Development of a process for dealing with underutilised Queensland government properties with heritage significance

This thesis addresses the contemporary issue of the control, restoration and potential for reuse of State Government-owned heritage properties with commercial potential. It attempts to reconcile the sometimes competing interests of the range of stakeholders in such properties, particularly those seeking to maximise economic performance and return on one hand and community expectations for heritage preservation and exhibition on the other. The matters are approached principally from the Government's position as asset owner/manager. It includes research into a number of key elements - including statutory, physical and economic parameters and an analysis of the legitimate requirements of all stakeholders. The thesis also recognises the need for innovation in approach and for the careful structuring and pre-planning of proposals on a project-by-project basis. On the matter of innovation, four case studies are included in the thesis to exhibit some approaches and techniques that have already been employed in addressing these issues. From this research base, a series of deductions at both a macro and micro level are established and a model for a rational decision-making process for dealing with such projects is developed as a major outcome of the work. Finally, the general model is applied to a specific project, the currently unused Port Office heritage site in the Brisbane Central Business District.

Construction, application and validation of selection evaluation model (SEM) for intelligent HVAC control system

Design teams are confronted with the quandary of choosing apposite building control systems to suit the needs of particular intelligent building projects, due to the availability of innumerable ‘intelligent’ building products and a dearth of inclusive evaluation tools. This paper is organised to develop a model for facilitating the selection evaluation for intelligent HVAC control systems for commercial intelligent buildings. To achieve these objectives, systematic research activities have been conducted to first develop, test and refine the general conceptual model using consecutive surveys; then, to convert the developed conceptual framework into a practical model; and, finally, to evaluate the effectiveness of the model by means of expert validation. The results of the surveys are that ‘total energy use’ is perceived as the top selection criterion, followed by the‘system reliability and stability’, ‘operating and maintenance costs’, and ‘control of indoor humidity and temperature’. This research not only presents a systematic and structured approach to evaluate candidate intelligent HVAC control system against the critical selection criteria (CSC), but it also suggests a benchmark for the selection of one control system candidate against another.

Shifting interpretations of interiors and buildings: the impact of colour

The ability of a designer – for example, interior designer, architect, landscape architect, etc. – to design for a particular target group (user and/or clients) is potentially enhanced through more targeted studies relating colour in situ. The study outlined in this paper involved participant responses to five achromatic scenes of different built environments prior to viewing the same scenes in colour. Importantly, in this study the participants, who were young designers, came to realise that colour potentially holds the power to impact on the identity of an architectural form, an interior space and/or particular elements such as doorways, furniture settings, etc., as well as influence atmosphere. Prior to discussing the study, a selection of other research, which links colour to meaning and emotions, introduces how people understand and/or feel in relation to colour. For example, yellow is said to be connected to happiness; or red evokes feelings of anger. Secondly, the need for spatial designers to understand colour in context is raised. An overview of the study is then provided. It was found that the impact of colour includes a shift in perception of aspects such as its atmosphere and youthfulness. Through studio/class discussions it was also noted the predicted age of the place, the function, and in association, the potential users when colour was added (or deleted) were often challenged.

Raised Floor System applications for refurbishing office spaces

While raised floors as a building component has been around since the 70's, its application in terms of a holistic system in the fit-out of commercial office buildings has not been fully embraced due to some inherent problems and negative perceptions of the stakeholders involved. Today, the new generation of raised floor systems(RFS) offers a suite of innovative and integrated products and solutions, and as such are not only suitable for the changing office space requirements, but also capable of meeting tbe smart and sustainable challenges, which are becoming the prerequisite in the refurbishment of existing buildings. As there has been a prediction for continued growth in refurbishment projects in major cities around the globe, RFS as an alternative methodology warrants new examination and highlight. This paper introduces research recently completed in Australia that provided a holistic approach to the application of RFS enabled by intelligent building technologies, and examined key issues of project development when refurbishing commercial office buildings. It focuses on the constructability of RFS, and how it will respond to smart feature requirements in buildings while extending service life, meeting new organisational change and workplace health needs for applications in today's office environment. It also introduces key project procurement issues and the integrated decision support when dealing with the refurbishment of office buildings. The paper recommends procurement strategies as well as the justification of adopting the RFS technology in the Australian office building sector. Given the current economic downturn, refitting as opposed to new build .projects will come onto the spotlight. This paper will provide valuable information for building owners and developers alike when contemplating the retrofit of office buildings.

Use of lifts and refuge floors for fire evacuation in high rise apartment buildings

If current population and accommodation trends continue, Australian cities will, in the future, have noticeable numbers of apartment buildings over 60 storeys high. With an aging population it follows that a significant proportion of those occupying these buildings will be senior citizens, many of whom will have some form of disability. For these occupants a fire emergency in a high rise building presents a serious problem. Currently lifts cannot be used for evacuation and going down 60 storeys in a fire isolated staircase would be physically impossible for many. Therefore, for many, the temptation to remain in one’s unit will be very strong. With an awareness of this behaviour trend in older residents, many researchers have, in recent years, explored the possible wider use of lifts in a fire emergency. So far the use of lifts for evacuation has been approved for a small number of buildings but wide acceptance of this solution is still to be achieved. This paper concludes that even in high-rise apartment buildings where lifts are approved for evacuation, architects should design the building with alternative evacuation routes and provide suitable safe refuge areas for those who cannot use the stairs when the lifts are unavailable.

Response of tall buildings with symmetric setbacks under blast loading

This study explores three-dimensional nonlineardynamic responses of typical tall buildings with and without setbacks under blast loading. These 20 storey reinforced concrete buildings have been designed for normal (dead, live and wind)loads. The influence of the setbacks on the lateral load response due to blasts in terms of peak deflections, accelerations, inter-storey drift and bending moments at critical locations (including hinge formation) were investigated. Structural response predictions were performed with a commercially available three-dimensional finite element analysis programme using non-linear direct integration time history analyses. Results obtained for buildings with different setbacks were compared and conclusions made. The comparisons revealed that buildings have setbacks that protect the tower part above the setback level from blast loading show considerably better response in terms of peak displacement and interstorey drift, when compared to buildings without setbacks. Rotational accelerations were found to depend on the periods of the rotational modes. Abrupt changes in moments and shears are experienced near the levels of the setbacks. Typical twenty storey tall buildings with shear walls and frames that are designed for only normaln loads perform reasonably well, without catastrophic collapse, when subjected to a blast that is equivalent to 500 kg TNT at a standoff distance of 10 m.

Assessment of commercial network RTK user positioning performance over long inter-station distances

The paper provides an assessment of the performance of commercial Real Time Kinematic (RTK) systems over longer than recommended inter-station distances. The experiments were set up to test and analyse solutions from the i-MAX, MAX and VRS systems being operated with three triangle shaped network cells, each having an average inter-station distance of 69km, 118km and 166km. The performance characteristics appraised included initialization success rate, initialization time, RTK position accuracy and availability, ambiguity resolution risk and RTK integrity risk in order to provide a wider perspective of the performance of the testing systems. ----- ----- The results showed that the performances of all network RTK solutions assessed were affected by the increase in the inter-station distances to similar degrees. The MAX solution achieved the highest initialization success rate of 96.6% on average, albeit with a longer initialisation time. Two VRS approaches achieved lower initialization success rate of 80% over the large triangle. In terms of RTK positioning accuracy after successful initialisation, the results indicated a good agreement between the actual error growth in both horizontal and vertical components and the accuracy specified in the RMS and part per million (ppm) values by the manufacturers. ----- ----- Additionally, the VRS approaches performed better than the MAX and i-MAX when being tested under the standard triangle network with a mean inter-station distance of 69km. However as the inter-station distance increases, the network RTK software may fail to generate VRS correction and then may turn to operate in the nearest single-base RTK (or RAW) mode. The position uncertainty reached beyond 2 meters occasionally, showing that the RTK rover software was using an incorrect ambiguity fixed solution to estimate the rover position rather than automatically dropping back to using an ambiguity float solution. Results identified that the risk of incorrectly resolving ambiguities reached 18%, 20%, 13% and 25% for i-MAX, MAX, Leica VRS and Trimble VRS respectively when operating over the large triangle network. Additionally, the Coordinate Quality indicator values given by the Leica GX1230 GG rover receiver tended to be over-optimistic and not functioning well with the identification of incorrectly fixed integer ambiguity solutions. In summary, this independent assessment has identified some problems and failures that can occur in all of the systems tested, especially when being pushed beyond the recommended limits. While such failures are expected, they can offer useful insights into where users should be wary and how manufacturers might improve their products. The results also demonstrate that integrity monitoring of RTK solutions is indeed necessary for precision applications, thus deserving serious attention from researchers and system providers.

From bricks to clicks : hybrid commercial spaces in the landscape of early literacy and learning

In their quest for resources to support children’s early literacy learning and development, parents encounter and traverse different spaces in which discourses and artifacts are produced and circulated. This paper uses conceptual tools from the field of geosemiotics to examine some commercial spaces designed for parents and children which foreground preschool learning and development. Drawing on data generated in a wider study I discuss some of the ways in which the material and virtual commercial spaces of a transnational shopping mall company and an educational toy company operate as sites of encounter between discourses and artifacts about children’s early learning and parents of preschoolers. I consider how companies connect with and ‘situate’ people as parents and customers, and then offer pathways designed for parents to follow as they attempt to meet their very young children’s learning and development needs. I argue that these pathways are both material and ideological, and that are increasingly tending to lead parents to the online commercial spaces of the world wide web. I show how companies are using the online environment and hybrid offline and online spaces and flows to reinforce an image of themselves as authoritative brokers of childhood resources for parents that is highly valuable in a policy climate which foregrounds lifelong learning and school readiness.

Commercial vulnerability of tenant : a special disadvantage?

The Full Federal Court has once again been called upon to explore the limits of s51AA of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) in the context of a retail tenancy between commercially experienced parties. The decision is Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Samton Holdings Pty Ltd [2002] FCA 62.

Investigation of hybridized polyurethane, glass fibre reinforced cement and steel laminate in structural floor plate systems

Sandwich components have emerged as light weight, efficient, economical, recyclable and reusable building systems which provide an alternative to both stiffened steel and reinforced concrete. These components are made of composite materials in which two metal face plates or Glassfibre Reinforced Cement (GRC) layers are bonded and form a sandwich with light weight compact polyurethane (PU) elastomer core. Existing examples of product applications are light weight sandwich panels for walls and roofs, Sandwich Plate System (SPS) for stadia, arena terraces, naval construction and bridges and Domeshell structures for dome type structures. Limited research has been conducted to investigate performance characteristics and applicability of sandwich or hybrid materials as structural flooring systems. Performance characteristics of Hybrid Floor Plate Systems comprising GRC, PU and Steel have not been adequately investigated and quantified. Therefore there is very little knowledge and design guidance for their application in commercial and residential buildings. This research investigates performance characteristics steel, PU and GRC in Hybrid Floor Plate Systems (HFPS) and develops a new floor system with appropriate design guide lines.