Winners of the 2026 Grant Round Announced
Congratulations to the recipients of the Alastair Swayn Foundation’s 2026 Australian Design Grants. We look forward to following the development of these projects and sharing their research and outcomes over the year ahead.
Jamie Hodgson
Building the Profile
The project will explore strategies for reducing modern slavery in construction material and building product supply chains, examining how the built environment currently identifies and responds to risks-to-people, the work of research, advocacy, and human rights organisations to combat the issue, and what conditions look like for workers in opaque global supply chains.
Dr Amina Kaskar
Farm Gate Commons: Designing Reciprocal Infrastructures for Migrant Agrarian Life
Farm Gate Commons explores how migrant communities in Western Sydney build shared spaces through cultivation, making, exchange, and care—reimagining the farm stall as a site of collective life and a social commons.
OFFICE
Rain Makers: Forensic Cartography and First Nations Water Rights in Ali Curung [Kaytetye Country]
Rain Makers will use techniques in geo-spatial analysis and digital modelling to investigate and document cultural and environmental destruction caused by the intensive water extraction on Kaytetye Country.
Dr Tassia Joannides & Dr Daphne Mohajer
Fashion Refusal: Acts of Resistance and Regeneration
A publication documenting the research and ideas of the Fashion Refusal exhibition, which examines the regenerative opportunities of ‘refusal’ as a way of resisting and reimagining the systems, norms, and aesthetics that underpin dominant destructive models within the fashion design industry (RMIT Design Hub Gallery, part of PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival Independent Programme 2027).
Callan Green & Lindsay Le Gros
Off-Grid Architecture for Regional Communities
Capturing off‑grid architectural experiments and translating them into practical tools for future makers.
Matthew Bird
Reimagining Fountains
Drawing on Australia’s post-war fountains, the project explores how civic infrastructure can support urban cooling, biodiversity, social connection and vibrant public spaces.
Dr Marius Foley, Associate Professor Natalia Radywyl, Professor Andrea Siodmok OBE & Professor Jung-Joo Lee
Signals >> Future Policy Design
Recognises the consequential role policy design plays in Australian design and innovation and creates a network to make design a prominent contributor to Australian public decision-making.
