EVENTS IN the real worlds of human health and of global sustainability seem to have stepped up a pace. In tandem,the ‘constructed’ worlds of ‘public health’ and ‘planning’ are struggling – not struggling to keep up; but struggling to meet up. This article tracks a year in the life of a small research centre that has been at the heart of the planning-health domain for nearly ten years. The Collaborating Centre, designated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Healthy Cities Campaign, is part of the Faculty of the Built Environment at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol. It is one of only two collaborating centres in the world based within a builtenvironment faculty, expressly linking health with design and planning