Advance - Summer 2013

Summer 2012

A new vision:

Research with impact

research delivers valuable insights for the forestry industry

contents 4 shorts

Research symposium + Research with Impact award winner + Three minute thesis competition

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6 cover story

Wayne Holmes’s sensor could change the way the forestry industry processes logs

10 computing

Unitec and Japanese research institution NICT create a new Cyber Security Research Centre

12 architecture

Students create an innovative new house design for a non-profit organisation

16 sustainability

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A series of research projects are ensuring that Unitec’s Wairaka Stream not only survives, but thrives

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21 pacific

Associate Professor Christoph Schnoor discovers a building worth saving in Samoa

24 innovation

An artificial reef project on a Fijian island could solve erosion problems in the Pacific

28 books

Joanne Drayton writes about Anne Perry, Pieter Nel finishes multiple text books and another ePress book is launched

32 profile

Linda Kestle finds a moment to tell us about her research life

34 completions

Find out about Alyssa and other Unitec postgraduate researchers

editor Simon Peel writer Trudi Caffell design Nadja Rausch cover photo gettyimages printing GEON

published by Unitec Institute of Technology Private Bag 92025, Victoria Street West, Auckland 1142, New Zealand ISSN 1176-7391 phone 0800 10 95 10 web www.unitec.ac.nz

When is it research, and when is it not?

At Unitec our focus is on applied and practical research that has impact. In Advance we highlight stories about our staff and students engaged in research projects that show how this aspiration is coming to life in the work we do.

But what is the difference between a cool and interesting project and a cool and interesting research project? There are many interesting projects that we would like to tell you about, but not all of them are research projects.

So what makes it research?

Not surprisingly there are many different definitions and there is often room for disagreement. If an architect designs a house, is it research? If one of our researchers tests a sample of wood for a local timber company, is it research?

The short answer is: maybe, it depends! But what does it depend on? It depends on factors such as whether the project involves some sort of systematic study, original investigation, experimental enquiry or development of novel design or construction solutions, and creation of new knowledge or understanding. It must also be open to scrutiny and evaluation by others in the field.

So to come back to the earlier question − if an architect uses routine professional practice to design your house, then no, it isn't research. But if the architect adopts an u do yo ce? w o experimental approach by possibly H advan r u deploying new techniques, o like y o an t e g methods and materials in ways chan r ribe, per o c a s p b that push the boundaries of what r u To s n ove , find ersio s l v i k a is currently done and produces t o r de t e-bo e you line a g n n o a some sort of innovation or h e zin to c maga earch aesthetic refinement, then it may s e c e r n / a z Adv c.ac.n .unite well be research. Likewise, routine www testing of wood would not be research but an original series of tests, driven by a set of questions, and leading to new knowledge or understanding, probably would be.

For us at Advance magazine the most interesting research projects are those that connect Unitec staff or student expertise and capability to our community, stakeholders, and our industry partners. This is in keeping with our priority of highlighting those stories that show Unitec staff and students making a contribution to Auckland's and New Zealand's economic, social, and cultural development.

I hope that you enjoy this issue of Advance. If you wish to know more about research at Unitec please visit the research pages of our website www.unitec.ac.nz or contact me directly.

Associate Professor Simon Peel Dean of Research and Postgraduate Studies speel@unitec.ac.nz

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Providing inspiration – Unitec's Research Symposium Research is a vital component of the academic life of Unitec, and the annual Research Symposium provides an opportunity for staff and students learn about the myriad projects happening around the campus.

Every year staff and students get the chance to listen, talk and exchange ideas about the research projects going on around campus. This year’s symposium included sessions on research in sustainability, student success, and collaboration in research.

From judging bias in laying hens and the impact of mega events on construction planning, to Arabic-speaking students’

language needs and measuring the cardio-respiratory system efficiency in trained rowers, the symposium covered a multitude of topics. “It’s about bringing everyone together in one place and providing them with inspiration and interaction,” says Simon Peel, Dean of Research and Postgraduate Studies. “It’s important that researchers from the different disciplines at Unitec are able to connect to each other, making useful relationships for possible future research, but also to see that they are not alone, that their work is part of a greater whole, adding up to a wide variety of important and useful research taking place across our campuses.”

The finalist speakers: Linda Kestle: Establishing the added-value of various roles of post-disaster personnel in the response and recovery of Christchurch. With Regan Potangaroa.

Chandimal Jayawardena: The intelligent robotic chair for cardiovascular risk assessment. With Kathirawelu Ganeshan, Gillian Whalley, Nilfuar Baghaei and Hossein Sarrafzadeh.

Marcus Williams: Rosebank, cultural capital as agency: examining the relationship between art, enterprise and community.

Nigel Adams: Mitigating the impact of the toxin 1080 on native birds during pest control operations. With Lorne Roberts, Tamsin Orr-Walker, Josh Kemp, and Eric Spurr.

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Kathryn Davies: Use of roof space ventilation to address summertime overheating in New Zealand houses. With Roger Birchmore and Robert Tait.

Research with Impact Prize The main research award at Unitec, the Research with Impact Prize, is given to the finalist whose research has potential to make an impact on the way things are done in a particular field. “We work hard at Unitec to ensure that the research is relevant, applied and applicable,” says Peel. “This prize is to celebrate the research project that best encapsulates our overarching goal of research that makes a positive impact on the world around us.”

The finalists were Dr Linda Kestle, Dr Chandimal Jayawardena, Associate Professor Marcus Williams, Nigel Adams and Kathryn Davies. The winner was Nigel Adams with his presentation on work that is being done by his research team to protect New Zealand’s native bird population, particularly the kea, from eating the 1080 poison pellets dropped by the Department of Conservation (DOC).

According to Adams, the pellets, which are intended for pests such as possums, are dropped in two lots, the first one with no poison, to get the pests used to the pellet drops and to have a positive memory of the drop. The second drop has the 1080 poison included and, because of the first drop of pellets, a greater uptake in the targeted pest species.

Of particular concern is that kea and other native birds may eat the pellets, and the research focuses on ways to

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discourage the birds from doing so. The solution was two chemical repellents that can be easily incorporated into the pellets, which taste bad and make the birds nauseous. They can be incorporated into both drops to discourage the birds from eating the pellets.

"It's work that we're really proud of, because it can potentially make a real difference to native bird populations, and particularly kea, in New Zealand," says Adams. "DOC has completed a test run of the repellent-filled pellets, and it confirms by adding these chemicals to 1080-laced pellets we can deter kea from eating pellets. More importantly, initial field tests by DOC have suggested they do not repel the target species of possums and rats. There are still some kinks to be worked out around the delivery process, but all going well, they could be using the repellents by the end of next year.

"Winning the Research with Impact Prize was exciting. We were confident that there was real world application before the award, but what was very heartening was that this was recognised by the wider community of researchers, reflecting perhaps a widespread appreciation of conservation issues.”

Congratulations to Nigel Adams and the rest of the finalists for the Research with Impact Prize.

Three minute thesis competition The 2012 Unitec Research Symposium also featured the Three Minute Thesis competition, a hotly contested event that was running for the second year, after the popularity of the inaugural competition in 2011.

With 15 students from a variety of disciplines, the Three Minute Thesis provided a short and sharp inside look into the fascinating world of student research.

The winner was Vicky Te Puni, a Master of Design student in photography. Te Puni says her topic started out as a reflection on Maori in a contemporary tertiary education environment. “I initially started looking at my own personal struggles, my own personal journey studying at a mainstream institute like Unitec. But now I’m looking at how an urban marae can influence Maori in a positive way.

It’s about how an urban marae can be effective in an urban community in South Auckland and how that impacts on people within that community and the positive effects it can have on Maori within contemporary society today.”

shorts

Unitec recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that provides links with Nga Whare Waatea, an urban marae in Mangere. “I went to the powhiri for the MOU, and my supervisor suggested I might be able to ride on the coat tails of this new relationship and base my project at the marae, so there is a case study for my work.”

The project involves going to the marae and talking to the people she meets. “It’s ethnographic in a sense. It’s an observer going into a community of people, recording footage, taking photographs, and interviewing the people that are linked to that marae and asking them how that marae has impacted on them, but also asking them questions or issues in regards to Maori as well, and just getting their thoughts on that.”

As for the thesis competition, Te Puni says she was a reluctant starter. “I didn’t think that I could do it. I didn’t think I could get it all into a three minute speech. That’s not always an easy thing to do. Beforehand I don’t think I’d ever done the speech in less than three minutes, but on the day it was 2 minutes 40, so I must have talked really fast.”

Despite being a confident public speaker, Te Puni says the competition’s audience made it more difficult. “Getting up and talking in front of a crowd of academic types, that’s intimidating. Because you’re trying to cover your research project, what you say has to count. I was actually having breathing problems. Walking up there, it felt like it took forever.

“I couldn’t believe I’d done it, I mean if I look at my own journey, from four years ago, I would never have thought that I would enter a thesis competition. It’s just another thing I can be proud of myself for.”

Two runners up were announced on the day – congratulations to Saul Taylor and Oliver Kraft.

From top: Vicky Te Puni gives her winning speech.

Two minutes 30 seconds into Saul Taylor's talk.

The winning students and their supervisors.

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Photo: Simon Riera

Sensing the layers cover story

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Current research into new sensors for the forestry industry has the potential to significantly improve the way New Zealand’s third largest export industry processes trees and logs.

But according to Unitec Lecturer and Curriculum Leader of Electrotechnology, Wayne Holmes, it doesn’t have to be like this. He’s conducting research into creating sensors for the industry that have the potential to significantly change the way logs are processed.

Holmes has been involved with microwave engineering and electromagnetics since the 1990s, previously through crown research institute IRL, and now at Unitec. “My research is basically using radiowaves and microwaves to create sensors that will say something about the properties of a material, or to image the interior of it,” he says. “In the case of wood − which is one of the more challenging materials to look at − we can say something about its moisture content, about its basic density, and the orientation of the grain. By just looking at the signals you get back, you can build up a picture of the mechanical properties of the material.”

The forestry industry in New Zealand is mostly made up of plantation style crops of radiata pine.

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Added to this, wood must now compete with man-made materials for many of its traditional uses. While the production of plantation-style wood is more sustainable, it is currently very difficult to assess the inside of a tree before it is cut down and through the drying process. This can mean that it is placed second behind the man-made alternatives.

It is New Zealand’s third largest export industry – behind dairy and meat – and provides an annual gross income of around $5 billion, approximately three per cent of New Zealand’s GDP. New Zealand actually pioneered the plantation concept in the early twentieth century, an innovative approach that stopped the destruction of our native forests in its tracks. Despite this ground-breaking history, the lack of useful sensors is still an issue for the New Zealand forestry industry.

But decent sensors for wood don’t exist for a very good reason. “Wood is actually a combination of many materials,” says Holmes. “We tend to think of it as ‘wood’, but the reality is that it’s

e ry h t t u t s o u b d a in

» The forestry industry is based around sustainably managed exotic plantation forests, covering 1.751 million hectares – approximately seven per cent – of New Zealand’s land area. » Plantation pine forests were successfully established during the 1940s and 50s. Within 20 years, the amount of timber cut from plantations was double that from native forest. Today only two per cent of native timber is cut down.

» New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world that can say that 98 per cent of its commercial wood needs are met from sustainably managed plantation forests. » When forests are growing they act as a ‘carbon sink’ because they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as part of the process of photosynthesis. In this way, forests help to offset the greenhouse effect. » summer 2012 » advance

Photo: istock

Wood can be unpredictable. For most of us, that’s part of its charm, but for those in the forestry industry it’s what makes working with this natural material so challenging. Two trees can look the same externally, but have very different attributes on the inside. It takes time and careful handling to create a consistent product out of a biological material that is affected by multiple external forces such as weather, humidity and pests.

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“If you think of a wave going through an object, every time it hits a growth ring, you get a little bit of energy reflected back.

It’s like stones in a river."

layered. The grain has direction, and dimensionally it will change on you. It can vary between different trees, it varies between whereabouts in the log it was cut, and whether it was cut from the sap wood on the outside, or the heartwood. Then it depends on whether the wood was cut from the bottom of the tree, the top of the tree, or the middle of the tree.”

At the processing end of the forestry industry, it is the moisture content of the logs that is vital, says Holmes. “If wood is above a certain moisture level, it rots. Because New Zealand is a fairly wet, temperate climate, just about all our wood is kiln dried. For forestry, moisture is one of the main quality factors after it’s dried.”

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Steve Riley from the forestry crown research institute Scion agrees. “Sensing moisture is a bit of a Holy Grail project in wood drying research.

If we could be 100 per cent certain where the average moisture content was, and where it was located in a board or a stack, or in a process, so many other things would come into place for us, so the fact that we can’t do it very well at the moment is very problematic. Lots of other things have to be done to get around the fact that we’re never really sure.”

When it goes out to market, the optimal moisture content of cut wood is around 10-12 per cent.

“A stack might incorporate three or four stems,” says Holmes. “One stack of lumber is 2.4 meters high by 1.2 meters wide, by six metres long.

There could be several different trees in that one stack. One might have been sitting at the site for a couple of weeks and will naturally go down to 60 per cent and the other one might have been cut that morning, so could be up around 180 per cent. You’re talking about a highly random, highly variable product going into that kiln.”

s r a c s rees v

t

When burnt as fuel in a car engine, petrol releases 2.62 kilograms of carbon dioxide per litre. On this basis, a typical car produces one tonne of carbon dioxide for every 5,555 km driven, or three tonnes for an average year’s driving (16,666 km). This is equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide that 33-60 pine trees absorb in one year. source: www.teara.govt.nz

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The sensors currently being used in the kilns – if they use any sensors at all – are limited, says Holmes. “It’s about making sense of what is happening in the kiln environment and allowing them to control that process. They put a batch of wood in the kiln

at incredibly high temperatures, leave it for eight hours, pull it out, and the sensors give them the average moisture content of the whole stack. But there will be pieces of lumber in that stack that will be well above their limits. They have to be selectively pulled out and redried.”

So Holmes’ sensors, once testing is complete, would be valuable to the industry for a variety of reasons. “It’s obviously a very energy-hungry process, so we’re aiming to improve the efficiency and the uniformity of the drying that’s coming out the other side,” says Holmes. “They could use this sensor to control the drying process by adjusting the air direction and the air flows to level out the moisture. It would mean they could avoid this costly reprocessing stage. It’s about making the process more effective and more efficient.”

Another aspect of Holmes’ sensor research is to create an image of forestry trees before they’re cut down. In 2012 he received funding from the Unitec Research Committee (URC) to continue this work, along with fellow Unitec staff member, Saeed Ur Rehman. “I’m looking at using microwaves to give a rapid online measurement of density, by extracting the density information out of the signals I receive back,” says Holmes.

“If you think of a wave going through an object, every time it hits a growth ring, you get a little bit of energy reflected back. It’s like stones in a river.

To date I have it down to about 10 kilograms per metre cubed, plus or minus, which means it’s at an accuracy of about one per cent, which is pretty good to judge a standing tree.”

His URC project is looking at ways to further reduce that one per cent. “I’m looking at the potential source of error in the density measure, using methods of detecting the early wood/late wood boundaries, and using that to correct the existing density calculations.”

Holmes can then use those calculations to correct the numbers. “You can have two pieces of wood that have exactly the same average density, but totally different early wood/late wood bandings.

So what I’m measuring has this error in it, because there might be more energy reflected back off that one little boundary. To improve the accuracy I have to detect that proportion of early wood and late wood and then correct it.”

According to Holmes, he is nearing the end of the project. “Technically, what will be challenging is the hardware rather than the idea, because you need to have quite a large bandwidth, a wide range of frequencies to do it,” he says. “I could do this on a one hundred thousand dollar network analyser tomorrow, but the reality is that no

cover story

Photos: Simon Riera

one wants to lug a huge instrument around or spend that sort of money. Once I’ve proved the technique, the real challenge will be turning that into a usable instrument. Basically we’re using software definable radio to build a one hundred thousand dollar network analyser for about three thousand dollars. If we can improve the accuracy and the cost of these systems it will take off.”

Riley is quick to say that from Scion’s perspective, Holmes’ research is very significant. “Scanning the solid wood and getting information from it is pretty important. And microwaves are a good way of doing that because there is a lot of information in microwaves, so you’ve got a lot of variables to look at. If the research comes up with something that looks really good and the concept is proved, it wouldn’t be hard to generate enthusiasm for it in the forestry industry.”

All of Holmes’ research fits into where Riley sees the future of wood processing heading; a futuristic bio-refinery model that deals with multiple uses for wood. “The work that Wayne Holmes is doing in microwaves, which by extension is wood properties, moisture and

defects in wood, fits very well into this future concept of a bio-refinery. A bio-refinery model would mean that as logs arrive, they’re sorted by the right material for the right process.

“Wood is such a variable product, and it’s competing against highly defined, highly uniform, and isotropic materials like steel, concrete and plastic. Wood is none of those things. It’s a more sustainable product than any of those other options, so being able to qualityassure our product in a competitive market is vital to the future of plantation wood.”

The idea that Holmes’ research into radiowaves and microwaves could be used to remove this uncertainty is exciting to many in the industry.

“At the moment, saw mills receive a whole heap of logs, good and bad, and they have to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear,” says Riley. “If you could have a sensor at the log or tree area, or especially when it arrives into the plant, saying that these are going to make great furniture logs, while these should be chipped up and made into fuel, it would make the whole process more efficient.”

» contact Wayne Holmes Lecturer and Curriculum Leader Department of Electrotechnology wholmes@unitec.ac.nz

» summer 2012 » advance

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Photo: Simon Riera

Tracking cyber crime

Computing

An exciting new collaboration with Japan’s government research institution, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, has led to the creation of a Cyber Security Research Centre at Unitec, with plans to become the cyber security hub for the AsiaPacific region.

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The rise of cyber security as a significant field of computing research was only to be expected. An increasing amount of our time is spent online, both for business and relaxation, with new ways to access and utilise the internet being invented every day. The corresponding rise in cyber attacks is a continual problem at every level, from the home computer to the biggest server.

The newly signed agreement involves a three-year research project headed by Dr Paul Pang and based at Unitec’s Mt Albert campus. The Unitec centre will be modelled on the original in Japan says Pang. “At NICT headquarters they have devices to monitor the network traffic, which we now also have, and the two centres will share knowledge and the data so that we can analyse what is happening.”

According to Computing Head of Department Dr Hossein Sarrafzadeh, this rapidly changing environment provides a unique opportunity for his department to become world leaders.

“In the last two years we’ve been building our capability,” he says.

“Our aim is to become a hub for cyber security research in New Zealand and in the wider Asia-Pacific region.”

Pang says New Zealand is the perfect place to monitor computer attacks. “Most of the attacks come from Russia, China and the US and they want to improve the effectiveness of this kind of monitoring and filtering. Japan receives quite a lot of attacks from different countries, but here it’s quieter, so we’re in a good position to look at the safety of different countries.”

An exciting new agreement with Japanese research institution, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) is part of this strategy. “We had been communicating with NICT as potential research collaborators for a while, and we recently finalised the agreement to launch a joint research lab, to be based at Unitec,” he says. “NICT will fund it and provide equipment, and Unitec will provide the space and the researchers who will run it.”

It’s not only our location that impressed the NICT researchers.

“They’re very keen on the research capability that we have in our department,” says Sarrafzadeh. “That was one of the reasons they wanted to work with us. We already have researchers with the necessary expertise related to cyber security.”

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The importance of cyber security in protecting New Zealand’s vital infrastructure assets is one of the main reasons for this kind of research. “For example our electricity generation in New

Zealand could be vulnerable,” says Sarrafzadeh.

“Our transportation sector is the same. Our financial sector is another area that might be vulnerable if they’re not secure. Our research could prevent serious future issues; it will keep us safer.”

The research will include students, who will come away with knowledge and experience vital to a secure cyber environment in New Zealand. “Many commentators are saying that if you want job security, look to cyber security as a profession,” says Sarrafzedah. “I think we’ve combined teaching and research in an environment where graduates will come out ready for work in niche areas, and areas of need in the industry.”

This emerging emphasis on cyber security is a worldwide phenomenon, with commentators such as the Washington Post’s Alex Fitzpatrick saying that cyber security is a field where the rules of the recession seem flipped. “There are plenty of jobs, but relatively few qualified applicants,” says Fitzpatrick. “The government needs to hire at least 10,000 experts in the near future and the private sector needs four times that number.”

Aside from the opportunities for students provided by research taking place at Unitec, other by-products have emerged from the collaboration.

“We were recently able to send a doctoral student to NICT, paid for by NICT,” says Sarrafzadeh. “He’s there now, for one year. When he comes back, he

will have a wealth of knowledge. He’s going to be part of the lab, supervised by one of the supervisors at Unitec as well as someone from NICT.” Through their association with NICT, the computing department has also started working with another tertiary institution in Japan, the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST). “We have an MOU to do research, staff exchanges and student exchanges with them,” says Sarrafzadeh. “This is a direct result of our move into the cyber security area. Two students from Unitec travelled to NAIST last year, funded

by NAIST. One was for two weeks, one was two months. They go there, they get information, and they get to use the facilities. How long they stay depends on what the project is, but it’s all relevant to what we are doing here at Unitec.”

Computing

e itec’s Executiv Leon Fourie, Un Head of logy (NICT) and h, no de ch fza Te rra ns Sa tio in ta and Communica dress. Dr Hosse of Information will generate da his opening ad tional Institute research centre Dr Enami gives Dr Enami. The President of Na search Centre. e of Re Vic ze i, rity ga cu am ful Se En r tch Cybe : Dr. Kazumasa U under the wa cially open the Opposite page e signs the MO Industries, offi is page: Rick Ed world. culty of Creative ce around the of the centre. Th pla h e Dean of the Fa nc tak lau y the the at attacks as Computing, alyse the cyber an Department of to ers rch ow the resea streams that all

“NICT is very keen on the research capability that we have in our department.”

These opportunities for students are not accidental, says Sarrafzadeh. “These by-products are as important as the general aims we have for the centre, because the most important thing for us is the students. This is out of a clear strategy that Unitec is following, centred on producing highly productive talent, innovation in teaching and learning, and an excellent student experience. If we train them well, then we’ve achieved our goal. To train them well we need a real life environment for them to learn in; the new Cyber Security Research Centre is the best way to achieve that.”

» contact Hossein Sarrafzadeh Head of Department Department of Computing hsarrafzadeh@unitec.ac.nz

» summer 2012 » advance

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Drawing the line Using research as an opportunity to provide students with practical exposure to design and build processes means this Unitec project is already a success.

Architecture

For many architecture students, there is little connection between the lines they draw on paper and the finished buildings those lines could later become. But for a group of third year architecture students, those abstract lines are becoming very real – they’re currently working on a project that blends research, design and practical learning in order to construct two fully completed houses for external clients.

This year’s project is to create two homes for Vision West, a non-profit organisation based in West Auckland that provides housing options for low-income families in need of help.

According to Strachan, the project enables him to combine SGA’s expanding building methodologies research with a really practical approach to teaching architecture students about designing houses.

Adjunct Professor Dave Strachan, of Strachan Group Architects (SGA), has been leading small groups of Unitec architecture students through this process of designing, documenting and then building houses for the last five years. “This is a very different form of architecture education that is very real,” says Strachan. “Particularly in terms of architecture, in terms of what the line means.”

As part of that process, Strachan is able to expose the students to the new materials and technology that are the focus of his research throughout the project. “Students get a first hand knowledge of a new, and I think better, way of doing things, so that when they go out into the industry they take that knowledge with them.”

This page: Students, assisted by Cocksy and Dave Strachan, learn how to put together a prefabricated structure.

Opposite page clockwise from top left: Students learn what it means to draw a line. Dave Strachan and Elfie Kitchingham Hamilton check the designs. Flora Kwan uses the electric saw.

Travers Reynolds, Elfie Kitchingham Hamilton and Flora Kwan discuss the plans.

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The project began by looking at the basics of what had gone before in the area of social housing. “We did research into the historical patterns of social housing, what they have typically done in organisations like Housing New Zealand for example,” says Strachan. “Then we talked to Vision West, which works with the tenants on a one-to-one basis. We needed to understand if there were any cultural issues, any no-nos that the students had to know about for the design.”

They discovered that Vision West’s philosophy was about more than simply putting a roof over the heads of its tenants.

“Their whole aim is to help give these families the tools to better their lives, so they teach them budgeting skills, gardening skills. They help them to find work, get their kids into school, find a place in the community,” says Reynolds.

Fellow student Elfie Kitchingham Hamilton says she was inspired by the work the organisation does. “They had these amazing stories about these women who come in and they’ve been living in their car with their children, and they go to Vision West and they basically transform their lives. We’re pretty proud that we can be part of that.”

As a group the students aimed to be innovative in every aspect of their design, to achieve their goal of a better quality house for the same price. But they discovered that practical elements sometimes conflicted with their goals. “Bedrooms and living spaces should face north, but the consequences of that when you’re working in a tight little space really affects your design,” says Reynolds. “Ensuring there’s sunlight coming into a room either in the morning or the evening will totally change the room’s dynamics in terms of moisture levels, but trying to make your house work like that isn’t easy.”

Architecture

This year’s group is made up of 16 students with a range of complementary skills, and a mix of cultures and sexes. “It’s our aim to deliver, for the same cost, a much better and healthier product to live in,” says architecture student Travers Reynolds.

“One that will last longer, be more durable, and easier to maintain compared to the standard state housing model used by budget housing companies. What we are trying to argue is that we can create, through good design, well-thought-out building plans and new technologies, a much more highlyinsulated house, for example, for the same price.”

» summer 2012 » advance

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The ORIGINAL IDEA The design and build idea came from a collaboration between Dave Strachan and his friend, John Cocks, also known as Cocksy, the celebrity builder. “Initially Cocksy asked if I would do a set of plans for this charity, KidsCan,” says Strachan. “I was keen to help, and said I’d do the plans. Then I thought I could get my students involved too and then convinced the school to let the students build the house.

“The first two years we did it for KidsCan, and the last two years we’ve done it for private clients. One was an Onemana Bach which won a whole bunch of awards, and the other is a private house.” This year they returned to the non-profit sector to work on two houses for the West Auckland housing organisation, Vision West.

Another massive part of the project was documenting the design for the council to obtain consent. “We split into groups, and one group looked at the site conditions and the council restrictions, so we knew about them from the start,” says Kitchingham Hamilton.

Architecture

“We had to work around all the zoning restrictions,” adds Reynolds. “That included all the height to boundary ratios, and the minor dwelling situation, because there are two houses but it’s a single title. There was also a sewer main pipe running under one of the sections, so we really had to work around that because it’s a lot more expensive to build over it, structurally.”

But they learned that putting these issues into a practical application was harder than they’d anticipated. “You realise the significance of a line on a page. When you draw that line and it ends up needing 50 screws and all this extra work, you’re going to think twice about just throwing lines on a page,” says Reynolds.

“Even just finding out how many screws need to be on that line,” adds Kitchingham Hamilton. “It’s quite humbling, because it shows you what you don’t know. Especially with the planning and the council drawings, the detailing. I thought I roughly knew how to detail a building, but I had no idea.”

» contact Chris Murphy Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader Department of Architecture cmurphy@unitec.ac.nz

Added to this, they were using new building methodologies being tested by SGA. This included using prefabrication methods to improve the quality. “It’s site-specific prefabrication, which I think is almost unique to this project,” says Kitchingham Hamilton.

“One of the prejudices against prefab is that it’s not unique, you’re not getting something customised, which is often true, but in this case it’s customised. We did the site research, and then we went away from the site to build it, but with the site in mind.”

They’re also incorporating a range of materials not commonly used in low-cost housing, or in New Zealand in general, to improve the durability and insulation of the homes. “The floor is one you might

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put in a warehouse if you wanted a mezzanine, but it’s being used in a domestic situation here,” says Reynolds. “It’s strong and it’s light and it contains concrete. It has thermal mass, but it’s still transportable and it’s quick to put together.”

They’re also using Structurally Insulated Panels (SIP) for the walls, technology that is huge in the US and Europe. “It has a higher R value [used to measure insulation] than your standard timber frame and it’s more airtight because you don’t have all the joins between sheets of gib board,” says Kitchingham Hamilton.

Even the roof is a metal craft roof with insulation sandwiched in the middle. “These ideas all have a very high insulation performance,” says Strachan.

“This is all based on ideas we have in the office, and we bring them into the student environment, then we get a real world client, and we test them, and look at the ins and outs, and where they work and where they don’t work. These materials will be monitored subsequent to the build in terms of energy use.”

It’s all about trying to improve the standard of the houses being built in this sector, providing economic sustainability not only on the project but on an ongoing basis for the people who will eventually live in the houses. “The research is about improving building techniques in New Zealand in general,” says Strachan. “We’re doing research in conjunction with some major New Zealand companies into how we can construct warmer, drier homes.”

The students themselves are all excited to be a part of the project. “What we all kind of deepdown hope is for this project to make a significant dent in the fabric of the national housing stock for lower socio-economic situations,” says Reynolds.

“We feel that this prototype, if it goes well, it is going to appeal to landlords like Housing New Zealand and will end up improving our housing stock, which is a huge source of health problems in New Zealand. Hopefully it will create a better living environment right across the country.”

Research at your fingertips: advance blog

www.unitec.ac.nz/research/Advanceblog

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Restoring the heart New initiatives have recently been put in place to research and improve Unitec’s Wairaka Stream, at the heart of the Mt Albert campus, to ensure it not only survives, but thrives as a healthy urban waterway into the future.

Water plays an integral role in the backdrop of Unitec’s Mt Albert campus, and nothing represents this more than the Wairaka Stream.

It bursts out onto the top of campus by the student central buildings and the hub, then meanders down through the property towards its connection with the Oakley Creek.

SUSTAINABILITY

From the beginning of human inhabitation, it has been an important stream, providing both local iwi, and then later the settlers in the area, with sustaining fresh water and food. It is no longer

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used as a water source, but the urban stream is a significant ecological setting for Unitec and the surrounding community, as well as an amenity for use by students and staff on campus.

When the Unitec Environmental Sustainability Strategy Committee decided to develop a Sustainability Plan, with help from environmental engineering consulting firm Morphum, the Wairaka Stream was acknowledged as an asset that needed to be restored.

The Environmental Sustainability Strategy Committee also wanted to look at doing some planting, but needed some background research before putting the plants in. “They were interested in seeing if we could go further into the restoration and make some actual physical changes to the stream that would enhance habitat, amenity and environmental values,” says Clarke. “The thought was that once you’ve established plants on an unplanted stream bank then you don’t want to make any other changes there.”

Clarke says the Wairaka Stream is a good example of a stream that has survived relatively intact despite the build up of people around it.

“In terms of an urban stream, it’s definitely got high values because it’s got vigorous, springfed base flows, so there’s always a lot of water. It looks like a stream should, ological n. any ge g aq·ui·fer onductin and it sounds like a stream should, ining or c ta n o t c a n o th e and it’s got a lot of aquatic habitat formati ecially on ater, esp rings, etc p s , s for animals and fish. Also the main ground w ll r for we te a w e of th stormwater input is treated in a fic study supplies e scienti th . n ter, y a ·g really high-quality wetland, so it’s fresh w lim·nol·o mena of o n e h p s nd of a high value compared to the nd pond the life a y lakes a d especiall te other streams in the area.” c onstru barrier c a . n or r ir e te w w of wa For his study Clarke assessed the in the flo ta n o c a to ut the se stream to identify areas of erosion, to keep o poor morphology and also areas where it had been modified from its natural state.

“We identified that the top section was in good condition. The substrate is all rock, and it meanders down from the springs to the confluence with the outflow from the stormwater wetland. The only thing that was required was to improve the planting, so that’s gone ahead this winter in the planting season as the first initiative.”

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The next stage, says Clarke, involves an area downstream where there are several

sustainability

Caleb Clarke, who started Morphum with two friends while studying for his environmental engineering degree at Unitec, was then asked to use his expertise to provide a plan for the future of the Wairaka Stream. “One of the values we identified when we did the wider sustainability project was that the Mt Albert campus is a water campus. It’s a large piece of land, a green piece of land in the urban fringe with this beautiful stream running through it,” says Clarke. “The Wairaka Stream was highlighted as a resource that needed to be protected and enhanced.

Dave Phillips, Head of the Civil Engineering Department and one of the founders of the sustainability committee, was interested in funding research to see what could be done.”

Opposite page: Different views of the Wairaka, including the carved representation on the Unitec marae of the woman known as Wairaka.

This page: Planting day at the Wairaka Stream, including Mel Galbraith (to the left) and Rick Ede and Carolyn Cox (to the right).

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improvements that could be made. The exact nature of the changes to the stream are still provide an being determined, but there are a range of enhancements that could address some of the example of best issues. “You can change the way the water flows practice for downhill, by putting in riffles, which are little rock cascades. These help create the water, but also urban stream help prevent the stream bed from cutting into the management.” substrate if there’s erosion,” says Clarke. “You can flatten off banks where it’s been filled in, and you can even create meanders, and restore natural er straightened. sinuosity to the stream,t Cifheit’s valibeen to Poin D You canOalso arm the banks if there is erosion h A to Nort R with natural rock and plants to make it more H NO R T stable and that soil getting into the AY R Wprevent G R E AT MO TO 16stream.”

waterfall or a man-made pipe that they can’t swim up, that’s the limit of how far up the stream they can get,” he says. “We could retrofit some cascades to the front of that weir so the fish can pass up.”

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Another suggestion from his study is for part of the Wairaka Stream to be brought back to the surface, out of the piping that it has been re-routed through a process called daylighting.

“The stream is piped under the lower road, next to Carrington’s Pump House, but that pipe actually runs for 100 meters or so and it passes under the horticulture area,” says Clarke. “In that location, the stream is in a culvert. The concrete lid on the culvert is just on the surface, so as far as daylighting goes, there is an easy opportunity there. But there is a lot of design that has to go into that and it is more of a long-term project.”

RD These kinds of changes LAND prevent erosion and ERwill SUTH stop the water from flowing downhill so fast. “If it slows down it has more time to interact with the groundwater and has more connectivity with the landscape and that can reduce flooding downstream.”

The project has widened out to include other participants, including students. “I was lecturing for David Phillips on a paper this year, called Hydrology and Erosion Management,” says Clarke. “It deals with a lot of these hydrological issues and stream improvements, so we did our assignment on the Wairaka. The students picked an opportunity and did some thinking and design around it. It’s really great and we’re going to try to

Clarke also suggested making a fish passage to encourage more fish into the stream, past the weir at the Women’s Suffrage Garden. “Fish will swim as far as they can, but if there is a barrier like a

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A wander down the Wairaka Stream with Caleb Clarke

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“The Wairaka Stream comes from the springs that burst out of the aquifer leading from Mt Albert. They spring up and there is very little surface water in that area, it’s just the spring water that runs down to the front of the Marae. The upper section is all basalt rock from the aquifer so it’s got beautiful clear pools, a lot of interesting vegetation and a nice bridge.

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CE WT “Then VIE it meets the confluence with the SEA surface water of the area. There is reticulated stormwater from the suburbs up in Mt Albert that enters the Unitec wetlands, which has been designed to remove contamination and sediment from the water. The water passes through the wetlands with some of the other runoff from the buildings and car parks t Albert

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Unitec’s Environmental Sustainability Manager Carolyn Cox says these research projects and the study of the stream is not just about minimising our impact, but actually improving and enhancing the quality of the stream. “We are working toward a restorative campus,” she says.

“We want to provide an example of best practice for urban stream management with how we deal with the Wairaka Stream and improve its quality.

Each year we plan to monitor the stream and set targets to improve the biodiversity of the stream and the surrounding campus.”

Looking after the Wairaka isn’t only important because it’s part of the Unitec identity. It’s also a vital part of the ecosystem, says Clarke.

“In the terrestrial ecosystem, which is all the plants and animals and insects that live on the land, the stream side is a very productive part of that, where there is available water, and microclimates, and often they’re the most productive and bio-diverse part of the landscape.”

around Unitec, and that enters the stream just above Farm Road.

“From that point you’ve got both the aquifer spring-fed base flow coming down and you’ve also got surface water and rainwater.

It flows under the Farm Road, and then you’ve got a small pool associated with the Women’s Suffrage Garden. It’s fairly shallow, but it’s got a little cascade at the outfall, so you can hear the stream and sit and it’s quite peaceful. That’s where we’d like to retrofit the fish passage to that weir.

“Then it snakes down beside the road to the rugby fields. It’s still quite stable volcanic substrate, but the banks are bare through here and there’s some potential for erosion.

The original Wairaka The Wairaka Stream is named after a young woman from the Ngati Awa people who arrived on the Mataatua canoe. When the Mataatua canoe made its way north from Whakatane, with Puhi in command, his niece Wairaka was with them. She was already known for her bravery because of her quick actions to save the Mataatua canoe from rocks at the mouth of the Whakatane River. Before swimming out into the swirling waters she said: Kia whakatane au i au, or Let me act like a man. Puhi went on to establish his people in Te Taitokerau (Northland), while Wairaka’s people stayed on in Te Pu o Wairaka, now known as Ōwairaka or Mt Albert, and intermarried with the people of Rakataura (Tainui) and Ohomairangi (Te Arawa).

» contact Carolyn Cox Environmental Sustainability Manager ccox@unitec.ac.nz

The stories say that when Wairaka became thirsty she stamped her foot, and fresh water gushed out of the ground. This spring became known as Te Wai Unuroa o Wairaka, ‘the long drink of Wairaka’, and is located at the source of the Wairaka stream. The spring was highly valued for drinking and for the rituals of thanksgiving and ceremonials. It offered relief to the sick, was used for healing, bathing and irrigation, and was a constant source of food.

“Then it sneaks between the road and Carrington’s Pump House buildings. There is a bit of erosion at that location on the outside of the bend. Then it drops down past the front of Carrington’s, and once again there’s a bridge, and if you stand you can hear the water and have a look and possibly see some fish or eels if you’re lucky.

“From that point it goes into the culvert under the lower road, and it’s piped for about 100 meters. Then it pops out to a natural channel which is fairly well vegetated and drops down the hill to the confluence with the main Oakley Creek.”

sustainability

get some of the students involved to finalise the design on these projects. That will be happening for the rest of this year and over the summer.”

Caleb Clarke, Morphum environmental consultancy, and Unitec staff member

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Searching for the stream’s smallest animals

Senior Lecturer Mel Galbraith was commissioned as part of the research into the Wairaka Stream to look at the invertebrates currently inhabiting the stream. “Fresh water can be measured by looking at the community assemblage of invertebrates,” says Galbraith. “Just looking at the presence/absence of species alone can give a measure of quality.”

The measure used by Galbraith was the Macro Invertebrate Community Index, which is used by Landcare Research and regional councils throughout New Zealand to measure the quality of freshwater streams. “Some species are very sensitive, so they’re only going to be in really good quality water, and some species are universal, so they’re in everything. It’s that mix, that assemblage, that is the indicator of quality,” says Galbraith. “Every species has been assigned a number. So a species that has a number 10 is very sensitive, and a three or four can live in anything. You take whatever you can find, assign their number, do a calculation, and that ends up as an indicator of the quality.”

It’s not always about finding an abundance of any species. “An unhealthy stream might have a lot of a few types,” says Galbraith. “If you had a lot of snails, then it’s not very healthy. But if you have lots of mayflies, we know we’ve got a healthy stream, just by their presence alone, because they’re very sensitive.”

sutainability shorts

The table for New Zealand has around 165 different species and taxa that could be found in our streams. “All you do is take a sample. You disturb the habitat using the net and let the current take the animals into the net. Then we bring it up to the lab and look at in under the microscope to find what’s under there. We go through it, and record on the spreadsheet what we actually find.”

The Wairaka Stream came out with a score of 76, which is a fairly low number on the quality scale, says Galbraith. “Anything under 80 means ‘severe degradation’.

Really clean water has to get up over 120. That would be water up in the top of the Waitakere ranges, really clean water covered in bush. You’d never get that down in a lowland situation, but we can aim for it.”

Landcare Research limnologist Dr Stephen Moore has been working with Galbraith in the research of the stream. “He was particularly interested in what invertebrates were present, because New Zealand isn’t full of limnologists finding out about these things. So it’s new information about the distribution of these species, and we are contributing to that knowledge bank.

“Stephen did make the point that although the Wairaka Stream is down at that low level, it doesn’t seem to be as bad as the score suggests. There are going to be a number of factors that contribute to a low score, and one of them could just be lack of food. So the planting that has gone on will lower the amount of sediment, and provide organic matter. For our stream, looking after this top part, as has been happening with the planting, is probably one of the best things that we can do.”

Galbraith says that Moore was also interested in the fish in the Wairaka Stream – or lack thereof. “The stream should have the Banded Kokopu, one of the native whitebait species. He was quite surprised that he didn’t find any. A single look for them doesn’t mean to say they’re not there, it might be a function of the weather or the time of the year, but that’s something we should also be looking for. The fish are at the top end of this food web, and that can tell you something in itself about the food chain.”

Doing a comprehensive analysis of the stream now, when the developments to the stream are just starting, is invaluable. “It’s essentially to find out the health at the start of all these sustainability projects,” says Galbraith. “Whatever we do on campus is likely to have an affect on the stream, and the invertebrates are indicators of health. We need to know what kind of a state it’s in now, before we get too far down the track. That data is only valuable if you can compare it. We refer to this as the baseline data, it’s the starting point.”

Top to bottom: Mud snail, freshwater » unitec.ac.nz shrimp, axehead caddis, red damselfly.

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Architecture

Photo: The Court House and Government offices, Apia, Samoa - Photograph taken by Alfred John Tattersall, Photographs of Samoa, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.

Saving Samoa’s courthouse Research into a prominent German architect from the turn of last century lead to Unitec Associate Professor Christoph Schnoor becoming involved in trying to save one Samoa’s iconic colonial buildings.

It all began when Dr Christoph Schnoor decided to research the life of German colonial-era architect, Albert Schaaffhausen. In 2005 one of his students, Wilhem Schaaffhausen, approached Schnoor to say his great grandfather Albert had been General Architect in Samoa. “It started off as historical research, at the Berlin and Wellington archives, figuring out what the Germans had actually built in Samoa,” says Schnoor.

In 2008 Schnoor went to Samoa with Wilhem to investigate the archival documents that remained there. “Schaaffhausen was someone who was so deeply involved with the German, the Samoan and the New Zealand culture throughout his life,” he says. “He represents the story from colonialism to independence in an exemplary way.”

His general interest in the colonial-era buildings designed by Schaaffhausen became more specific when he became aware older buildings in Samoa were being demolished. “I realised that the old hospital building, built in 1902, was in immediate danger of being pulled down. I got very active in trying to stop this happening, together with a few other interested people, including the New Zealand High Commissioner in Samoa, Nick Hurly, and the German Honorary Consul in Samoa, Arne Schreiber. Unfortunately it wasn’t successful.”

In March this year, another historical building met the same fate. “The Fale Fono, the first parliamentary building of the Samoans, dating back to before 1920, was ordered to be

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pulled down, despite protest from the Samoan public. It was a shame since it represented the time of Samoan political independence far more than any other building in Samoa.”

needed to know how to promote our ideas to the local Samoan people. Malama, being born in Samoa, had good connections and has already done some research work over there.”

The next building in danger of demolition was the old courthouse, originally built in 1902 by the German colonial administration, and extended between 1908-1912 using plans

by Schaaffhausen. It served as courthouse and administration building until 1914 when, at the beginning of the First World War, New Zealand troops took over the rule in Samoa and used the Courthouse as their administration building. From the time of independence in 1962, the Samoan Government used it as their own Courthouse and as seat of the Prime Minister.

Solomona was pleased to have the opportunity to be involved in the project. “My interest is the economic development in Samoa and the future use of the courthouse building and how those two can be linked,” she says.

architecture

The colonial-era courthouse had been empty since 2010 when a new building for the Ministry of Justice was finished in Mulinu’u, outside town. Schnoor found there was strong support for saving the courthouse from the local population and earlier this year the Apia Courthouse Trust was formed by members of the local community, led by Hans-Joachim Keil, former cabinet minister and owner of the Samoan TV3 station, and including Joe Annendale, owner of the Sinalei resort.

Prior to the formation of the Trust, Schnoor had approached the German Embassy in Wellington for funding to complete a study of the courthouse. “The German Foreign Office contributed $10,000 for a feasibility study, so at the end of last year we sent in conservation architect Adam Wild, and two archaeologists with a modern 3D scanner. They measured the whole building within three days, and came back with a data cloud of information.”

According to Solomona the project has strong support from the locals. “People are very receptive. We found there was a lot of passion about the old buildings. I think when you ask people about the courthouse, it immediately stimulates stories. It was built in 1902, so it’s 110 years old. A lot of people have a connection to that Albert Schaaffhausen building.”

Albert Schaaffhausen was born in Essen in Germany in 1876.

By 1900, Schaaffhausen had finished secondary school and a Baufachschule, a special tertiary institution for the building trade.

He went to Samoa in 1900.

Schaaffhausen worked for the German Colonial Administration from 1901 onwards and became their de facto architect after 1903.

In 1904 he married Hannah Wallwork of Samoan and American descent, from Savai’i.

During his first fourteen years in Samoa, Schaaffhausen designed, and supervised the realization of, some forty buildings and infrastructural projects.

He went on home leave to Germany in June 1914, where he was called up for war service.

After his return to Samoa in 1923, he took up employment with O. F. Nelson and, in 1931, started working as an architect for the Public Works Department of the New Zealand Administration in Samoa. In 1932, he was appointed Head of Department and remained in this position until his retirement in 1946.

During the Second World War, Schaaffhausen was interned on Somes Island in Wellington Harbour from 1942 to 1944.

The next step for the team was to gather ideas on alternative uses for the building. Final year Architecture Master’s students Kathryn Collins, John Taliva’a and Alastair Storrie became involved in the project, as well as first year Master’s students who, in the context of a studio project, designed options for the building’s future shape and use. “One of the important things for us has always been that it needs to be socially and culturally accessible for everyone, not just for a small group of wealthy clients", says Schnoor. "We heard suggestions such as a museum, or a hotel for the rich.

But we are trying to say that it should have a rich variety of uses that serve the entire community. It could be a hotel with a few rooms, but it could also have a performance space for dance or music, it could have a restaurant and a café, and it could house local organizations such as Women in Business who could sell their local products. It is strategically placed and it is a big building that you could fill and bring to life.”

In August this year the Unitec team, in association with the Trust, held At the same time, Schnoor an exhibition in the courthouse, He died in 1960, just before Western Samoa and Wild, together with Unitec promoting their project and showing gained independence. lecturers Malama Solomona and design suggestions for the building.

Daniel Hunt of the Department “We exhibited four design projects by of Management and Marketing, Unitec students, and one project done formed a research team. Their project, funded by the Unitec

by Kat and John from the team, and one sketch by Adam and Research Committee, aimed to develop a conservation plan for me,” says Schnoor. “So it included the six designs, historical the Courthouse, coming up with design suggestions for the research on the building itself, its historical context, three necessary conservation work and promoting this work to the cardboard models – one historical, two current ones – and the Samoan community. As part of this project, Wild is currently measuring work.” finishing writing the conservation plan, with historical data While the exhibition was successful, and provided some provided by Schnoor. useful publicity, there is still a long way to go. From the “Malama and Dan were initially invited to the project to help perspective of the Samoan Government, historical buildings with a business plan,” says Schnoor. “But then we realised we are an expensive financial liability, particularly when they

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Samoa. earch group in Top left: The res at the ys pla nd ba lice Above: The po otos taken ing. The rest: ph exhibition open current day the of m tea by the research courthouse.

are empty. Maintenance costs are prohibitive for a government that has very little money.

Schnoor says the current Prime Minister has been open about his opinions: his priorities lie with providing clean water and sanitation for his constituents, rather than preserving historical buildings. “This is a reality that we need to deal with, and in order to overcome this situation, we will need to find financial support for this project from the outside. We don’t expect the government to fund this project,” says Schnoor.

The Prime Minister, initially unconvinced that the project would be self-sustaining, recently signed a letter giving the Apia Courthouse Trust authority to seek funding and develop a restoration plan for the building. “The next step is to act on this,” says Schnoor. “The letter gives us a mandate to continue searching for funding.”

They already have a grant from the Pacific

Development and Conservation Trust through the Department of Internal Affairs in New Zealand. “We received a generous grant for over $25,000. This means we will be able to finish the conservation plan and will be able to travel to Samoa once more at the end of the year to facilitate the next phase of the project, which is about developing concrete plans for the building, its future use and its management.”

Whatever the future for the courthouse, Solomona says the courthouse is a building that is important to the Samoan people. “It’s a beautiful building, right in the heart of Apia.

Putting aside who funded it or who built it, it’s on Samoan soil, so it should be representative of all the Samoan people who live there. So whatever future use we develop for the building, it should have that in mind, always.”

» contact Christoph Schnoor Associate Professor Department of Architecture cschnoor@unitec.ac.nz

» summer 2012 » advance

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Creating an artificial reef An innovative project to build an artificial reef out of geo-textile bags near a remote Fijian island could mean a new way of dealing with erosion in the Pacific.

In north eastern Fiji, on the remote island of Qamea, at a small beach called Maqai, an eco resort has been drawing keen travellers off the beaten track to experience its unique amenities.

Now it’s also the location for an innovative artificial reef research project that is being closely watched by the Fijian government for its potential use in the wider Pacific region.

so if there’s an emergency and they need a boat quickly it’s a long way away. Then there’s the eco resort concept which is about looking after the environment. There’s some beautiful snorkelling, the area is amazing and we wanted to protect and preserve that. If you’re not focusing the foot and boat traffic, a huge wide area of the reef ecology is getting smashed all the time.”

Innovation

The Maqai Eco resort, which started out of the The artificial reef, which was put in earlier this remains of a failed aid project, is fully run by year, was created from four 40-metre long geolocal villagers and aimed at surfers and divers. Dr textile bags, donated by Australian manufacturer Shaw Mead, a coastal consultant and researcher Elcorock. The large sand-filled bags, often called and part time Unitec Lecturer, has been part of soft rock, are sometimes used in Australia and the project to set up and run the eco-resort from New Zealand for erosion management, river the beginning. “That area of Fiji is really maintenance, and artificial reefs. Both remote. The marine resource there is Mead and Phillips have worked on some of the best I’ve ever seen in artificial structures using the soft "Already, my life, and I’ve dived around the rock containers, but never in between the world,” says Mead. the Pacific. “In the last couple gaps in these very of decades soft rock has Two years ago Unitec’s provided a bit of a revolution in large bags, there Civil Engineering Head of coastal structures and coastal are thriving little Department, Associate engineering,” says Mead. “It Professor Dave Phillips, visited communities has a lot of advantages, in that the Maqai resort. After spending in there." it’s fairly easy to construct, and if the week asking questions and you want to remove it, it’s not hard; making suggestions for possible you just open the bags and release the improvements, he was asked by the sand and the structure is gone.” directors to join the team. “My involvement was more in the bigger environmental package,” he Before they were able to place the soft rock, says. “I wanted to do something up there with Mead surveyed and mapped the area to find the the people and the sustainability part of it.” best position for the new reef. “I’ve snorkelled, dived, surveyed and videoed through all the reefs The newly built artificial reef is the latest around there,” he says. “I came to the conclusion achievement in this ongoing venture. It stems that right in front of the resort was the best from several requirements, says Mead. “Firstly place to minimize the ecological impact for this it was about health and safety needs, because structure. For a combination of reasons, the they need a safe and environmentally friendly water quality isn’t that great out there; it’s got access point to the resort. When the tide goes the lowest ecological values of all the reefs.” down at Maqai, the reef is exposed and has very sharp coral. It’s 100 metres wide, and the The next step was to map out exactly where the existing boat access is some 750 metres away, new reef would go, and attempt to minimize the

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innovation

Clockwise from top: Sand slush is pumped out to the geotextile bags. The team hard at work in the surf. Filling the bags required team co-ordination and planning. A meeting with Fiji Ministry officials to determine if the project would go ahead. Coral worth protecting.

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What is a reef?

Coral reefs are underwater structures composed of live corals – tiny living animals – living on a foundation of dead coral. In these animals, the body of each individual (called a polyp) is encased in a hard external skeleton composed of calcium carbonate. As adults, individual coral polyps are very small, however they exist as parts of much larger, cohesive colonies.

They grow best in warm, shallow, clear, sunny and agitated waters.

Most coral reefs are found in waters of 18oC or greater.

Coral reefs form some of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth. They occupy less than 0.1 per cent of the world's ocean surface, yet they provide a home for 25 per cent of all marine species. They are fragile ecosystems, partly because they are very sensitive to water temperature.

Many Pacific islands are made solely of coral that is usually resting on top of volcanic rock.

innovation

Maqai Reef and Channel plans.

Shaw Mead out on the surf at Maqai.

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Maqai Reef

Once the area was prepared, they pumped the sand into the geo-textile containers. They had a small, 16 horsepower pump that mixed the sand into slurry and then took it out to the bags. “We tested it on a couple of small ten metre bags, and then we started on the 40 metre bags,” says Mead. “There are only a few hours a day that you should do it on the lower tide. At first we were all there getting the guys started, but then I left one guy up there to supervise for another two weeks, and after that we just left it up to the local Fijian guys. We had a team of 12 local Fijians and they did a really good job.”

those changes will be. Then we can have a look to see how the beach responds to that change in reality. It helps us understand what the potential changes might be to the beach long-term.”

Now the reef is in, the team also plans to cut a small channel next to it for boat access. The two interns have been modelling options for the channel, says Mead. “The channel is a bit of a trade off, because it lets in wave energy. So you want it to be deep enough to let the boat in, but not so large that a great deal of wave energy can get in. It will be interesting to see what channel configuration we end up with, based on the computer modelling.”

» contact

Meanwhile Phillips is working with another Unitec Lecturer, Arama Prime, to determine how best to cut the channel. “We’re just researching different ways we could cut it, or break it, at the moment. You can’t use dynamite any more.

We’re looking at options like a hydraulic saw, or The last container went in at the end of a new product where you drill a hole and May, and Mead went to visit the you put it in and it fractures the structure in June. “The material coral off in blocks,” he says. “It’s is a good substrate; it’s a going to be about talking to "The geo-textile very good habitat,” he says. industry and finding best containers have the “Already, between the gaps practice.” in these very large bags, potential to solve From the beginning there are thriving little it’s a project the Fijian problems associated communities in there. government has watched They’re gradually getting with erosion all over closely, says Phillips. “To get covered. The first one that this consent, the Minister the Pacific." was in there is already black, of the Environment had to it has started to look like it’s part give it. They were very aware of of the natural landscape − you’d it, of how new it was in the region; think it was rock.” it was not something they just let us do.

One of the best aspects to the geo-textile All these people came up from every ministry containers, says Philips, is that they can easily be you could imagine; health, fishery, environment, removed if they’re found to have an unexpected they were all there. In the end they gave us a negative effect on the local environment. “If it demonstration consent. That’s how wary they doesn’t work, you can just cut it, and pull it out. were about it.”

That’s still an option for us up there. If we think But it’s not only because it was new to Fiji that it’s having an impact on the beach, we’ll just cut it they’re keeping an eye on the reef project. It’s and let it go back to how it was.” because the geo-textile containers have the The next part of the process is to monitor the potential to solve problems associated with effects of the new reef, and to make sure it’s erosion all over the Pacific. “If you can go to an achieving its aims. “We had two French interns area where they have some coastal erosion, you out there recently, getting all the currents so can put these bags down, fill them with the local they could do computer modelling of the changes sand, and create some protection,” says Philips. to the environment,” says Phillips. “They’ll write “This is the trial case to see how it goes go in that a report on the changes post-construction kind of environment. There is serious erosion to the reef, and about the changes to the around the Pacific, and they struggle to solve it, hydrodynamics. The waves and currents will so if you can use this methodology, there’s a lot flow differently now with that structure there of application. They will definitely be keeping an and we want to computer-model it and see what eye on the project.”

Dave Phillips Head of Department Department of Civil Engineering dphillips@unitec.ac.nz

» summer 2012 » advance

innovation

damage it might cause. “We went round, in the footprint of where the structure was going, and broke off any good healthy coral colonies and transplanted them out of the way,” says Mead.

“It’s very easy to do, and within a few months they’ll regrow and attach themselves to where you’ve tied them.”

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The search for Anne Perry For her fifth biography, Associate Professor Joanne Drayton took on one of New Zealand’s most infamous crimes and discovered a crime writer who believes that everyone deserves a second chance.

In 1994 Peter Jackson’s movie Heavenly Creatures provided a storm of media interest in the decades-old Christchurch murder of Honorah Parker by her teenage daughter and her daughter’s best friend. One particularly enterprising journalist at the time unearthed a well-kept secret: the successful English crime author Anne Perry was in fact Juliet Hulme, one half of the duo convicted of the murder 40 years earlier.

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Eighteen years later, the story of that traumatic public revelation is told, along with the rest of Anne Perry’s turbulent life story, by Associate Professor Joanne Drayton in her biography published by Harper Collins.

Drayton, an Art and Design History and Theory Lecturer at Unitec, says the idea of writing about Perry for her fifth biography just made sense. Her mother had gone to school with Perry and her best friend Pauline Parker, and Drayton had been teaching at Christchurch Girls’ High School when they were asked to loan Peter Jackson the school’s uniforms. She’d also just published a successful biography on another famous crime writer, Ngaio Marsh. “It wasn’t a huge step from there to look sideways, or a little bit laterally, to a figure who had become a crime fiction novelist, but who was an infamous figure in Christchurch, which is basically my home town,” she says.

But she faced opposition to the proposal from both Perry and her agent.

Drayton had to go back several times before they were convinced she was the right person. “I wrote in my final proposal to Anne’s agent that I thought the details had been frozen in time. I said that Anne Perry’s life story needed to grow, to leave behind the terrible mistake of a young teenager and mature to acknowledge the adult achievements of one of the world’s most wellknown crime doyens.

That was the book I wanted to write, and I was sincere and honest about it. I think Anne Perry read that paragraph, and just like that, she decided.”

Photo: Grant Southam

Before meeting with Perry, Drayton did a huge amount of background research. “I knew her story before I met her. I knew most about her murder, and the Christchurch time of her life; I’d read all the autopsy reports, the coroner reports. I knew a lot of damaging and disturbing stuff about Anne Perry before I met her.”

But it was from her novels that Drayton learned the most about the woman she was to meet. “I’d read her books, and I thought that anyone who can write this thoughtfully about the world, and this reflectively and deeply about humanity and human motives, this person is not shallow.

This is someone who brings a lot of wisdom to what they do. I hoped that

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the person I was going to meet had evolved and changed from the person I read about in the newspaper articles.”

Her instinct was correct, and the 73-year-old woman she met in Scotland was friendly, thoughtful and intense. “The thing is, she isn’t a monster, she’s an ordinary person with all the hopes, anxieties and weaknesses that we all have. But she’s marked by that experience forever. She mucked up big time, but she’s just like you or me.”

It was certainly a harrowing way for Perry to start her adult life. After being convicted of the murder at age 15, Perry spent five and a half years in Mt Eden prison, the only child in an institution she describes as ‘grim’. “The intensity of it was quite good in a way, because she feels like she has paid for what she did,” says Drayton. “It doesn’t mean that it puts it away, or that it’s forgotten, but it does mean that she’s paid for it, and she’s released from that enough that she can move forward.”

Perry might have been able to move forward, but Drayton says the murder changed her life completely. “There was more than one victim in this, in a way,” adds Drayton. “They so totally compromised their futures, and their peace of mind, and their sense of who they were in that one act. I know from personal experience that if Anne could rewrite it and change that event, she would walk over hot coals, she would do anything to do it. But she can’t.”

It’s often mentioned that surrounding Perry’s life and her writing there is a theme of redemption, the idea that someone can move on from a terrible event and perhaps reclaim their sense of self. “Anne Perry can’t change the past, but she can write her future, and that’s what she’s done,” says Drayton. “The dream I think she had was to be able to respect herself, to realise her potential and to put herself in a place where she could feel pride in what she did.”

Joanne Drayton’s books The Search for Anne Perry, 2012 Harper Collins Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime, 2008 Harper Collins Frances Hodgkins: A Private Viewing, 2005 Random House

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The biography proved to be gruelling to write, the hours of interviews intense. Perry’s is a life story spanning more than 70 years, beginning with a salacious murder committed by two teenage girls in the fifties, and ending with the quiet life of a dignified crime writer in rural Scotland. But Drayton says that was the appeal of writing this biography. “I loved the complexity of it. What I tried to bring out is that you can’t answer the questions around what they did in black and white. You can’t polarise things into good or evil, sane or insane. All those polarisations only give a crude, ignorant, and insensitive summation of something that by its very nature demands a compassionate handling.”

Rhona Haszard: An Experimental Expatriate New Zealand Artist, 2002 Canterbury University Press Edith Collier: Her Life and Work, 1885-1964, 1999 Canterbury University Press

For Drayton, writing Perry’s biography has been an enjoyable and rewarding experience. “It’s been a great journey,” she says. “I spent hours talking to Anne, it was really intense. I tried to work out what you are with your subject when you’re finished. I don’t know that you’re friends necessarily, but you do know that person. We’re more than friends. I don’t know my friends as well as I know Anne Perry. Being friends is not enough in a way, because the word doesn’t describe someone who is so in your head.”

When asked what she would want readers to take away after reading the book, Drayton gives a double-barrelled answer – one for herself, and one for Perry. “For Anne Perry, she wants people to know that you can turn around and make something of your life after a terrible start. I, however, believe it is about dignity and forgiveness. To show that we have the dignity, and the humanity, to offer some sort of forgiveness and closure. If we could find a little bit of compassion in order to discover who she’s become, we could find some pride in that as New Zealanders.”

» contact Joanne Drayton Associate Professor Department of Design and Visual Arts jdrayton@unitec.ac.nz

» summer 2012 » advance

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Photo: Grant Southam

Hard work pays off books

In the last year Professor Pieter Nel has had a busy time. He had five books published in just one year, including a new Australasian version of his popular textbook on human resource management. In fact, you could say that Nel has had a busy career, with over 40 textbooks in different disciplines to his name, including in his main field of human resources management (HRM). HRM is a field of management studies concerned with an organisation’s workforce, encompassing areas such as recruitment, selection, training and development, culture and leadership. Nel says that as far as his writing goes, “it’s a question of love for the discipline. You have to put quite a bit of time into something like this, it doesn’t happen overnight. I do it for the love really.”

» contact Pieter Nel Professor Department of Management and Marketing pnel@unitec.ac.nz

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His very first book, based on his PhD in employment relations, was published in South Africa in 1985. “I was an upstart youngster back then, and I was told my PhD was pretty good, and people said ‘Why don’t you go to a publisher?’ – so I did. The publisher had a look and rejected it. I was very upset,” says Nel with a laugh. “But luck was with me. The publisher had someone else who had a PhD in a similar discipline that was half good and half bad. My PhD was also half good and half bad, for publishing purposes. They suggested we put the two halves together to create a book.

That’s how the first book came out.”

His second book was in collaboration with two university colleagues in South Africa. “We were approached and asked if we wanted to publish

a human resources book, which we did. That was published in 1987, and it just had its 25th anniversary 8th edition published this year.”

Since then Nel has written and edited books encompassing all the main areas within human resources including training and employment relations.

Over time, the books have changed significantly, and Nel says a major part of his role is ensuring they move with the times. “These fields are so dynamic you have to update every three years. If you don’t do that every three years you will lose the market and another book that is more up to date could take its place.”

It means that Nel spends a lot of time ensuring his books contain the latest information. “The exciting thing is to make sure with subsequent editions, that you keep it fresh. You have to constantly read, to observe what happens in the market, to see what other people are doing, and what the market wants,” he says. “I have to make sure the information in these books is applicable to business.”

Since joining Unitec 11 years ago, Nel has continued his furious writing pace, including developing Human Resource Management in Australia and New Zealand for the local market.

“I’d been requested a few times to adapt this book for the Australia/New Zealand market.

About four years ago, I finally said, let’s just do it. Oxford University Press Australasia was very keen. I then had to go and find Aussie and Kiwi

Human Resource Management in Australia and New Zealand (Australia and New Zealand) Human Resources Management, 25th Anniversary 8th Edition (South Africa) South African Employment Relations: Theory and Practice, 25th Anniversary 7th edition (South Africa) Leadership and Management Studies in Sub-Sahara Africa Managing Training and Development, 6th Edition (South Africa)

authors who were willing to do it, which was quite a job. It was difficult to find authors who were confident, capable and willing. It was a long process and it took a year to confirm all the co-authors.”

The book launched earlier this year, and is available throughout New Zealand and Australia.

“Because it’s new to the Australasian market it will take a while to build up,” says Nel. “The big thing is that it’s Oxford University Press, and whoever is teaching in the field and needs to use a prescribed book, they would have a good look at this book because Oxford University Press is so reputable.”

The Everyday Collective: Suburban Interventions,

by Paul Woodruffe In this latest book published by the Unitec ePress, Paul Woodruffe investigates the potential for using the fine arts alongside conventional data collection methods and graphic design as a combined communication tool. He says these added levels of communication facilitate the knowledge transfer between community, corporate and institution.

According to Woodruffe, this methodology enables questions regarding a “sense of place and belonging” in relation to prospective urban planning, as well as identifying heritage and community assets in way that can be easily distributed, understood and discussed in a community. His collaborative group, the everyday collective, has successfully created a platform for multi-disciplinary creative and academic research projects to be formed around an issue within a community.

The everyday collective is currently active in Avondale, and in particular Rosebank Road, assisting in site analysis and planning for community garden placement, and documenting through image and film, places of special character. It is also working with the Avondale Community Action group on new methods of conducting community surveys for social and environmental improvement.

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Pieter Nel’s books published in the last year

The everyday collective has also just finished a project exploring the use of “architectural acupuncture” to improve communication between disparate groups within a community. This took place in Vienna, Austria in conjunction with the University of Bratislava and SOHO in Ottakring details available at www.collectivelab.wordpress.com www.unitec.ac.nz/epress/

Nel says writing and editing provides satisfaction on several levels. “What I enjoy most is the original ideas. By that I mean getting the idea for a chapter or a case study, or something like that, and then starting to work with it. Another enjoyable challenge, because I love working in teams, is to keep my co-authors informed, and to make it challenging and rewarding for them as well. I’m constantly in contact with them, coordinating and keeping the team motivated and interested.”

But most of all, Nel says getting to hold a new book in his hand for the first time is always the most exhilarating part of the process. “It’s beautiful, it’s like being on a high,” he says. “You work so hard and then finally when you see the book in your hand, that’s the actual kick.”

» summer 2012 » advance

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Managing remote sites From Antarctica to Edinburgh, Linda Kestle has had a hectic year.

But it’s all in the name of research and industry practice.

What makes projects run smoothly? How are processes and people managed on remote-site international projects? What happens when these projects involve post-disaster events where specialist personnel are expected to manage the resulting chaos?

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These are questions that senior lecturer Linda Kestle continues to explore and investigate in her post-doctoral research work. She has used her doctoral multi-disciplinary management framework as the vehicle for comparisons between the procedures and protocols set out in the particular organisations’ project or disaster management plans and the realities the in-field personnel experience from a management perspective.

Since completing her PhD in December 2009, Kestle has applied her design management model (now used as a management framework and tool), on an even wider range of primarily post-disaster projects, including a tsunami in

Malaysia, an earthquake in Pakistan, and most recently the Christchurch earthquake postdisaster response and recovery stages in late 2011 and early 2012.

“The Christchurch earthquake research was close to home in many respects,” she says. “I was aiming to establish the value various personnel might have added to the whole process from a management perspective for future postdisaster event planning, logistics and decisionmaking. This research involved interviewing selected Civil Defence and USAR personnel, project construction managers, deconstruction specialist contractors, structural and civil engineers, waste management consultants and property managers.”

The stories they told were varied and yet consistent in many ways. “Most of the interviewed people wanted to first talk about how the earthquake events had affected them and their workforce, what it meant in terms of how they do business now, and if they could still do business. Then they talked about how there was no management plan that went anywhere close to the challenges they were all individually faced with in their official and varied roles.

“One of the most interesting early findings was how many of them have had to create and implement very different operational procedures within their organisations, for example, in terms of now embracing the Cloud for data storage, rather than the previous office/hard drive-based storage, and new, almost military–style, on-site Health and Safety procedures, for all staff.”

She says that the devastating Christchurch earthquakes, (the worst in New Zealand’s history in scope and scale) have created opportunity for extensive and varied ongoing research.

For example loss estimation methods (around insurance claims), rapid assessment methods for structural damage, revision of building codes, new engineering design and construction methods, urban revitalisation and improved post-disaster management procedures and protocols.

Linda Kestle in Antartica

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Kestle presented and published the first of her findings from the Christchurch post-disaster research at the Association of Construction Management Researchers (ARCOM) conference in Edinburgh in September this year. "The focus

According to Kestle attending conferences such as ARCOM are important for her research. “They are not only an opportunity to share research findings, network with existing and new research and industry colleagues, and create new and ongoing collaborative research, but also to ‘get the word out there’, in terms of the research Unitec staff are undertaking and publishing at highly respected international conferences.”

Back at Unitec, Kestle is the Research Chair for the Faculty of Technology and Built Environment and lectures on the Bachelor of Construction (Management, Economics and Property Development) degree, in the areas of sustainable design and construction, professional business management, design management, construction management, and supervises final-year undergraduate research student projects.

Kestle also stays involved with industry by being a board member of the Northern Chapter of the New Zealand Institute of Building (NZIOB), is a past chapter president and is also a national governance councillor of NZIOB all of which are voluntary roles. The Institute is for building professionals, which means she works alongside the champions and influencers of industry such as consultants, client group representatives, contractors, manufacturers or governmental portfolio holders. She has an architectural consultancy and project management background, has researched into high altitude design and construction at master’s level, and managed building and maintenance projects on a skifield in the Central North Island.

As a direct result of her experience Kestle had the opportunity to go to one of the remotest

So Photo: Grant

sites on Earth earlier this year. She was selected to be one of two volunteer maintenance painters on Scott Base by Antarctica New Zealand and the Antarctic Society. “The Volunteer Scheme has been running for three years now and attracts up to 40 applicants each year, so the competition is fierce. Antarctica New Zealand is the government organisation responsible for the New Zealand Science programme and research activities in the Ross Sea Region.”

"It was an

She spent five weeks in Antarctica over the summer, giving up her relaxing holidays for long hard days of work (six days a week) at sub-zero temperatures. “The project was to prepare and repaint Scott Base’s exterior timber windows,” she says. “I was also able to be a participant and to observe the management of base operational staff on a remote-site in action, which was very useful.”

of our broken

emotional presentation at times as the poignant images and findings reminded me

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The paper and presentation were well received by the research community, academic/research publishers and key industry personnel, says Kestle. “It was an emotional presentation at times as the poignant images and findings reminded me of our broken city, and all the people that I had interviewed and the stories they had told me.”

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of that research paper was on what the various post-disaster personnel might have added in terms of value to the post-disaster process, the outcomes, and the people affected, in respect of their roles in the field at the response and recovery stages, following the three main earthquakes.”

city, and all the people that I had interviewed ”

Never one to miss an opportunity, Kestle used her time in Antarctica to interview two more post-disaster research participants. She also met Falcon Scott, Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s grandson. Scott is a conservator architect/ builder and stone mason in Scotland and was working on the Cape Evans Terra Nova conservation project (his grandfather’s historic hut) for about six weeks over summer. “We found that we shared common architectural and building backgrounds and heritage interests, and we’re now planning to collaborate on a research paper for future publication,” says Kestle.

For this active Unitec researcher, it’s been a hectic year. From the frozen climes in the Antarctic, initiating and running an inaugural Research Hui for Unitec’s Faculty of Technology and Built Environment, to experiencing Edinburgh and summer in the Northern Hemisphere, she’s travelled the world. But she is always happy to come back home to Aotearoa, New Zealand.

» contact Linda Kestle Senior Lecturer Department of Construction lkestle@unitec.ac.nz

» summer 2012 » advance

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Completions Unitec congratulates the following students who have recently completed postgraduate research projects at Unitec. Copies of these studies can be found in the Unitec library or through the Unitec Research Bank, www.unitec.researchbank.ac.nz Master of Architecture Name: Nicholas Adams Research: Shipyard – A Public Architecture of Assimilation Name: Aimee Cudby Research: A Transient Life Name: Gabriel Fung Research: 'Common Ground', Transitional Housing in Auckland, New Zealand

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Name: Haley Hooper Research: Barry's Point: An Architectural Exploration of Site Name: Patrick Kelly Research: Education for Africa, Through Architecture - Developing an Architecturally Appropriate Solution to the Provision of Secondary School Facilities in Tanzania Name: Jason King Research: Transitions and Thresholds in the Urban Environment: Activating Space and Identifying Place Name: Daicai Lai Research: Bridge the Border - A Border Crossing Complex across the Johor Strait Name: Adrian Leat Research: Architecture: A Catalyst for Youth Development Name: Carley Lockie Research: MT REX- Hybrid-programming within an Industrial Terrain Vague - A Means Towards the Reinvigoration of a Marginalised Community Name: Isabel Miranda Sa Freire Fusco Research: Rio 2016: Sailing in the PostOlympic Hangover

Name: Gemma Muir Research: A Pattern Language

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Name: Warren Nicholson Research: Frank Lloyd Wright's use of Geometry in Architectural Design Name: Maysum Rashid Research: The Adaption of Islamic Culture in a Western Society Name: Alyssa Roskruge Research: A Design System for Homes and Housing: A Rationalised Approach to Housing Supply for Auckland Name: Anindito Sampurno Research: Organic Growth – The Second Transformation of Victoria Park Market in Freeman’s Bay Name: Michael Smith Research: Zen - Christianity: A Useful Dialogue?

Name: Courtney Smith-Frank Research: Supporting the Knowledge and Culture of Cambodia through the Redevelopment of the National Library Name: Hao su Zheng Research: Fusion - Church Design for a New Christian Group in Auckland

Master of Business Name: Neil Gautam Research: Exploring Relationships between Consumers and Brands in a Computer Game Environment

Name: Syed Mohiuddin Research: New Zealand Sheep Meat and Beef Products and Muslim Consumers in South-East Asia: Overcoming Barriers to Growth and Development of a Major Export Market Name: Phouthone Sisavath Research: Combating Child Sex Tourism in a New Tourism Destination

Name: Kalakate Xaythanith Research: Conceptualising the Entrepreneurial Behaviour of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the Least-Developed Countries (LDCs): The Case of Laos Name: Jun Zhang Research: An Examination of the Congruency between New Zealand ITP Practices to attract Chinese Students and the Criteria employed by those Students to evaluate Education Providers

Master of Computing

Name: Yinjin Gu Research: Performance Analysis of 802.11n Wireless LAN in Different Environments Name: Yu Gu Research: Evaluating the Effectiveness and Sensitivity of Forex Trading Robots Name: Shiv Raj Singh Research: Virtualization and Information Security - A Virtualized DMZ Design Consideration Using VMWare ESXi 4.1 Name: Xiangle Xu Research: Evaluating Wireless Network Performance in a Multi-Node Environment Name: Lei Zhu Research: Dynamic Class Imbalance Learning for Incremental LPSVM

Master of Educational Leadership & Management Name: Nurul Aminudin Research: Teachers'' Perceptions of the Impact of Professional Development on Teaching Practice: The Case of one Primary School

Name: Christopher Gregory Research: Data Driven Decision Making Processes for Pedagogical Purposes in the Case of Latin and South American Bi-Lingual International Schools

Name: Anthony Weijemars Research: Leadership in Digital Technology The Challenge of Decision Making

Master of Osteopathy

Name: Katherine Bone Research: An Investigation into the Effectiveness of Osteopathic Treatment for Reducing Perimenopausal Symptoms

Name: Samuel Brown Research: The Effect of a 14-Week WaterSkill Focused Swim Programme on Motor Abilities in Pre-Adolescents with Cerebral Palsy Name: Faith Crawford Research: Pilot Study of Parent and Child Perspectives Evaluating the Effect of a 14 week swim programme on Quality of Life, Self Esteem and Independence in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Name: Matthias Houvenagel Research: Inter and Intra-rater Reliability or Rating Criteria for the Floor Sitting Posture

Pushing the boundaries

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Name: Karyn Robertson Research: Servant Leadership in Early Childhood Education

If you think finishing a Master’s degree is difficult, try doing it with a brand new baby at home. That’s what Unitec Master of Architecture graduate Alyssa Roskruge achieved in the final year of her degree. “I did my first year of Master's when I was pregnant with my daughter, and she was born in November. Our second year of Master’s began in March, so I just started with everyone else then,” says Roskruge. “The second year is done mainly from home, so I did it while raising her. She was a really good baby. I think for the first few months, she slept 14 hours a night, so that was awesome.”

For her master’s thesis Roskruge designed a prefabricated system of wall and roof profiles and floor plates that could be put together in multiple ways to create low-cost housing that was site specific. “The idea was to create different houses but all using the same 10 wall profiles and three roof profiles,” says Roskruge. “They all created different sized houses in different configurations.

So basically you’d never design the same house, but they’d all use the same products and the same sizes and everything sort of clipped together.

I described it in my thesis as a library of wall options, all prefabricated and arriving onto the site as is. They were all different designs, you could make a thousand of them.”

Roskruge says her thesis topic came from a desire to do something that hadn’t been produced in the same area. “I wanted to push it further and do something that was a bit crazy and appeared to not have been developed yet. Through my research I found out that people had done similar ideas but they didn’t push it very far. It could even be pushed further than what I’ve done, but with a thesis you only have a year.”

Finishing her Master’s is the end of a lifelong fascination, says Roskruge. “I’ve always wanted to do architecture. I can remember when I was eight or nine having an old maths book with a grid, and I would design these awful houses, that I thought were brilliant at the time. I've always wanted to design houses, to be an architect.”

» summer 2012 » advance

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