Urban Morphological Evolution: From Colonial to Immigratory Culture, Australia
Wednesday 14 May 2008 10.30 am
Japanese Room 1st Floor, Architecture Building
Yina Sima
PhD Confirmation
Melbourne's colonial core has been influenced by diverse political, commercial and cultural relations: golden rush, overseas investment, World Wars, and waves of immigration. These relations reflect the city's process of urban formation and are typified by the cycles of boom and bust. This research examines characteristics of each major morphological period associated with economical development and contemporary influences of politics and culture. In addition to assessing the morphological history of the city's core by reproducing a series of maps, the city's social history is explored, especially in terms of its spatial and symbolic nature, from a colonial to a modern context. This study therefore outlines the morphological evolution of an urban organism, in this case the physical transformation of Melbourne's city center since 1835. It gives particular attention to the characteristics of the physical changes that have occurred; the political, economical and cultural factors responsible; and the precise treatment of data sources which record those transformations. The compilation of data from local libraries, planning authorities and commercial companies for the urban ke-rnel is described, and the various types of physical changes undergone by the city centre, especially functional alterations, plot subdivision (or consolidation), rebuildings and additions to existing, are analysed. The variations over time in the locations of these changes are examined in relation to the characteristics of contemporary social economic and political factor.
Yina Sima is a full-time Phd student in the faculty of Architecture Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne. Her current research interests include urban history and spatial transformation. She completed undergraduate study in the school of Urban Studies at Wuhan University (China) and then pursued postgraduate study in Urban Planning and Land Administration at ITC (Netherland). Prior to commence PhD research here she worked as an urban planner in Shanghai.
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