Mrs Helen Caswell

Research project: 
Planning for health and wellbeing in high-rise precincts: Understanding the role of ‘breathing space’

Research description:
Helen is seeking to establish the requisite evidence base that can be deployed to improve planning for high-rise high-density precincts. This goal will be achieved through determining the way in which differences in building density and separation influence health and wellbeing outcomes for residents in subtropical climatic contexts.

Researcher biography: 
Helen has over 25 years of practice experience in the fields of urban planning and urban design. She has worked on projects ranging in scale from public space capital work improvements to precinct master planning and local planning at the district scale. At the regional scale she worked on the review of the South East Queensland 2009 Regional Plan. 

Helen also has extensive community consultation experience, including working on the multi-award-winning project -The Spit Master Plan - that was recognised for outstanding practice in community engagement and participation.

Research interests: 
Urban form, Human-environment behaviour, and Healthy placemaking.

Principal Supervisor: Dr Sara Alidoust

Review article
Caswell, H., Alidoust, S., & Corcoran, J. (2025). Planning for livable compact vertical cities: A quantitative systematic review of the impact of urban geometry on thermal and visual comfort in high-rise precincts. Sustainable cities and society, 119, 106007. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2024.106007
 
Conference paper
Kennedy, Rosemary & Caswell, Helen (2005) The centre for subtropical design - a collaboration between a local government authority and a university. In Murakami, S (Ed.) SB05 Tokyo Proceedings: Action for Sustainability - The 2005 World Sustainable Building Conference in Tokyo. SB05 Tokyo National Conference Board, CD-ROM, pp. 4192-4199.  https://eprints.qut.edu.au/3312/

Contact Email: h.caswell@uq.edu.au