May 2026 - Volume 1
Welcome to the Alastair Swayn Foundation’s revised newsletter. Every six weeks we’ll drop into your inbox to let you know what we are doing - and what is being done, written about, talked about and revealed by others that we find interesting.
Each volume will be just a fragment—a grab—a dispatch—extracted from the ongoing negotiation between what has always been imagined to be possible on a planet where it is now increasingly difficult to imagine what might be possible.
Within this context of pressing social, economic and environmental challenges we will showcase research projects supported by the Foundation, plus a selection of contemporary projects, recent publications and events related to design and architecture.
Welcome to the conversation.
Recent Projects
Supported by the Alastair Swayn Foundation
READLiving Together: Five European Studies
A recently completed research project that examines five medium-density, high-quality housing examples that demonstrate an interest in how resources—land, social capital, and amenity—are shared. They also focus on how design decisions can encourage responsible, sustainable performance and greater social connection. This extends earlier research on collective housing in Australia. Both projects examined collective housing from a design perspective and resident’s lived experience.
READThere are well over 100 Indigenous Art Centres (IACs) operating primarily in remote communities across the Australian mainland and islands including the Torres Strait. IACs are a critical platform in the development and maintenance of Indigenous cultural and arts practice and markets. As infrastructures, they also contribute to economic development, livelihoods and employment in remote areas and on Country. This project investigated the design implications and experience of Indigenous Art Centres as workplaces to inform capacity building to develop strategies for future capital works and facility management.
WATCHEnduring Cultural Matter: Architectural materials are never neutral
Alastair Swayn Foundation—RMIT Affiliated Fellow Stephanie Pahnis presented her research Enduring Cultural Matter on the 19th of March at RMIT Design Hub. Drawing from her residency at the American Academy in Rome Stephanie explored material reuse through the lens of spolia—the reuse of fragments from existing structures. She traced how materials can carry memory, labour, and meaning across time, from the travertine quarries of Tivoli to the basalt plains of Western Victoria. The project asked—what if architecture didn’t erase the past, but worked with it?—reinterpreting, rewriting, and reconfiguring what already exists in connection to place, Country, and community. ASF Director, Dr Neil Hobbs, supported Stephanie’s work and as our second fellow supported through the American Academy in Rome affiliation, it’s exciting to see her research shape new conversations in architecture and design.
LISTENListen to the latest episodes of season two of the podcast series by Tim Ross and Kevin McCloud Big Design Adventure where the two media identities embark on a journey, sharing their love of design by visiting buildings that inspire them, meeting the people who create or inhabit them, and diving deep into the places that shape and spark their imaginations.
Matters of Interest
In Design & Architecture
READA modest sample of the exhaustive reviews of the David Geffen Galleries of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) that opened on April 19. Designed by the Swiss architect, Peter Zumthor (who has won numerous international awards for his architecture including the Pritzker Prize and the Royal Institute of British Architects Royal Gold Medal) the new galleries were commissioned in 2006 and the ensuing ten years have not been without friction in the media (if you have time dig back and look at who has said what…). Dezeen, Designboom, ArchDaily, New York Times, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Artforum
WATCHIf reading reviews is not for you then take a walkthrough of the David Geffen Galleries courtesy of Archinect.
LISTENTo the US architecture critic Martin Filler’s podcast on the late Canadian born, internationally famous architect, Frank Gehry. In this discussion Filler refers to his obituary to Gehry published last December.
READ & WATCH (OR LISTEN)‘Backrooms’ and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic. A new spin on the mundanity of modern bureaucracy—the corporate ‘office.’
READWith the recent crisis in fossil fuel supply the rush to buy electric cars has overlooked other transport possibilities. Rediscover the Handcart; a pleasure to drive, Low-tech Magazine’s handcart demonstrates the advantages of slow, human-powered transportation
READAn excerpt in the imperative and which is self-explanatory—“Stop Building Now!” —from Dutch architect Reinier de Graaf’s (OMA/AMO) new book “Architecture Against Architecture: A Manifesto” (Verso).
Publications
URO PUBLICATIONSBy designer and academic Guy Keulemans. The book is an inventory of new models for the sustainable use of materials and products through the thoughtful repair of broken things. It will be released on 16 May at Melbourne Design Week.
URO PUBLICATIONSAdapt: Designing New Lives for Old Buildings
By Hannah Lewi and Cameron Logan results from an Alastair Swayn Foundation grant to in 2022. It showcases design and practice-based approaches to the sustainable, adaptive reuse of historic places. Leading architects and heritage practitioners provide insights into their methods and experiences with the complex task of creating contemporary spaces from much-loved, but timeworn, buildings. Accompanied by essays from experts in adaptive reuse, the book includes a series of illustrated case studies of leading-edge approaches to adaptive reuse in heritage and historically significant sites over the past decade.
ZONE BOOKSBreathing Space: The Architecture of Pneumatic Beings
By architect and historian Tim Altenhof explores the physiology of breathing and its relationship to buildings. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, new understandings of air pollution and disease stimulated a widespread preoccupation with ventilation, impacting architecture in countless ways. Altenhof shows how the science of breathing was incorporated into architecture, whether in the design of factories, residences, or medical facilities.
Grants & Events
GRANTSThe Alastair Swayn Foundation Grant Program
June 2026
Through our grants program, the Alastair Swayn Foundation continues to honour Alastair’s legacy by supporting bold ideas, research and creative practice across Australia’s architectural and design community. Applications open this June.
EVENTAustralian Good Design Awards Ceremony
9th October 2026 – ICC, Sydney
The Australian Good Design Awards set the benchmark for excellence in design and innovation, celebrating the most groundbreaking projects from around the world. Spanning design, architecture, engineering, research, fashion, and social impact, the Awards recognise visionary work that shapes how we live, work, and interact.
EVENTPlanning Institute of Australia Planning Congress2026
20-22 May — National Convention Centre, Canberra
The 2026 Planning Congress will be held in Canberra, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the Planning Institute of Australia. As one of the country’s key annual gatherings for the planning profession, the Congress offers an important opportunity to listen, learn and connect with planners from a wide range of backgrounds. These conversations help strengthen contemporary knowledge, support professional development and contribute to the long-term growth of the planning community.
