title: Heritage buildings and community sense of place

authors: Boston, Megan

abstract: New Zealand is a nation that has a significant amount of built heritage, of which there are several internationally recognised landmarks, including the Christchurch Cathedral, the Church of the Good Shepherd, and the Chateau Tongariro. These structures contribute to establishing a sense of place within a community as landmarks, gathering places, and keepers of memories and personal sentiments. Unfortunately, due to New Zealand’s recent and historic seismic activity, these landmarks, commonly constructed as unreinforced concrete or masonry, are susceptible to severe damage from earthquake-induced ground shaking. For this reason, the New Zealand government introduced the Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Act 2016, which presented stricter seismic strengthening regulations for vulnerable buildings (earthquake-prone buildings) to ensure better life safety outcomes for such structures. The associated costs and challenges of retrofitting heritage buildings have put many of these structures at risk of abandonment or demolition, taking their embodied heritage value with them. This research uses survey data to establish how heritage buildings develop a sense of place within a community and how the public’s perception can implicate preserving heritage buildings. Survey results indicated that people value these structures in their communities. Further, personal connections to heritage buildings or knowledge of the historical context improve the desire to preserve and restore these structures.

text: Heritage buildings and community sense of place New Zealand is a nation that has a significant amount of built heritage, of which there are several internationally recognised landmarks, including the Christchurch Cathedral, the Church of the Good Shepherd, and the Chateau Tongariro. These structures contribute to establishing a sense of place within a community as landmarks, gathering places, and keepers of memories and personal sentiments. Unfortunately, due to New Zealand’s recent and historic seismic activity, these landmarks, commonly constructed as unreinforced concrete or masonry, are susceptible to severe damage from earthquake-induced ground shaking. For this reason, the New Zealand government introduced the Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Act 2016, which presented stricter seismic strengthening regulations for vulnerable buildings (earthquake-prone buildings) to ensure better life safety outcomes for such structures. The associated costs and challenges of retrofitting heritage buildings have put many of these structures at risk of abandonment or demolition, taking their embodied heritage value with them. This research uses survey data to establish how heritage buildings develop a sense of place within a community and how the public’s perception can implicate preserving heritage buildings. Survey results indicated that people value these structures in their communities. Further, personal connections to heritage buildings or knowledge of the historical context improve the desire to preserve and restore these structures.

year: 2024

title: Partial maps with domain and range: extending Schein's representation

authors: Jackson, Marcel

subjects: closure semigroup

abstract: The semigroup of all partial maps on a set under the operation of composition admits a number of operations relating to the domain and range of a partial map. Of particular interest are the operations R and L returning the identity on the domain of a map and on the range of a map respectively. Schein [25] gave an axiomatic characterisation of the semigroups with R and L representable as systems of partial maps; the class is a finitely axiomatisable quasivariety closely related to ample semigroups (which were introduced—as type A semigroups—by Fountain, [7]). We provide an account of Schein's result (which until now appears only in Russian) and extend Schein's method to include the binary operations of intersection, of greatest common range restriction, and some unary operations relating to the set of fixed points of a partial map. Unlike the case of semigroups with R and L, a number of the possibilities can be equationally axiomatised.

text: Partial maps with domain and range: extending Schein's representation The semigroup of all partial maps on a set under the operation of composition admits a number of operations relating to the domain and range of a partial map. Of particular interest are the operations R and L returning the identity on the domain of a map and on the range of a map respectively. Schein [25] gave an axiomatic characterisation of the semigroups with R and L representable as systems of partial maps; the class is a finitely axiomatisable quasivariety closely related to ample semigroups (which were introduced—as type A semigroups—by Fountain, [7]). We provide an account of Schein's result (which until now appears only in Russian) and extend Schein's method to include the binary operations of intersection, of greatest common range restriction, and some unary operations relating to the set of fixed points of a partial map. Unlike the case of semigroups with R and L, a number of the possibilities can be equationally axiomatised.

year: 2009

title: "Thereness": Implications of Heidegger's "presence" for Māori

authors: Mika, Carl Te Hira

abstract: For Māori, the philosophical consequences of colonization are a hugely important issue, due to both the subtlety and the omnipresence of Western metaphysics. In this article I refer to the “meta-physics of presence” through one major Western thinker—Martin Heidegger—who identified “presence” as a problem for the West. He proposes that the metaphysics of presence underpins every perception in the West and that it is the fundamental mistake of philosophers since Plato but becoming ascendant with Aristotle. I identify the points of relevance within their claims and refer them to a Māori understanding of absence. I also consider the more affective nature of Western presence, which Heidegger refers to but which must be theorized by Māori. In the first instance I place particular emphasis on the ironies implicit in writing about metaphysics for the Māori writer in the academy and for the things being represented in that writing. Finally, the metaphysics of presence opens up possibilities for its own instability; this Heideggerean “saving power” is discussed in Māori terms.

text: "Thereness": Implications of Heidegger's "presence" for Māori For Māori, the philosophical consequences of colonization are a hugely important issue, due to both the subtlety and the omnipresence of Western metaphysics. In this article I refer to the “meta-physics of presence” through one major Western thinker—Martin Heidegger—who identified “presence” as a problem for the West. He proposes that the metaphysics of presence underpins every perception in the West and that it is the fundamental mistake of philosophers since Plato but becoming ascendant with Aristotle. I identify the points of relevance within their claims and refer them to a Māori understanding of absence. I also consider the more affective nature of Western presence, which Heidegger refers to but which must be theorized by Māori. In the first instance I place particular emphasis on the ironies implicit in writing about metaphysics for the Māori writer in the academy and for the things being represented in that writing. Finally, the metaphysics of presence opens up possibilities for its own instability; this Heideggerean “saving power” is discussed in Māori terms.

year: 2015