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Mending a broken 'Heartland'
No full textRESEARCH QUESTION
How can a community hub aid in the revitalisation of a small, declining rural town in ‘Heartland’ New Zealand?
ABSTRACT
Forty years of successive neoliberal governments have eroded New Zealand society. Those who benefited from the previous generation’s investment in the welfare state voted to pull the ladder up behind them and open the floodgates of globalisation. Younger generations and poorer communities paid the price as Aotearoa transitioned to an individualist user-pays society and entered into a race to the bottom.
The country now faces mounting problems of unprecedented modern inequality, unaffordable housing, and physical and mental health crises. Despite the illusion of western prosperity, those not born into generational asset-wealth are now worse off than their parents were by virtually every quantifiable metric, and the opportunities for a stable New Zealand life diminish by the day.
Rural towns have been impacted the most adversely by these policies and the urbanisation that came with them. Their communities have been marginalised and relegated to society’s outskirts. The underinvestment in these regions has exacerbated unsustainable urban migration and entrapped many small-town residents in cyclic impoverishment. In addition to the wider issues these communities face, with the developments being made in food technology and the global shifts in consumer attitudes towards animal byproducts, small rural towns are set to face further adversity in the coming decades.
This research project aims to explore community infrastructure which could assist in addressing these growing issues. The paper’s research investigates the interlinked problems created by trickle-down economics and the architectural and social service responses that could aid in the revitalisation of rural towns.
The research methodology involved extensive literature/media reviews and architectural case studies. The design methodology involved comprehensive contextual research, a thorough site analysis, and numerous design iterations.
The research concluded with the proposal of a community hub design intended to holistically address the town’s needs, provide opportunity, entice migration, and reestablish a sense of community amongst the growing rural and urban divide
Fast food, slow city: A food and cultural, educational facility in Auckland's CBD
No full textRESEARCH QUESTION
Can architectural satire be used to raise awareness of the causes of obesity and thereby improving healthy eating?
ABSTRACT
Combating New Zealand’s obesity epedemic by combating obesity through architectural satire.
This research and design proposal addresses the problem in New Zealand of the environment and more readily available premade foods and fast food outlets. The hypothesis is that architecture can be used to expose the underlying cultural problems of obesity and thereby change the views of society.
With a continually growing fast city and fast paced lives it also brings with it fast food. The problem with ‘fast’ food has little to do with the speed at which it is served but more to do with the nutritional value (or lack of) and addictive nature of the food.
This raises the question, “can architectural satire be used to raise awareness of the causes of obesity and thereby improving healthy eating?”
In New Zealand, the statistics are clear that by far the largest demographic group affected by obesity are Māori and Pacifica and in particular, low income groups. This research investigates the reasons behind these statistics and identifies that the fast food industry in NZ is predatorial as it targets low income areas and school children. Fast food has high levels of sugar and fats that make it clinically addictive and since the meals are relatively cheap and easily available, they become the predominant diet of those in low income areas.
The same problem was identified in Europe in the mid 1980s. The ‘slow food’ movement started in Italy and aimed to retain a traditional cultural diet rather than the ‘American’ diet of fast food. From this movement the ‘slow city’ movement was introduced where legislation was established to restrict fast food sales in urban areas. Both the ‘slow food’ and ‘slow city’ movements have not impacted New Zealand yet.
The aim for the design proposal is to create a ‘slow food’ area in the ‘fast city’ of Auckland to reverse our obesity epidemic, slow our environment down and bring culture back to our food and city. The selected site is situated between Commercial bay and the Britomart train station in Auckland CBD. Not only is the site in the heart of the city but has important historical symbolism as the point of arrival where the British arrived to purchase Auckland, the destruction of a loss of a beach once used for launching of boats and the collection of food.
The architectural proposal is driven by satire based on the loss of rights. In architecture, satire has been defined as, “raising joy in all who witness it while simultaneously sparking rage at the wider social and economic shortcomings of our built environment”.
As our culture has shifted, satire helps remind people of what used to be there before the fast city. The design uses the traditional symbolism of waka sails, whale skeletons, stone terraces, the sea bed and other important cultural symbols as an architectural means of ‘raising joy’. However, these symbols represent the loss of a cultural food tradition by the removal of rights to access them, thereby ‘sparking rage’
My research concludes that based on the removal of rights to traditional food sources by the indigenous population it has resulted in an exploited diet which consists of excessive amounts of ‘fast’ food. It is hoped that my architectural proposal would create an awareness of the injustices that have occurred and encourage the uptake of traditional diets rather than fast food.
The “Fast food, slow city” project aims to create a slow community atmosphere in a fast city by making you meander through the site and to stop and appreciate your surroundings. It will create a community heart which will educate people about food and our culture, but most importantly, it is architecture that sticks two fingers up to the fast food industry and to successive governments in New Zealand that have been major investors in this industry
The sensory topography of cloth: Soft armour and worn stories
No full textThis essay seeks to explain the lived experience of chronic pain through personal examination, a study of the surface manipulation of cloth through textile art making and the poetics of female artists and writers. A consideration of western feminism and worn cloth further explores how the politics of wearing affects the feminine sense of wellbeing and how the sartorial can be a type of armour. In this context ‘feminine’ refers to my own experience of being female. Further discussion of my own serendipitous art practice makes comparisons between the process and the experiential. Is it possible to express through art an internal physical pain, a hidden pain, a pain rarely witnessed by others at its most deleterious? Many long-term pain sufferers learn to develop an external mechanism, an armour if you will, to camouflage and protect themselves from outside influences that can exacerbate symptoms and feelings of vulnerability. Through an account of my personal struggle with a chronic illness and a biographical account of histological exploitation with the Henrietta Lacks story (Skloot, 2010) this essay contextualizes the ways that textiles can convey the feelings evoked by cellular responses to pain and abstracted cell biology. Evolving is a textile narrative, represented in the physical manifestation of the scarf, the loose forms of worn cloth at once attached and detached from the body, shielding, while celebrating the female form. The textiles represent internal pain from my feminine perspective, as they act as a soft armour, draped, layered, and wrapped in defence of the physical and psychological experience of the wearer. Through a sensory topography of cloth, I draw on words to express and build on the visual materiality of cloth, support the meaning, and confirm a narrative
Inter-rater reliability using a modified Balance Error Scoring System
No full textFalling is a common occurrence among older adults with over 1/3 of older adults falling per year. There are a range of balance tests used to indicate an older adult's risk of falling, many of which are attention invested and arguably do not apply to real-world settings. In real-world situations an individual’s primary focus cannot always be fixed on a balance task. This study used divested attention by combining the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS), an established balance test, with the controlled oral word association (COWA) test. The primary aim of this research was to examine the inter-rater reliability of a modified BESS (mBESS) test. Secondary aims included determining if there was a relationship between the BESS and COWA scores, and whether this test was an appropriate level of difficulty for older adults. The mBESS test was administered to four older adults, each completing three recorded sessions involving three trials of each balance stance. These recordings were then submitted to four volunteer raters who scored the tests independently using the prescribed BESS tools provided. Inter-rater reliability was assessed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The average total inter-rater reliability was 0.97, with the lowest reliability observed when scoring the one-legged stance (0.83). As expected, the variability between raters increased with the difficulty of the balance stance task. The mBESS test therefore offers excellent inter-rater reliability. Due to Covid-19 and the nationwide lockdown interfering with data collection, the secondary aims could not be addressed. The mBESS test has excellent inter-rater reliability (0.97) and the test could be suitable for future research regarding falls prevention to help assess falls risk with more authenticity
An investigation of osteopaths’ attitudes and self-reported practices towards psychosocial content in sports-injury rehabilitation
Get PDFBACKGROUND:
Psychosocial strategies may be useful in sports-injury rehabilitation by positively influencing rehabilitation outcomes. While there has been some investigation into the use of psychosocial strategies by physiotherapists and athletic trainers, there is no research concerning the views and practices of osteopaths in the area of psychosocial content.
OBJECTIVE:
To examine osteopaths’ attitudes and self-reported practices towards psychosocial content in sports-injury rehabilitation via an adaption of the Athletic Trainer and Sport Psychology Questionnaire (ATSPQ).
METHODS:
An online cross-sectional survey using an adapted version of the ATSPQ was used. All respondents were registered osteopaths who have at least two years’ experience, from the United Kingdom, Australia or New Zealand. Descriptive analyses of the data were undertaken.
RESULTS:
A total of 66 participants (36 male, 30 female) were included. Almost all participants (98.5%) reported that athletes were negatively psychologically affected due to their sports-injury, with the top three negative psychological responses post-injury reported as ‘stress or anxiety’, ‘treatment compliance problems’, and ‘exercise addiction’. Having a positive attitude/optimism was identified as the top characteristic of injured athletes who cope successfully with injury. Poor compliance was identified as the top characteristic of injured athletes who do not cope successfully with injury. The top four psychosocial strategies used in management were ‘encouraging positive self-thoughts’, ‘encouraging effective communication skills’, ‘using short-term goals’, and ‘enhancing self-confidence’. The top three rated psychosocial strategies osteopaths deem important to learn more about were ‘using short-term goals’, ‘reducing stress or anxiety’, and ‘encouraging effective communication skills’. Of the sample, 53 osteopaths (80.3%) indicated that they have no access to an accredited sport psychologist. However, 19 osteopaths (28.8%) make referrals to counselling services, with the average number of referrals per annum being 0.48. A further 61 osteopaths (92.4%) do not have a written procedure for referrals.
CONCLUSIONS:
This study suggests that osteopaths believe injured athletes are affected psychologically. Associations found between psychosocial responses, behaviours and rehabilitation outcomes, suggest that osteopaths need to be identifying and providing psychosocial support to injured athletes. This study suggests that osteopaths desire to increase their current knowledge and understanding of psychosocial intervention use, therefore, osteopaths may benefit from further education and support in this area. Further research involving larger sample sizes should be undertaken to validate the present findings
The response of Auckland construction firms to recent technological changes
Get PDFOver the past decade the impacts of technology on the construction sector have been profound. This trend presents significant challenges for construction firms in an environment characterised by skilled-labour shortages and an ageing workforce that tends to struggle to accept new technology. The purpose of this research is to determine the types of technologies that are being used by Auckland construction firms, the challenges that they face as they adopt new technologies and the impact of technology on the construction workforce. The study employed a face-to-face survey research approach focusing on Auckland construction firms, with the aim of evaluating their response to technological changes. Questionnaires, followed by face-to-face interviews with two separate industry groups, managers and construction workers, were the major methods of empirical data collection. The findings revealed that while the adoption of technology could offset some skill shortages in the near future, the uptake of technology in construction firms was generally poor due to high financial costs, an increasingly ageing workforce and the lack of available training in the new technologies. In conclusion, Auckland construction firms face serious difficulties that could only be overcome through a set of comprehensive measures, such as financial commitment to investing in the latest technologies, provision of extra support and training, as well as ensuring adequate pa
Auckland mediateque! : Creating connection. An exploration into the public architectural realm
No full textARCHITECTURAL QUESTION
How can architecture generate social and permeable environments through a typology such as a mediatheque?
ABSTRACT
Auckland, New Zealand, a bustling and fast-growing modern city that is as beautiful as it is diverse. Many cultures and people land on the city’s waterfront creating an active, vibrant scene. This, includes the likes of local pedestrians travelling to work or school or the many tourists who enter and start their exploration of New Zealand through this urban gateway.
Even though there is a large and growing pedestrian presence on the waterfront of Auckland, the streetscape and public realm ultimately still belong to the automobile. Realising the negative effects this has on the public social realm, emergent projects within Auckland’s near future aim to return the cityscape to the pedestrian user, thus creating a stronger social and traversable city.
This project investigates the local context of Auckland’s waterfront and places the concept of a social hub along Auckland’s Quay Street. This will be designed alongside the emerging projects of Auckland’s waterfront to ultimately deliver a building that not only adds to Auckland’s cityscape but increases the interactivity of the public and act as a gateway to the city.
The designed social hub will be created to the typology of a mediatheque, a building which provides gallery, event, library and public space for the local context. This idea prompted a look into many architectural theories and styles such as Rem Koolhaas’s lobotomy, Bernard Tschumi’s disjunction, and a strong precedential understanding of Parc de la Villete as well as Centre Pompidou. With these in mind, the Auckland mediatheque aims to promote a playful, timeless, iconic and socially enhancing structure that will benefit the pedestrian fabric of Auckland, New Zealand for many years to come.
SITE: 148 Quay Street, Auckland, New Zealand
Wāhine Māori and private business: Why are the participation rates for wāhine Māori so low in leadership positions within the private sector?
Get PDFThis thesis examines wāhine Māori in leadership and specifically, their engagement with positions in the private sector. The main purpose of this research was to understand the influences on their decision-making in terms of leadership choices, which in turn would identify a rationale for the disproportionately low levels of leadership participation in the private sector when compared to those of the public sector and self-employment.
Qualitative research methods were utilized in this study including interviews, recordings and researcher/participant correspondence. This was conducted with ten wāhine Māori all holding current leadership positions, with five from each sector of private and public. Participants discussed their early influences and upbringings, factors that had shaped their career choices and provided insight into their experiences and challenges within their leadership positions. The overarching research philosophy encompassing this study was kaupapa Māori methodology, honouring the values of whānau, wāhi haumaru, whakaaro, kaitiaki and hononga.
From the findings it is suggested that wāhine Māori are identifying the public sector space as providing them the vehicle to meet their career objectives, which were overwhelmingly focused on making a positive impact and valuable contribution to te ao Māori. It appears the private sector is not considered conducive with these values and aspirations and is therefore being overlooked. One matter definitively identified throughout this study is that lack of participation in the private sector is not due to factors such as a lack of competence and capabilities, but rather due to the personal choice of wāhine Māori and decisions made to disregard this sector.
This research identifies significant issues for wāhine Māori when engaging in leadership roles in the private sector, predominantly related to a sense of compromising cultural identity and values. Also presented in this study is an opportunity for an evaluation of the private sector to determine its value to the capacity building of te ao Māori and to develop strategies for participation of wāhine Māori to be reprioritised. To be successful this must be positioned from a Māori perspective as the factors identified within this research are specifically te ao Māori issues and cannot be addressed adequately without this valuable discernment
The impact of capital markets on economic growth of Sri Lanka
No full textCapital markets plays an important role and influence over the prosperity, development and economic growth of both developed and emerging economies. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of capital markets on economic growth of Sri Lanka. To achieve the set objectives, the study employed a quantitative research methodology using six stock market performance indicators and one economic growth measure. A longitudinal study was conducted adopting a case study approach, for a period of two decades (1998 – 2019) distinguishing Sri Lanka’s war and post-war eras. The data was analysed using Correlation Analysis and Multiple Regression. The main results showed equity market turnover, market capitalization, share turnover to market capitalization ratio and dividend yield had a positive relationship with gross domestic product while All Share Price Index and debt market turnover had no relationship with gross domestic product. The study indicates overall market is essential, high liquidity stocks, efficient stock market performance and debt trading liquidity are important for the economic development of Sri Lanka. The value of businesses and stock market size determines the economic growth of the country. The Sri Lankan government needs to maintain a peaceful, conducive environment for investors, ensure secure functionality of capital markets that will help implement socio-economic policies to promote better living standards in the country. The study contributes to the existing empirical literature on capital markets and economic growth, especially with reference to Asian markets, and Sri Lankan stock market formerly ranked as one of the best performing stock markets in the world
The rabbit, the ermine and the gaze : an account of introduction, ramifications and the role art plays as a mechanism to create awareness of scientific issues
No full textThis paper provides an account of the process and ramifications of the introduction of exotic species into Aotearoa New Zealand during the late 19th century. These introductions, which comprised both flora and fauna, commenced with the voyages of discovery and were motivated in the first instance by the necessity for food. While some species failed to acclimatise, others, such as the rabbit and the domestic cat, flourished, and in time began to wreak havoc on the landscape and existing biota. The response to these unexpected outcomes, which included parliamentary debate and various biological control measures, again produced unexpected consequences. At present in Aotearoa, these include naturalised populations of exotic predators, the occurrence of leucism due to a shrinking gene pool, and a variety of endemic species now poised on the cusp of extinction. The role literature and fine art played during the period of introduction in the 19th century, and continues to play, is also examined. At the outset, ‘picturesque’ depictions were commonplace; these have given way to more contemporary approaches, which provide a means for understanding, establishing and defining the identity of place and the species that inhabit it. The paper concludes with a case study of a series of contemporary egg tempera paintings, which illustrates various species; draws attention to their status; highlights the consequences of their existence in Aotearoa; and demonstrates how the confluence of art and science can act as a mechanism to raise awarenes