Swayn Open Research
The Alastair Swayn Foundation is committed to information sharing and transparency of the research it funds. We believe that research supported by the Foundation should be made discoverable and readily accessible online. The Swayn Open Research repository provides a place for researchers to promptly have their findings published on an open access basis, to benefit the architecture and design community.
Shared and Sustainable Future Communities
Shared and Sustainable Future Communities explores how regulatory barriers in the ACT affect the growth of cohousing, and outlines reforms to enable more sustainable, affordable, and community-driven housing models.
Girlpower: Design Solutions for an Equitable and Inclusive Future for Females in Sport
This report explores how design can actively support gender inclusion in sports through simple, cost-scalable architectural interventions. Focusing on the lived experiences of women and girls, the report investigates how built environments contribute to feelings of belonging, safety, and participation across key sporting codes and levels of facilities.
Empower by Design: Enabling Innovative Inclusion of Disabled People in Design
This report documents a novel and innovative design studio initiative at the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne that brought together architecture students and Intellectually Disabled people in a co-design process to challenge the exclusionary norms of built environment education and practice.
The Spoil Grounds: Waste Architectures in Infrastructures of Extraction
This project investigates the environmental and social impacts of dredging in the Port of Newcastle and the Hunter estuary system. Led by researcher Therese Keogh, it explores "waste architectures" - landscapes formed by industrial by-products - and brings together designers, artists, and researchers to critically examine the effects of extraction.
Mapping the Hanging Swamps of the Blue Mountains: An Atlas of the Hanging Swamps of the Blue Mountains
A research project conducted from August to October 2023 to document and enhance the understanding of the unique hanging swamp ecosystems in the Blue Mountains, particularly those near urban areas.
Liquid Infrastructures: An Archive of the Central Sydney Estuary
This digital working-archive, offers an in-depth exploration of Sydney’s industrial evolution, capturing the often-overlooked fragments of early industrial activities around its waters.
Social Value in the Built Environment: Lessons from Housing Case Studies
This research seeks to share insights and demonstrate how a clear, standardised methodology can be applied across different project stages. By adopting a systematic approach to creating, measuring, and delivering social value, architects are better positioned to consistently improve project outcomes.
Generative AI in Design Education: Post-digital Pedagogies Toolkit
The report includes insights, challenges, and potential ways of working with generative machine learning models. It also offers a suite of design class activities that educators can use with their students. The activities have been tested and evaluated in these design studio classes and are also shared on Instagram.
Developing Spatial Design Know How with and for Young People Living in Out-of-Home Residential Care
Bringing spatial design and lived experience together in dialogue, the project focused on the environment of residential care in relation to questions of belonging and ‘home’. The aim of this project is to develop a shared understanding of spatial design know-how that can be used by young people currently living in residential care.
Rural Design in Queensland: Case Studies
This project seeks to examine Dewey Thorbeck’s propositions about rural design in relation to Queensland places, based on four case studies with an intention of creating more case studies as a basis for ongoing discussion about and engagement in rural design.