Tuwhera Research Repository

The Tuwhera Research Repository provides sustainable open access and archiving to a broad range of AUT produced research - theses, research outputs and datasets.

Theses & dissertations

Deposit your thesis

Datasets

Deposit your dataset

Research outputs

Deposit your research output
via Research Elements

Recent Submissions

Access status: Open Access ,
Interrelationships Among Stakeholder‐Perceived Factors Influencing Solar PV Adoption in Passive Houses in New Zealand
(Wiley, 2026-08-20) Nkado, Franklin Chukwuebuka; Aigwi, Itohan Esther; Doan, Dat Tien; GhaffarianHoseini, Ali
The adoption of solar photovoltaic systems (SPVS) in passive houses (PHs) is shaped by technical, economic and policy-related factors. Yet, the interactions among these factors have not been quantitatively modelled in the New Zealand context. Addressing this gap is critical to advancing Sustainable Development Goal 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), particularly as SPVS integration in New Zealand PHs remains limited. Building on previous studies that identified adoption factors, this study applies Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to survey data from 96 stakeholders in the building and energy sectors to examine the structural relationships influencing perceived SPVS–PH adoption. Results are reported using standardised path coefficients (β) and explained variance (R2). Sustainability benefits (β = 0.372) and design synergy (β = 0.290) were the strongest drivers (R2 = 0.461). Economic barriers (β = 0.460) and design/technological limitations (β = 0.333) were the dominant constraints (R2 = 0.332). Integrated design and technical solutions (β = 0.501) and enabling policy and incentives (β = 0.199) were the strongest strategy factors (R2 = 0.487). This study provides an empirically tested structural model of SPVS–PH adoption in New Zealand and offers evidence-based guidance for policy and design practice.
Access status: Open Access ,
Upland Road Track: Mapping a Durational Record of Place Through Jewellery Making
(Auckland University of Technology, 2026) Bradbeer, Jo; Redmond, Monique; Robertson, Natalie
This site-specific jewellery project explores the interconnectedness of walking, place, memory and time, viewing bush pathways as sites of temporal collaboration between those who journey along them and their environment. Beginning with a methodology of daily “gathering walks” along Upland Road Track in Whakanewha Regional Park, Te-Motu-Ārai-Roa/Waiheke Island, I collect materials to create durational jewellery. It is through and with these materials that impressions of place are embodied within the objects, carrying traces of a relationship formed over time. These artworks serve as site-specific mementoes that consider how jewellery may foster a somatic connection to place. The project aims to highlight ethical ecological practices, acknowledging our role as caretakers of the pathway and its inhabitants.
Access status: Open Access ,
History and Development of University Doctoral Academical Dress in Aotearoa (New Zealand)
(New Prairie Press, 2022-12-27) Pilkington, Scott
In 2018 it was announced that Auckland University of Technology (AUT) would join the other seven universities in Aotearoa (New Zealand) in offering a higher doctorate qualification. As part of this process it became apparent that new academical dress would need to be designed and created. Working in the university’s Graduate Research School gave me an opportunity to provide input, and as a result, I designed a new set of academic dress for these qualifications in conjunction with the university’s official robemaker, Paul Fielder (FBS). This provided a prompt to examine what academical dress exists for existing AUT doctorates – so that the new qualifications (a DLitt and a DSc are being offered as of 1st January 2019) could be sympathetic to the existing ones; and also what the relationship is between different doctoral academical dress at the other universities in Aotearoa – so that the design of the new dress was not reinventing the wheel. This research project builds on this examination to examine the history and development of doctoral academic dress across Aotearoa. This study found that there is a range of similarity across doctoral dress in universities across New Zealand, with the six universities that were originally constituents of the University of New Zealand being the most similar (as at one point they shared a common academic dress).
Access status: Open Access ,
Voices From the ‘Margins’ of a Pandemic: Impact of a Lack of Employee Voice on Health and Safety for Community Support Workers During Covid-19
(Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Library, 2024-03-28) Hurd, Fiona; Ravenswood, Katherine; Nicholson, Amber
In the context of a community-based participatory project, we interviewed 84 community support workers to explore their experiences through the Covid-19 pandemic, Participants highlighted significant WHS concerns that either arose during, or were heightened due to, the pandemic working conditions. Participants detailed their efforts to activate employee voice mechanisms across the ‘staircase of voice’ (Wilkinson, 2010). However, despite significant efforts to employ these mechanisms, participants’ messages were not received. This reinforces the importance of both workplace and societal conditions that support both the delivery and receiving of employee voice messages (Romney, 2021). Within the context of significant gendered regimes and poor societal perceptions of care work, the effectiveness of voice mechanisms was diminished, leading to significant erosion of WHS conditions.
Access status: Open Access ,
Hydrogen Production From Wastewater Using Interdigitated Printed Electrode-based Single-chamber Microbial Electrolysis Cells
(Elsevier BV, 2024-08-17) Kumar, V; Behera, M; Lv, Y; Pradheepa Kamarajan, B; Singamneni, S
In the ever-increasing quest for alternative energy sources, hydrogen emerged as a promising green option, but efficient and economical production and management have been the primary constraints. Converting wastewater into H2 and other forms of energy attracted significant attention in terms of simultaneously and sustainably managing both the wastewater and the energy generation problems. Microbial Electrolysis Cells (MEC) evolved recently as promising options for converting wastewater into H2 and electricity but with serious constraints on scalability. The current research aims to explore design and manufacturing solutions to build structurally strong and electrochemically effective electrodes that can also lead to scalable MEC. Two designs based on the interdigitated and spiral electrode architectures are proposed and evaluated. The added design freedom with additive manufacturing by selective laser melting of specific alloys of choice is effectively utilised in physically prototyping the interdigitated and spiral electrode forms designed with controlled porosity constraints. Microstructural, electrochemical, and cell performance characterisations led to the understanding that the spiral electrode configuration with polypyrrole-coated stainless steel 316L anode is a promising design option for both longitudinal and lateral scale-up of the MEC.