house form; most notably is that the Mazatec house is a physical manifestation of the cultural beliefs and lifestyle of its inhabitants, which are intimately linked to the land, materials and climate of the region. Therefore, this thesis primarily involves: (1) understanding the relationship between the Mazatec people and their dwellings; (2) the physical arrangements of built elements and cultural factors underlying the ordering of spaces; and (3) a holistic cultural explanation, with an emphasis on spatial organisation, recording and observances of ceremonial rituals and their influence on the Mazatec indigenous house form. My study of the Mazatec house is grounded on my fieldwork in the Papaloapan region and the literature review. Methodologically, I will firstly introduce the primary aims and objectives of the research by providing a description of my involvement with the Papaloapan and the theoretical background and methodological approach governing the research project. I will then sketch the research site by providing an insight of the Papaloapan, the Mazatec people, their settlement patterns and the house typologies. Last but not least, I will search for evidence on the material and symbolic aspects that lead the Mazatec people to design, build and modify their dwellings in the course of their lives. Lessons drawn from these three components will support my inquiry into the understanding the Mazatec cultural heritage and its house form in relation to the broader social and cultural context in the Papalopan region.
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ItemPapuan transformations: architectural reflections on colonialism: the modern colony, the Purari, the Orokolo and the Motu cultural and architectural transactions 1884-1975( 2004)The study follows a sequence of transactions between modernity and tradition in three Papuan societies, and in the colony itself. It seeks explanations for surprising transformations in traditional architectural practices over the colonial period from 1884 to 1975. The Purari, the Orokolo, and the Motu, were Papuan societies whose heritages in architecture and material culture were rich with artistic and meaningful forms and expressions. As in many other traditional societies, these productions were holistically bound up in ritual, spiritual cosmologies, and everyday aspects of life that ordinarily ensured their continued reproduction. Colonialism never expected Papuans to, nor did it satisfactorily conceive of them becoming town dwellers, but, by 1975 a majority from all three societies were anonymous members of the modern urban milieu of the capital Port Moresby. Many of the Purari and Orokolo, having left their homelands, were in austere squatter settlements. None of the groups had built their traditional architecture for decades, neither had they performed their elaborate dramas and rituals that involved the production of accompanying spectacular paraphernalia. The case studies reconstruct conditions in three traditional societies, and in the emergent colony, and sequentially reconstruct conditions of transitionary and transforming states through which all groups proceeded as the processes of colonialism and modernisation unfolded. Standardised for objective comparisons, the reconstructions aim to reveal things that were important to both the traditional societies, and to the colonial communities. They enable estimates to be made of the value that was attached through the allocation of resources, and through communal commitments, to the social and cultural production of architecture. Architectural reflections thereafter are used to illuminate many facets of the active, surrounding, and wider contexts of colonialism. The study then examines how architecture at times appears as a modern agent for change, or otherwise as an outcome of already enacted transformations. Further aspects of cultural and social forces that operated on both the traditional and the colonial societies thereby become evident and amenable to analysis. Evidence from colonial sources is examined further using techniques inspired by Foucault but developed by Rabinow to describe the development of modern French society, which he shows was also influenced by colonial experiences. The study examines the characteristics of modernity, and its processes and preoccupations, as these impacted on the transformation of the traditional in Papua. From the interrogation of such material it aims to illuminate attitudes and assumptions that have influenced transactions between the traditional and colonial societies during this period of modernisation. Successes in modernisation, development, and nation building represented considerable colonial achievements culminating in independent nationhood in Papua New Guinea. Rapid widespread development occurred after the Second World War, and democratic national institutions were put in place with little strife, and without bloody struggles. Nevertheless the architectural and other evidence points to some significant cultural oversights, insensitivities, and transgressions that tarnish well-intentioned colonial aims, and the claims and images of success. It is poignant that significant attitudes and assumptions of colonialism uncovered in the study appear once again to threaten other's different traditional cultural productions in parts of the world.
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ItemNegotiating a people’s space: a historical, spatial and social analysis of the People’s Square of Shanghai from the colonial to Mao to post-Mao era( 2014)This research investigates spatial formations of the People's Square of Shanghai from the 1840s to the 2000s against a shifting history of political and ideological backdrops. The research explores how the Square was formed and reformed, how it was used, how it facilitated and restricted certain social uses, and how it both reflected and subverted, to an extent, a predominant political and ideological control. The thesis reveals new layers of spatial politics of the Square and adds new dimensions to our reading of the meaning of the city centre of the Chinese metropolis.
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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.