Janan Al-Musawi

My name is Janan Al-Musawi, and I am an emerging designer, completing my Bachelor of Architecture at Swinburne University. Architecture, for me, has always been more than buildings, it is a way to tell stories, shape experiences, and create spaces where people feel seen and connected. I’m drawn to projects that explore culture, community, and the emotional impact of space.

Throughout my studies, I’ve developed a design approach that blends narrative thinking with technical precision. My recent work includes a museum and multicultural marketplace in Newport, a project centred on migration, identity, and the power of shared spaces. I focus on designing environments that celebrate diversity while addressing real social needs, using tools like Rhino, Grasshopper, Revit, and various environmental analysis programs to bring these ideas to life.

I’m passionate about integrating landscape, light, and interactive elements into architecture to create spaces that feel alive and responsive. My goal is always to craft journeys and spaces that guide people from curiosity to reflection, from celebration to understanding.

As I move towards professional practice, I hope to continue designing places that empower communities, honor stories, and transform everyday environments into meaningful experiences.

The People's Museum

With an interactive cultural hub where communities can share their stories, showcase their creativity, and connect through markets and events, the suburb can become more vibrant, connected and full of life.

Render 1

Amphitheatre Render

Parti Diagram

The idea was to use the arch as a universal language both architecturally and structurally. We use 3 interrelated systems- repeated arches, vaulted arches and central vaulted roof supported by arches. The combination creates a self supporting, stablr system that distributes loads efficiently across the site.

Market Render

Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.