The Centre for Sustainable Healthy Communities

The Centre for Sustainable Healthy Communities is a University Research Centre which conducts collaborative interdisciplinary research on sustainable built environment and healthy living. Located within the Institute of Sustainable Development and Architecture (ISDA), this Centre comprises a unique blend of interests between the Institute of Sustainable Development and Architecture and the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine.

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 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.

Some of the research areas of the Centre include:

Making better decisions about built assets: Learning by doing, (Langston, Smith, Herath, Datta, Doloi and Crawford) - ARC Linkage Project $180,000 LP0990261, 2009 - 2012.
Green versus non-green work environments: occupant health and psychological wellbeing (Earl and Van Driel).
Promoting healthy and active living in masterplanned communities: Case study of Varsity Lakes (Bajracharya, Van Driel, Too and Webb).
Participatory project management for improved disaster resilience (Crawford, Langston and Bajracharya).
Experiments in computer-controlled architectural prototyping: toward commercial applications of three-dimensional self-supporting building envelopes from two-dimensional materials (Knapp).
A new approach to international construction performance comparisons (Langston and Best).
Sustainable Campus Community Engagement (Too and Bajracharya).
An investigation into new software for life-cycle cost assessments of cars, encouraging more sustainable, carbon-efficient choices ( Cattell, Langston and Wilford).

During 2011 the Centre for Sustainable Healthy Communities had a range of achievements including:

Under the leadership of Prof George Earl, the Centre has been successful in building relationship with Gold Coast City Council and other industry partners. This has resulted in the sponsorship of Professor of Sustainable Development and Design by Gold Coast City Council for 3 years.
Prof Craig Langston won the prestigious Vice Chancellor Quality Award for Research Excellence.
The Centre has developed links with the Lend Lease and Varsity Lakes Community Limited for conducting research on active living as well as disaster management.
The Centre staff secured 7 Vice Chancellor’s Research Grants in 2011.

Find out more about the Centre for Sustainable Healthy Communities