City Designed for Subtropical Living - Carrying forward the momentum from Subtropical Cities 2006

At a time when cities around the world are increasingly looking and feeling the same, and similarly adding to mounting environmental crises, the Subtropical Cities conference hosted by the Centre for Subtropical Design in Brisbane a few months ago generated keen enthusiasm for ways subtropical environments can produce new models for urbanism and address the problems of the contemporary city. Subtropical Cities was characterised by a genuine sense of excitement about how, in the subtropics, we can plan and design urbanism that is enriched by commitment to local distinctiveness through attention to climate, cultural values and landscape. The conference confirmed that if we are to face the challenges of today and the future, we need a framework that accommodates complexity and diversity. Invaluable micro-tactics and subtle incremental changes which dwell on amenity and liveability are necessary; not the tallest, not the biggest, not the most spectacular! Such excesses are easily achieved

Project report. A subtropical urban community, investigating medium to high density residential typologies by Design Charrette

The Centre for Subtropical Design at QUT, in partnership with the Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council, conducts research focused on 'best practice' outcomes for higher density urban living environments in the subtropics through the study of typical urban residential typologies, and urban design. The aim of the research is to inform and illustrate best practice subtropical design principles to policy makers and development industry professionals to stimulate climate-responsive outcomes. The Centre for Subtropical Design recently sought project-specific funding from the Queensland Department of Infrastructure and Planning (DIP) to investigate residential typologies for sustainable subtropical urban communities, based on transit orientated development principles and outcomes for areas around public transport nodes. A development site within the Fitzgibbon Urban Development Area, and close to a rail and bsu transport corridor, provided a case study location for this project. Four design-led multi-disciplinary creative teams participated in a Design Charrette and have produced concept drawings and propositions on a range of options, or prototypes. Analysis of selected prototypes has been undertaken to determine their environmental, economic and social performance. This Project Report discusses the scope of the project funded by DIP in terms of activities undertaken to date, and deliverables achieved. A subsequent Research Report will discuss the detailed findings of the analysis

Stable isotopes of Hawaiian spiders reflect substrate properties along a chronosequence.

The Hawaiian Islands offer a unique opportunity to test how changes in the properties of an isolated ecosystem are propagated through the organisms that occur within that ecosystem. The age-structured arrangement of volcanic-derived substrates follows a regular progression over space and, by inference, time. We test how well documented successional changes in soil chemistry and associated vegetation are reflected in organisms at higher trophic levels-specifically, predatory arthropods (spiders)-across a range of functional groups. We focus on three separate spider lineages: one that builds capture webs, one that hunts actively, and one that specializes on eating other spiders. We analyze spiders from three sites across the Hawaiian chronosequence with substrate ages ranging from 200 to 20,000 years. To measure the extent to which chemical signatures of terrestrial substrates are propagated through higher trophic levels, we use standard stable isotope analyses of nitrogen and carbon, with plant leaves included as a baseline. The target taxa show the expected shift in isotope ratios of δ15N with trophic level, from plants to cursorial spiders to web-builders to spider eaters. Remarkably, organisms at all trophic levels also precisely reflect the successional changes in the soil stoichiometry of the island chronosequence, demonstrating how the biogeochemistry of the entire food web is determined by ecosystem succession of the substrates on which the organisms have evolved

The 'New Queenslander': A Contemporary Environmentally Sustainable Timber House

This paper describes the outcomes of an applied research project aimed at developing a contemporary, environmentally sustainable housing approach that takes its lead from the qualities and attributes of the Queensland vernacular timber housing, and that can be widely adopted in a similar way to its traditional predecessor. There was no intention to revive the original ‘Queenslander’ house but to build on the qualities which have made the timber house such an attractive and sustainable housing typology to develop a contemporary timber design vocabulary for project homes in Queensland. The design-led multi-disciplinary project took a critical approach to identifying the optimum solution that can be obtained by combining available building materials with market appeal and affordability, architectural design for lifestyle in Australian subtropical and tropical climates, engineering design, and environmental performance. It was also imperative that the timber systems developed be able to be adopted by the house building industry with minimal change to the conventional trade-based process of project delivery. The research included a review of available timber products including composite products, and a review of regulatory issues which impact on the use of timber in residential construction. The findings of the reviews were combined with environmental design objectives to develop a new construction system for integrating timber products in residential design

Interview with Rosemary Rios

Rosemary Rios, a migrant worker who has settled down in Knox County talks about the work, her family, and her opinion of the community.https://digital.kenyon.edu/lt_interviews/1037/thumbnail.jp

Multilevel Examination of Facility Characteristics, Social Integration, and Health for Older Adults Living in Nursing Homes

Objectives. Testing a model based on past research and theory, this study assessed relationships between facility characteristics (i.e., culture change efforts, social workers) and residents’ social networks and social support across nursing homes and examined relationships between multiple aspects of social integration (i.e., social networks, social capital, social engagement, social support) and mental and functional health for older adults in nursing homes. Methods. Data were collected at nursing homes using a planned missing data design with random sampling techniques. Data collection occurred at the individual-level through in-person structured interviews with older adult nursing home residents (N = 140) and at the facility-level (N = 30) with nursing home staff. Results. The best fitting multilevel structural equation model indicated that the culture change sub-scale for relationships significantly predicted differences in residents’ social networks. Additionally, social networks had a positive indirect relationship with mental and functional health among residents primarily via social engagement. Social capital had a positive direct relationship with both health outcomes. Discussion. To predict better social integration and mental and functional health outcomes for nursing homes residents, study findings support prioritizing that close relationships exist among staff, residents, and the community as well as increased resident social engagement and social trust

Re-valuing construction through project delivery

In moving from lowest cost adversarial based traditional procurement towards value driven methodologies the challenges range from re-engineering the process, to metrics and team alignment. This paper describes research into methodologies which encourage alignment of project partners towards achieving mutually beneficial goals. The research identifies nine variables which influence the achievement of successful projects delivering value. Results from case studies illustrate that not all parties can achieve value for themselves which directs attention to the balance between deliverables and the interests of team members. Re- valuing construction demands refocusing towards the delivery of operational assets and their place in the value system whilst recognising the need to manage the delivery process and the team to align the value to the parties. The objective of the project was to develop tools and recommendations for reform of project delivery in the building and construction industry to transform business-as-usual performance into exceptional performance. Benefits flow not only to the construction industry, but to the community as a whole because a more sophisticated industry can deliver more effective use of assets, financing, operating and maintenance of facilities to suit the community’s needs. This research was funded by the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation

The journey to delivered value in Australian procurement

In line with developments overseas Australian clients are turning to considerations of value in project procurement. Until the 1980s the industry operated in a largely traditional manner however the extremely adversarial behaviour exhibited during towards the end of the decade led to a number of significant events and initiatives including the publication of “No Dispute”, the Gyles Royal Commission into the Building Industry, the Construction Industry Development Agency (CIDA) and the work of the Australian Procurement and Construction Council (APCC). A number of research projects in progress in the CRC for Construction Innovation (CRC CI) are focussing on the assessment of value and methodologies to support the delivery of value in the procurement and management of engineering and construction projects. This paper charts the emergence of several key drivers in the process and illustrates how they can be integrated into a comprehensive Decision Support System that balances value to stakeholders with project imperatives and incorporates a lessons learned data base which enriches the decision making process to optimise delivery method design and selection