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    Town planning in New Zealand, 1900-1933 : the emergent years : concepts, the role of the state, and the emergence of a profession : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Planning at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2000) Miller, Caroline Lomax
    Town planning in New Zealand 1900 - 1933 : The Emergent Years, is a study of the forces that shaped the development of town planning in New Zealand. The subtitle, concepts, the role of the state, and the emergence of a profession, highlight three themes or foci that are important in the emergence of town planning as a separate and identifiable activity. The existing paucity of planning history scholarship in New Zealand to date means that this period has generally been regarded as one of little achievement, merely a waiting period before 'real' planning began under the Town and Country Planning Act 1953. This thesis, which draws heavily on primary archival resources, instead reveals a period when the worth of town planning was recognised and a hardy band of enthusiasts fought to have the concept established through legislation. Legislation was not achieved until 1926 with the Town-planning Act, due to a number of factors in particular the decline of the Liberals and the on-set of World War One. When the legislation was achieved, progress was slow due to the apathy of local government, the Depression, and the lack of trained town planners. Nevertheless under the energetic leadership of John Mawson, Director of Town Planning, significant progress was made in laying the foundations for the planning systems that would follow. During this period town planning as a concept developed from one which was focused on ameliorating slums and urban ills, to a future orientated concept intended to guide the efficient functioning of the urban system. This saw the interventionist powers of the state used to limit the private use of land resources in the interest of achieving 'good' for the community as a whole. Such intervention was however in keeping with other such state interventions of the time. As the concept of town planning found favour it was taken up first by self-trained enthusiasts, such as Samuel Hurst Seager, often drawn from existing city beautifying groups. When legislation established it as a separate activity there was the slow development of a small band of town planning professionals. Thus the period of this thesis is one of quiet but gradual achievement that created acceptance of town planning as an appropriate intervention of the state and created the foundations of the planning profession.
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    Ryde NZ : rental bike design for the New Zealand national cycleway : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Design in Product Design at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand, 2010
    (Massey University, 2010) Patterson, Alistair
    This project seeks to find a product solution to increase user access to the proposed national cycleway throughout New Zealand. This is achieved though the design of a self-service bike rental system to be placed at points along the proposed cycleway track. Various possible bike rental systems precedents were analysed for the national cycleway. Included in this were three short films that documented cycling conditions on New Zealand roads and the current bike rental systems that operate in New Zealand. A practical approach was taken wherein a significant amount of testing in full scale via 3D model making techniques. To complete the process, a full-scaled ergonomic/usability test rig was built. Following this, a full-scale design model could be developed. The resultant proposed solution features an innovative bicycle and locking system with distinct and unique styling. The bikes are styled to convey a fun and user friendly aesthetic. The risks of vandalism or theft of the bikes has been mitigated by a unique parts system whereby nothing on the bikes would be usable on any other frame if stolen.
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    Surface built : making the New Zealand home : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Design in Spatial Design at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2010) Ford, Laura
    The potential for prefabrication has been sidelined by the process of the design>build>do-it-yourself model of building, maintaining and updating houses in New Zealand. Working from an industrial design perspective this research charts the possibility of a shift in home construction from site building towards factory-manufacture. Mindful of New Zealand’s creative, do-it-yourself heritage and personal rituals of homemaking, this study explores domestic ritual and the iterative nature of amateur home alterations. Just as we have the right to alter our own body’s surfaces so too should the homeowner have the ability to alter the surfaces and services they own and with which they interact. Flanked by the design-to-manufacture model promoted by industrial design and the emphasis on inhabiting and rearranging the home from spatial design a hybrid notion of housing design and production is put forward. Suggesting a product that deals affordably with the home’s surfaces and services, within the customs of daily and seasonal acts of maintenance in the home, offers an area of prefabrication that seems attainable for New Zealand interior.
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    Bach pack : independent energy solution : a written component completed in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Design at Massey University, College of Creative Arts, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2010) Bowie, Charlotte
    Atelierworkshop is an innovative Wellington based architectural practice that has advanced into the area of off- site manufacture of container-based housing solutions. Their product, the Port-a-Bach (PAB) is moving into its second generation (PAB Gen-2). This product development initiative has resulted in a range of projects that have been undertaken to improve off-the-grid energy systems, water supply and storage, packaging, transportation and cost reduction. This particular project documents the design and development of an energy management and supply accessory product, called the Bach Pack. The Bach Pack seeks to create a viable product energy system solution, at reduced cost and environmental impact (compared with existing solutions) and to achieve this through the development of the usability aspects and features of the product system. The focus is on developing a quality experience for the end user with regards to the attachment and deployment of the components that make up the Bach Pack product. This accessory and modular product solution enables the PAB Gen-2 to be self-sufficient with regard to electrical energy and water supply, and can be specified at point of sale or added later if required. This document focuses explicitly on the design and development of the solar array segment of the Bach Pack.
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    Oceanic grounds, architecture, the evental and the in-between : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Design
    (Massey University, 2009) Yates, Amanda
    Exploring spatio-temporal flux within architecture, this thesis presents design-based research on the temporal environments of Oceania and Western evental theory. Oceanic thought and Western theories of the event share commonalities, both holding that space and time are inseparable dimensions. This spatio-temporal concept challenges Western philosophical and architectural doxa that privilege stasis over temporal flux, and offers a mode by which to introduce alterity into architectural discourse. I move over these cultural and philosophical grounds in order to explicate and further develop a personal design practice that is of this place and time for, while there is a body of writing that documents Oceanic built environments, there is less research that considers how these may be constituted and communicated through contemporary architectural design. The thesis posits two temporalised environments apparent within Oceanic spatial thought and practice – the shifting and extensive oceanscape, and the telluric groundscape that makes space; and describes two resultant spatial typologies – an oceanspace which is characterised by openness and mobility, and a groundspace which is both surface and space. These contentions are tested and theorised through three architectural experiments developed between 1999 and 2005: the Sounds House, which operates as an open and mutable spatial field; the Ground House, which forms monumental “interiors” that emerge from and relate to the earth; and Tokatea, which blends these two spatialities, fabricating a temporalised environment in between the momentary and the monumental, between interior and exterior. In presenting and discussing these speculative spaces, this thesis moves between architecture and academia, Oceania and the West, the ephemeral and the enduring, and the inside and the outside, with the aim of destabilising architecture’s discursive ground, causing its hermetic boundaries to become temporalised and fluid.
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    Time, space, city and resistance : situating Negri's multitude in the contemporary metropolis : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Public Policy at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2009) Qunby, Rohan G. H.
    Cities are not merely inanimate objects. They are complex living environments, built over time by cultures and civilisations. This thesis argues that cities have a central place in human history and civilisation because they are imbued with meaning and meaningful activity. Thus, cities are inherently political spaces, and it may be reasonably expected that they will be important sites of social transformation in the postmodern era. In order to understand the relationship between urban space and political consciousness, this thesis traces several different interpretive paths within the marxist tradition. First, we examine the work of Henri Lefebvre, who argues for an understanding of urban space as socially produced. Next, the thesis looks at the contributions of Guy Debord, particularly at his understanding of the relation between time and the city. Both writers struggle to understand the urban in the context of the shift to what we now call postmodernity. Despite their many strengths, Debord and Lefebvre ultimately fail to theorise a social subject capable of resisting capitalist domination of the city. As a result, the thesis turns to a consideration of the work of Antonio Negri. Negri’s analysis of the fate of contemporary subjectivity has reinvigorated marxist critique with a return to the question of political change. His figure of the multitude takes leave of traditional marxism in challenging and productive ways, and helps us better understand the nature of subjectivity and resistance in a world of immaterial labour and virtuality. Nevertheless, this thesis argues that there is still work to be done before Negri’s work can be mapped out onto the contemporary metropolis.
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    An infrastructure of interaction : complexity theory and the space of movement in the urban street : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Design at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2008) Reynolds, Helen
    This study uses complexity theory to examine the space of the street. In a morpho-ecological city, process creates form just as form creates process. The process of movement is a critical form generator within the urban system. In this thesis, the urban system comprising streets/ car/pedestrian is examined. If this collection of urban modes of mobility is a complex system capable of selforganising behaviour, what effect does the ordering imposed by traffic engineering have on this system? I look at the driving body and the walking body as co-creating the city by their movement through urban space. I suggest that, through attention to the fragments of interactions enacted during these movements, we can, through design, allow for the emergence of selforganising behaviour. Urban shared streets, descendants of the ‘woonerf’, appear to function more efficiently than engineered streets, without the usual traffic ordering. The counterintuitive success of these streets implies a self-organising behaviour that is generated by the density of interaction between the inhabitants of the street. These designs potentially work as a change agent, a catalyst, operating within a complex system. This has the potential to move systems from one attractor state to another. A city built with these spaces becomes a city of enfilades; an open system of spaces that are adaptable to uses that fluctuate with time and avoid thickening the palimpsest of traffic engineering. I look at siting shared streets in Wellington, based on jaywalking, a transgressive use of the streetspace that prefigures a shared space, and changes to urban networks associated with such designs. Interaction within the city is a creative force with a structure. City design needs to consider and address this infrastructure and design for it. The infrastructure of interaction has been subsumed by the infrastructure of movement. Shared streets indicate there may not be a need for this – they can be integrated. The process of movement creates instances of interaction; therefore designing spaces of/for movement must be designed to enhance the infrastructure of interaction. The result of such interaction is not just somewhat better; it may be a phase change - catalytically better .
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    Interior design proposal for the Hulme F1 supercar : a written component completed in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Design at Massey University, College of Creative Arts, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2008) Young, Kenneth
    This research project focused on the development of an appropriate interior design proposal for the Hulme F1 supercar. The Hulme F1 supercar, originally designed by Hulme Supercars Ltd, draws exterior design references from contemporary Formula One Grand Prix race cars. In addition, the Hulme F1 supercar integrated visual design cues expressing luxury, high-performance and exoticness. The existing design established the package, window openings, basic controls and door architecture for this study. Based on this material, the interior study focused on an overall aesthetic and its integration with ergonomic, technical and functional requirements. The conceptual nature of this project allowed for the inclusion of speculative and experimental design proposals that were not constrained by local contemporary manufacturing and economic issues. Consequently, the project based itself on a technological forecast of five to ten years. Research first explored and defined several key design motifs central to the Hulme F1 supercar. This involved studies into supercars, luxury, high-performance, exoticness, contemporary Formula One Grand Prix racing and the existing exterior form language. The results from this research established initial themes for development of the interior design proposal. A review of contemporary theory in visual product communication and experience was undertaken to identify an appropriate framework for this investigation. The research of Monö (1997), Norman (2004a) and Warell (2007) was reviewed. Review focused on two areas; a structure appropriate for defining design criteria and a comprehensive framework for visual analysis of exemplars to identify visual design trends. The Visual Product Experience (VPE) framework by Warell offered the most appropriate visual framework for this investigation. Using the VPE framework, a visual analysis of contemporary luxury motorcars, professional race cars and supercars was undertaken. Analysis focused on interior and interior/exterior related design trends. Findings illustrated that luxury motorcars have simple aesthetic compositions with frequent interior/exterior form element repetition. Conversely, professional race cars have complex aesthetic compositions with minimal interior/exterior form element repetition. Meanwhile, supercar interior aesthetics and appear to vary between these two spectrums depending on their overall aesthetic expression. To this end, the analysis illustrated the opposing visual qualities between luxury and high-performance. This suggested the interior design proposal required a delicate balance between complex and simple aesthetic elements to obtain an appropriate overall visual expression. Consequently, the interior design proposal used a combination of flowing soft surfaces and complex detailing to express luxury and high-performance. Research also established criteria for the design of interior functional systems required within the interior design proposal. Interior functional systems included control, body-support, display, storage and safety systems. The development process for the interior design proposal consisted of iterative design methods. This included concept generation, concept development and three-dimensional form studies. Throughout the development process, concepts were screened against design criteria in order to further direct the iterative process. Contemporary Formula One race car illustrated an abundance of visual inspiration for the interior design proposal during the development process. Elements such as exhaust and aerodynamic wing details were referenced within the interior design proposal. The intent of this was to create visual harmony between interior and exterior aesthetics. Research into ingress and egress found a conventionally fixed steering unit impeded participants. As a result, the final design proposed a steering unit that swung towards the centre of the interior for greater entry/exit space. The interior design proposal was assessed by internal and external ‘ design evaluation’ methods. Testing indicated that the interior design proposal had fulfilled most of the experience and performance design criteria and achieved the aim of this research. Overall, this investigation designed an interior design proposal to compliment the exterior design of the Hulme F1 supercar. The interior design proposal was supported by visual framework developed from this research investigation. In addition, the investigation proposed functional and ergonomic solutions to support the interior design proposal.