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Living memorial : 10 years after the Fukushima triple disaster
No full textRESEARCH QUESTION:
How do we construct meaningful architecture in post-disaster Namie in Fukushima Prefecture?
ABSTRACT:
Living Memorial: 10 Years After the Fukushima Triple Disaster Nearly a decade after the 2011 Fukushima triple disaster (the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown), some towns are still largely abandoned. A 12-m-high seawall was built along the coast, 17 million m3 of contaminated soil was removed, and tonnes of contaminated water were stored in tanks. Some towns have been rebuilt, however, Namie Town, 8 km from the nuclear power plant, is still a ghost town. Since 2017 when the evacuation order was lifted, only five percent of its original population has moved back, and only a stone monument commemorates those who died. The living memorial is intended to remember and revitalise the community of Namie, and to educate and to build awareness of the effects of the cataclysmic disaster.
In post-disaster sites, the community plays an essential role in rebuilding the economy and society, as well as sustaining community livelihoods. Equally, the past and effects of the disaster need to be preserved and addressed to educate people and to memorialise those who lost their lives. Designing a place for multiple uses that fosters community engagement, invites the public to commemorate, and hosts cultural events can strengthen memorialisation and rebuild the community. The place can be a ‘living memorial’ that improves the community and draws memorialisation closer to recreation.
This research will investigate aspects of dark tourism and artistic responses such as ruin photography. Dark tourism can unearth information that has been suppressed. The project will apply Richard Sharpley and Philip Stone’s spectrum to determine the ‘shades’ and ‘darkness’ of a dark site to design a suitable memorial landscape and architecture in Namie. Furthermore, memorial architecture is investigated to understand how it can recall and prolong historical memories and take part in post-disaster reconstruction.
Despite the decontamination clean-up and government assurances about safety, the community’s economic future is precarious. What the town needs is a place that fosters community engagement, brings visitors and provides job opportunities. The memorial landscape and architecture for Namie is both a folk museum and memorial to educate visitors on the past and the effects of the disaster. The project curates a journey for visitors across a memorial landscape. The building is located between the hills, which are regarded as sacred, and the sea, where many fishermen worked. The landscape is shaped to reflect the original farmland ditches, and recalls the volumes of earth excavated in the clean-up. Inside the building, visitors descend below grade, a solemn reminder of the tragedy. Here historical exhibits tell stories of the place before they arrive in the space of remembrance: a shrine to those lost. The building reflects traditional Japanese architectural elements such as a curved roof with deep overhangs, sunken and elevated spaces, elevated verandas, and the beauty of light and shadow.
The memorial landscape and architecture aims to assist the economic rebuild of the community and create the building as a valuable asset to welcome visitors
Do management teams throughout New Zealand rugby apply a learning organisation model to drive performance?
No full textRESEARCH SUB-QUESTIONS
RSQ 1: Does New Zealand Rugby use a management model to lead teams?
RSQ 2: What are the key principles for managing rugby teams?
RSQ 3: What is the focus of the management model used by NZ rugby?
RSQ 4: How is performance defined by management teams?
RSQ 5: How can the organisational structure of the team facilitate a continuous improvement model based on learning?
This research identifies a learning organisation model in New Zealand rugby teams and describes the trust-based, player-centered management model on which rugby teams in New Zealand operate. This model relies on a continuous reflection and review process enhanced using leadership groups, player groups, and the incorporation of technology. The open and ongoing communication process within the teams, not only helped develop leadership, but it generated learning through various channels in the team.
The overall purpose of this research was to explore whether management teams at different levels of rugby in New Zealand apply a learning organisation model to drive performance. Coaches and managers at the 1st XV, Club Premiere and National Provincial Championship level were interviewed. Using a thematic analysis five themes were identified: communication, leadership groups, coaching and management model, reflection and review process and principles driving New Zealand rugby. These principles were communication, trust, enjoyment, player-centered approach and continuous learning.
The findings identified a learning organisation structure in the coaching and management model used by New Zealand rugby teams. They also found the widespread use of messaging groups and technology across the teams, and their reflection and review processes, drove the continuous learning. A key to the learning organisation structure were the leadership groups. This research provides an explicit description of the management model used by rugby teams in New Zealand, which can inform future coaching and management. Future research can be undertaken to explore the quality of the learning and communication within New Zealand rugby teams and the effectiveness of leadership groups in management structures
A new adaptive load-shedding and restoration strategy for autonomous operation of microgrids: a real-time study
No full textIslanding operation is one of the main features of a MicroGrid (MG), which is realized regarding the presence of distributed energy resources (DERs). However, in order to deal with the control challenges, which an MG faces during island operation, particularly when the transition is associated with certain excessive load, an efficient control strategy is required. This paper introduces a Central Management Agent (CMA) which maintains the stability of the MG, once it is islanded, by controlling an Energy Storage System (ESS) and a Central Synchronous Generator (CSG). Further, this paper proposes a new adaptive load-shedding/restoration schemes that calculates the amount of power imbalance based on frequency measurements combined with the mean value of the frequency gradient. The primacy of the proposed scheme over existing schemes, like instantaneous frequency gradient-based load shedding scheme, is its robustness against frequency oscillations. Moreover, the proposed method acts compatible with the control routine of DERs and the intermittent nature of the PV plant. As another salient feature of this paper, a Hardware In the Loop (HIL) testbed for real-time simulation is developed under which the proposed scheme and related communication with CMA along with other components are evaluated. The obtained results show that the control strategy can confidently conserve the stability of the MG in islanded mode and meet smooth reconnection to the grid-connected mode
Stress and compassion fatigue in veterinary nurses in New Zealand
No full textBACKGROUND:
Stress and compassion fatigue are widely acknowledged as prevalent in workers in ‘caring’ roles, however this has not been widely documented in New Zealand veterinary nurses.
AIM:
This project aimed to investigate the prevalence of stress and compassion fatigue in New Zealand veterinary nurses.
METHOD:
Using an online survey, veterinary nurses were asked to self-report their incidence of stress or compassion fatigue felt as a result of their working environment. Veterinary nurses were also asked to report the ways in which they cope with stress and compassion fatigue, and their likelihood of changing jobs. Results: There were 288 responses to the survey. Of these, 94% of respondents reported feeling stressed and 82% reported experiencing compassion fatigue as a result of their work. 30% of respondents reported an increase in the consumption of alcohol/cigarettes and drugs as a result of stress. Most respondents reported managing their stress and compassion fatigue by talking to colleagues or family. A large number of respondents reported having considered a career change at some stage due to stress or compassion fatigue.
CONCLUSION:
This research demonstrates a high incidence of stress and compassion fatigue in New Zealand veterinary nurses, with a low percentage of those seeking professional support. Further investigation into combatable causal factors for stress as it differs from compassion fatigue is warranted to ultimately offer support to veterinary nurses to continue their vocation
Dying with dignity : an architectural placebo
No full textRESEARCH QUESTION:
Can the architectural form and layout of hospices be designed to be de-institutional, whilst maintaining their healthcare functions, so that the building acts as a placebo to help celebrate the end of life and allow for dignity in death for the terminally ill?
ABSTRACT:
Medical advancements have led to higher life expectancies and with longevity comes an increased chance of people experiencing chronic illnesses towards the ends of their lives and a need for palliative care. As a result, more and more people are dying in institutional settings such as hospitals, rest homes and hospices rather than the preferred place of home. Healthcare institutions are consistently criticised for being emotionally inappropriate environments in which to die.
The design of hospices has been based on the design of hospitals which, in turn, is based on the ‘architecture of control’ that is characterised by containment, exclusion, surveillance and authority. These controls conflict with the reasons for expecting to die at home. Control through containment, surveillance and authority are not compatible with care, hopefulness, participation and dignity.
This project critically reviews the architecture of hospices and examines precedents that begin to de-institutionalize these building types by using ‘informality’ as a design tool. The research analyses the processes behind ‘informal’ design and adopts a counterintuitive method of a grid on which a masterplan is constructed. Like a chess board which, at first sight, appears rigid and constraining, the grid (like a chess game) allows for a multitude of permutations to be examined and which result in a design that implements principles that de-institutionalize architecture. The brief for the building was based on a detailed, published account of the activities, professionals, families, community and guests that make up the functioning of a hospice. My intention is a design that not only strikes the balance between medical care and patient-friendly design but also produces an architecture that acts as a placebo and thereby celebrates the end of life.
The internal layout of the building is designed on principles of de-institutionalization that include, where possible: avoiding corridors, dead-ends, symmetry and barriers but also enhancing wayfinding, areas for activities, areas that allow for independence and mutual support and many other characteristics.
The external form of the building gives a sense of informal planning, such as a favela or hillside village, and the roofline enhances this by implementing separate roofs over separate spaces which continues a tradition in the hills around Wellington where the site is proposed.
Site: Charles Plimmer Park on Mount Victoria overlooking Wellington Harbour
(Re)Designing food waste systems using the design frameworks of chefs: An exploration of the potential application in the New Zealand context: The case of 'Good Neighbour'
No full textApproximately thirty per cent of all food produced around the globe is wasted at some point in the food chain while there is still hunger in the population. Tackling food waste is a global necessity for our populations, economies and our environment.
This thesis explores the redesigning of food waste systems, in the New Zealand context, through the lens of the design frameworks of the fine dining chef. The case study centres on the food recovery within the social enterprise, The Good Neighbour Trust in Tauranga, New Zealand, and critically analyses the Five Phase Culinary Design Model. While our tacit knowledge is a crucial part of the culinary experience it is limiting within the wider context of food design. With the experience gained during this case study it has become apparent that if we are to seek radical innovation we must redesign the model to plan for that throughout the design process
The Five Cs of Positive Youth Development in an Aotearoa/New Zealand program context
No full textThis study took a qualitative look at an Aotearoa/New Zealand-based positive youth development outdoor-education program in schools using the 5 Cs model of positive youth development. The iewpoints of young people, parents, and teachers were gathered, providing an opportunity to explore additional perspectives of the 5 Cs. All 5 Cs were seen to be present in the program and the 6 th C of contribution was also observed. The Cs of competence, confidence and connection featured strongly, whilst the C of connection appeared to be important to young people’s experience of the program. Young people and adults prioritized different outcomes, with adults focusing more on future impacts and young people identifying more immediate benefits. The findings of this study add to an understanding of the 5 Cs model beyond the American context and highlight areas for future research
Landscape regionalism : sketching Auckland as a resilient city-region
No full textConventional urban and regional planning is dominated by economic development agendas and ignores urban growth issues resulting from complex geography and landscape. This paper proposes an alternative approach, based on design-led spatial solutions drawn from a region’s unique geography. This design-led-planning method uses cartographic observation and sketching of spatial trends for regional growth, coupled with imagination and visual interpretation of the real landscape and geography data at the regional scale, thus enabling new, important ways of seeing the future. Using Auckland as a case study, we demonstrate how the ‘landscape regionalism’ – a derivative of ‘landscape urbanism’ - enables adaptive spatial visions which are fresh and bold but nevertheless closely reflect the physical reality of a growing city-region.
1. INTRODUCTION: Resilient City-Region
2. CONTEXT: Geography, Landscape, Planning, Future
3. TWO PROPOSITIONS: Vision & Method
4. EVIDENCE: Maps, Diagrams, Sketches
5. CONCLUSION: “Landscape Regionalis
Usefulness of annual Reports : perceptions from Sri Lanka
No full textThe IASB standards (IFRS) guide general purpose financial reporting (GPFR)
Conceptual framework for financial reporting
Which Qualitative Characteristics (QCs) are perceived important in investment and lending decisions?
IASB recognises improving “quality” of information through IFRS in their mission statement
Approach –Survey Questionnaire
Findings
Study concludes that
What is the motivation for researching usefulness of annual reports in Sri Lanka
