Purpose Healthcare designers are fundamental to implementing therapeutic gardens in hospitals and healthcare facilities. They can guide clinical practitioners and healthcare decision-makers with a design plan to create sustainable healing environments for the medical treatment of their patients and a sanctuary away from the clinical hospital environment for their staff and visitors. This article presents the experience of 12 global healthcare designers, experts in architecture, landscape architecture and health planning, and how they design and establish therapeutic hospital gardens (THG) to be sustainable for clinical practitioners and healthcare decision-makers. Design/methodology/approach Analysis of these semi-structured interviews led to the establishment of guidelines for architects, landscape architects and health planners to design and establish therapeutic gardens that are sustainable healing environments integrated into hospital care. Findings These THG Healthcare Designer guidelines include five systematic steps: (1) include THG early, (2) design for hospital user needs, (3) conduct inclusive and defined stakeholder engagement, (4) draw on lessons learnt and (5) develop a comprehensive design brief. Originality/value Healthcare designers, for the first time, have five systematic steps to immediately guide the profession to work alongside clinical practitioners and healthcare decision-makers to successfully create THG. When these three sectors work together, then, THG can be sustainably integrated into the clinical hospital program, enabling wholesome and compassionate hospital care.

Therapeutic hospital gardens (THGs) need to be purposefully designed for hospital users and well-integrated into the clinical hospital treatment plan to be effective. Healthcare decision-makers are critically important in establishing therapeutic gardens in hospitals and healthcare facilities because they have the ultimate decision-making power to include such gardens for the holistic care of their patients, staff, and visitors. This study aims to establish how THGs can be successfully created by investigating the professional experiences of 12 global healthcare decision-makers in hospital administration, executive government, and senior consultancy to government on the role of THGs in creating a healthy and sustainable hospital environment. This article shows how these decision-makers, who have already worked with healthcare designers and clinical practitioners to design and establish THGs, have been selected and interviewed. The qualitative analysis of these semi-structured interviews uncovered why and how these healthcare decision-makers made THGs a reality in their hospitals. This analysis informed the development of the THG Healthcare Decision-maker Guidelines, which were designed to guide all hospital CEOs, government executives, and senior consultants to the government to both design and then establish THGs successfully. These guidelines include five systematic steps: 1. design for hospital cohorts; 2. purposefully design and integrate THGs well; 3. facilitate inclusive and defined stakeholder engagement; 4. evaluate the garden visitor experience; and 5. understand the benefits and values of THGs. These five systematic steps can be used immediately by healthcare decision-makers to work with healthcare designers and clinical experts to implement such gardens in hospitals successfully. When the three sectors, healthcare governance, healthcare design, and clinical health, work together, more THGs can be established in hospitals for better patient care, visitor well-being, and a healthy and sustainable hospital environment.

Immigration brings particular challenges to older Chinese immigrants’ wellbeing because they make a new home in a foreign country. Based on 30 semi-structured in-depth interviews, this study aims to understand the immigration history of this specific group and unravel the complex links between family relationships and wellbeing. Four themes emerged from the interviews. First, the decision to immigrate is the result of the combined influence of family values, affinities and the need for aged care. Second, after immigration, housework normally negatively influences their wellbeing. The third theme pertains to the interactions amongst family members. The final theme shows that Chinese immigrants’ perceived wellbeing is influenced by family relationships, an independent lifestyle and social networks. This research highlights older Chinese immigrants’ complex feelings of family commitment, personal values and the need for aged care. Practical implications for policymakers to better facilitate this group’s wellbeing are provided.

Aim: This review explores the role of purposefully designed and well-integrated therapeutic hospital gardens (THGs) for the benefits of patients, their families, and staff. Background: Significant benefits are realized when people are in contact with nature in the city. Although hospital gardens are prevalent and the beneficial effects of nature on health are widely acknowledged, the establishment of a consistent definition for hospital gardens that promote health is vital to attain reliable and quantifiable health outcomes. Methods: Twenty-eight peer-reviewed journals were critiqued for the period of 2016–2021 and updated with 12 articles from 2021 to 2023 to analyze and synthesize the latest thinking and development in this emergent field. Subsequently, current books and exemplar practice literature were synthesized with the results of the literature review to produce a working definition of THGs. Results: Three themes and 14 subthemes were established showing the interconnectedness of THG definition, user needs and experiences, and the benefits and values of THGs. Two original findings can be established—a need to have a consensus on terminology and to establish design processes. The working definition was produced as a foundational step to guide stakeholders in implementing THGs. Conclusion: THGs can play a role in improving well-being when they are purposefully designed and well-integrated in hospital programs and health policy. Hospital CEOs, designers, and healthcare experts can use the findings and working definition to assist the establishment of such health promoting gardens.

Urban areas are increasingly affected by population ageing and immigration, raising new questions for urban planning and development. This study seeks to understand the relationships between transportation experiences of minority older groups and their wellbeing. This study involves 30 older Chinese immigrants who are living on the Gold Coast, Australia. Qualitative methods used to understand this relationship include in-depth interviews, travel diaries and mapping exercises. The research results confirm that older Chinese immigrants' preferred lifestyles influence their daily activities and transportation experiences. The key barriers encountered by participants include safety, accessibility of (deemed) essential facilities, quality and provision of walking paths, legibility of road networks, and the availability of public transport services to appropriate/desired destinations. This study not only enriches the knowledge of how transportation can influence the wellbeing of older Chinese immigrants. It also highlights the need to provide inclusive neighbourhood environments for minorities and vulnerable older people in cities.

This study focuses on the ageing experiences of older Chinese immigrants in Australia. The life course perspective provides a framework to investigate the main aspects relating to a sense of home and to analyse how family, relational, and societal factors influence older Chinese immigrants' construction of a sense of home in a transnational context. This paper is based on qualitative data from 30 in-depth interviews with older Chinese immigrants living on the Gold Coast, Australia. This study reveals that family relationships, independence, and social interactions contribute to constructing a sense of home among older Chinese immigrants. Findings elucidate the interrelations between personal adaptive actions and mindsets, Chinese organisations, and social policies in the life experiences of older Chinese immigrants in Australia. This study suggests that policymakers need to be more sensitive to the significance of culture; it also highlights the need to further support existing cultural services that contribute to developing a sense of home for older Chinese immigrants.

Transferrable skills (literacies) and employability have been a focus within the higher education sector in the 21st century. To assess where (and if) these required literacies are embedded, and how well students are supported in developing the required literacies in a bachelor program at an Australian university, academic, information and digital literacy mapping was conducted across the program through a partnership between library professionals and academics. The mapping in core courses of learning outcomes and assessment items to required literacies was conducted using the Academic Skills Model (ASM) (Charlton & Martin, 2018), which was designed to guide the development of academic, information and digital literacies in students. The literacy mapping found a range of academic and information literacies were scaffolded and supported in first and second-year courses across the program, but support for the development of few digital literacies were evident at any level. Consequently, these findings indicate that there are opportunities to embed more instruction in the digital literacies space. We posit that these results reflect a common assumption at the university level that students will be able to choose and effectively use the technologies needed for their assessment tasks, and hence may reflect an instructional gap that is worth investigating in other programs and universities. More generally, the results illustrate the utility of using the ASM to visualise where literacies are being incorporated throughout a program of study and what gaps exist for further inclusion to develop transferrable skills required for graduate employability.

In Australia, Master Planned Communities (MPCs) and Active Lifestyle Developments (ALDs) have often been promoted as the pinnacle of the 'great Australian dream' of homeownership. This chapter explores the seductiveness of these two forms of 'suburban ways of living'. Drawing on Foucauldian notions of governmentality and psychoanalytical understandings of identity, this chapter adopts a critical stance on how both political actors and developers have appropriated homeownership and packaged MPCS and ALDs as suburban idylls in an effort to assuage the concerns of the elderly. This is explored by an analysis of two Australian case studies located in Adelaide (South Australia) and Brisbane (Queensland).

This study aims to understand how infill developments with walkable policies influence not only the walkability of the modified area but also the proximate urban spaces located in the context. The paper uses a mixed-methods and a relational approach to conduct comparative research in the form of pre- and post-construction analysis in a recently pedestrianised street to evaluate how enhanced walking in the pedestrianised corridor affected the walkability of its adjacent spaces. Results suggest that the enhanced walkability in the pedestrianised street increased the walkability of the adjacent spaces. Then, the study adopts a critical stance towards current approaches of understanding walkability and argues this finding corroborates the idea behind assemblage thinking in the walkability debate; that is, walkability is a capacity that may or may not be actualised. Here, seeing walkability in terms of a “becoming assemblage,” emphasises the role of assemblage thinking in grasping the dynamics of walkability.

In recognition of the aging population and the importance of health-supporting urban environments, including urban green spaces, to maintain well-being, scholars and policymakers have increasingly investigated the associations between urban green spaces and the well-being of older people. However, few studies specifically investigate minority older groups such as those with diverse cultural backgrounds, and many studies often ignore the design attributes of green spaces which may contribute to the well-being of those in such groups. In order to address these gaps, this paper explores how green spaces influence the well-being of older Chinese immigrants. This case study analyzes how older Chinese immigrants interact with green spaces on the Gold Coast, Australia, and adopts the value of place as a conceptual framework to understand the relationship. Two qualitative methods, namely, in-depth interviews and travel diaries, were used to collect data. The results show that parks, as a place, play a crucial role in older Chinese immigrants' ability to undertake outdoor activities. The relationship between green spaces and well-being can be classified into two themes. The first theme is concerned with how older Chinese immigrants perceive and experience green spaces. This finding indicates that green spaces can fulfill their values of keeping healthy, maintaining active lifestyles, and being social, all of which benefit well-being. The second theme relates to daily activities undertaken within green spaces. Issues of accessibility and personal preferences regarding activities complicate the relationship between green spaces and well-being. Good accessibility to green spaces is congruent with older Chinese immigrants' values of being physically active, while difficulties in conducting preferred activities counteract these values which then generate negative perceptions of green spaces. Overall, there is great potential for understanding how personal values can inform the design of inclusive green spaces for minority or less mobile groups.

Applying a qualitative methodology, this research suggested that Master Planned Community (MPC) developments play a core role, as a place, in creating opportunities to establish social ties for older people, whereas social life in conventional suburbs is interest-based. The research found that safety and community in MPCs were initially delivered as prefabricated commodities, as a result of the exclusive infrastructure embedded within the developments. Commodification of social life, in particular, inscribed degrees of feelings of separation in the physical and social landscapes of the study areas, which was a key research finding that informs future master planning policies and practices.

This paper presents an index for measuring experiential qualities (EQs) of urban public spaces through users' perspective. The index is underpinned by interrelated qualities of comfort, diversity and vitality, inclusiveness, and image and likeability. It is then applied to two public spaces in the Australian city of Brisbane: Queen Street Mall and South Bank Parklands. The index extends the user-centred measuring tools and can be used by practitioners, authorities and scholars to highlight users' needs and concerns. Findings from case spaces revealed deficiencies and provided a deeper insight into EQs through integrating urban design qualities, perception and management measuring items.

Urbanisation is changing the nature of social interactions between people and their relationship to the places they inhabit. The building of community, as an urban planning goal and a social construct, and its oft-cited demise is re-visited in this chapter and linked to Ray Oldenburg's concept of third place, to view contemporary issues of alienation, safety, mobility and sense of place. Third place is not home (first place), not work (second place), but those places in which we interact with the people that we meet when walking down the street, catching the bus, picking up groceries at the corner store, taking children to school, walking the dog, in our local coffee shop or chatting on social media. Third places foster casual conversations between people who live/work/play in, or visit, a local neighbourhood area. Third places are designed to be effective at bringing people together, and as such, they are an essential component of urban life because they promote social health and wellbeing; they promote relations of community.

Neighbourhood environment has a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of older people. In recent years, the increase in older Chinese immigrants globally has attracted a growing amount of research which has investigated the health and wellbeing of these elderly residents. The aim of this study is to provide a systematic literature review of empirical findings on the health and wellbeing of older Chinese immigrants and the ways in which the neighbourhood environment impacts them. A systematic search was conducted using online databases where 52 articles met specific criteria and were subsequently reviewed critically. An inductive approach was undertaken to analyse the data extracted from the selected articles. The review was categorised according to the following themes: neighbourhood social environment, neighbourhood physical environment and place attachment. The findings show that the majority of research has investigated the health status of older immigrants, and in particular, the impacts related to the social environments in which they live. The literature review indicated that there is scope for future studies to investigate the impact of the physical neighbourhood environment on this group of people.

Teaching Urban and Environmental Planning, like most Professional degree programs, requires overt and significant linkages to the relevant industry and or professional practice. Student employability is largely implicated by the type and level of professional competencies they have achieved during their education. The embedding of employability skills has been successfully achieved in studio-based learning and teaching environments in the Urban and Environmental Planning program at Griffith University. Through the use of ePortfolios and the PebblePad Personal Learning Environment, students identify as Trainee Planners from week one of their studies. Over the four years of the program, students build upon, critique, and develop their professional identity in conjunction with their resume and ePortfolio. By the time of graduation, students leave the program as Professional Accredited Planners with a professional portfolio to launch them into their professional life. Current indicators show that 90% of Griffith Urban and Environmental Planning graduates obtain industry-related employment after graduating. This is significant given the changing nature of the workforce and employment prospects.

Public spaces are the loci of complex interactions among multiple stakeholders whose decisions and activities affect places' qualities. The paper builds upon governance theory to provide a holistic in-depth approach in understanding the complexity and quality of the place-shaping processes in public spaces. In the absence of adequate conception of governance in urban design and public spaces, the paper introduces a framework for analysing governance capacity of public spaces and applies the framework to a flagship but highly contested public space in Brisbane, Australia namely South Bank Parklands. The proposed framework encompasses four major components of 1) actors and stakeholders, 2) governance structure, 3) governing tools, and 4) governing tasks. The framework puts special emphasis on the contextual factors, the way public spaces are shaped and governed, and political economy of the space. The case study application showcases the applicability of the PSGF which helps holistically analyse the trends in public space governance structure accounting for the diversity and complexity of all elements involved. The findings reveal that South Bank Parklands governance is mix-structured, hierarchical, and highly political. It is, however, a likeable public space for which civic engagement in the decision-making processes is notably limited.