The Centre for Sustainable Healthy Communities

The Bond University Research Centre for Sustainable Healthy Communities is a centre for innovative research, embracing a collaborative interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary approach to sustainable and healthy living. This Centre comprises a unique blend of interests between Bond University’s Institute of Sustainable Development and Architecture (ISDA) and the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine (HSM).
 

Some of the objectives of the Centre are:

• To encourage cross-institutional research on sustainable and healthy living
• To undertake industry-sponsored research projects
• To create and leverage knowledge and intellectual property with external stakeholders for the benefit of the community at large.
• To disseminate policy relevant research to the wider community
• To establish research partnerships with complementary research facilities in Australia and overseas

Located within the Institute of Sustainable Development and Architecture, the Centre for Sustainable Healthy Communities (CSHC) aims to work with government authorities, service providers and developers to provide targeted research and tangible practical solutions to the myriad of urban and environmental planning challenges. The Centre aims to make a significant contribution to the design, development and management of liveable communities through the revitalisation of the built urban environment and the efficient development of the surrounding region.

Associate Professor Bhishna Bajracharya has been appointed the new Director of the Centre for Sustainable Healthy Communities from Sept 2010 replacing Professor George Earl. A new advisory board is being formed with representatives from the Institute of Sustainable Development and Architecture (ISDA), Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Gold Coast City Council and industry partners. Our first Advisory Board is scheduled for November 2010.  

SYNERGIES WITH INDUSTRY
The Centre has been very successful in developing synergies with the industry partners by winning a number of Australian Research Council and other competitive grants. Most of Bond University’s ARC grants are housed within the Centre. Some of the ARC grants the Centre staff are working on are:

• Strategic Assessment of Building Design Adaptive Reuse Opportunities
• Making Better Decisions about Built Assets: Learning by Doing
• Modelling the Environmental and Financial Performance of Construction
• Remembering the Past, Imagining the Future: Embedding Narrative and New Media in Urban Planning