Samantha Donnelly: Architect and researcher Scholarly Teaching Fellow, School of Architecture

About my work

Samantha Donnelly: Architect and researcher Scholarly Teaching Fellow, School of Architecture

As an architect and researcher, I am focused on designing fit-for-purpose, trauma-informed crisis accommodation for women and children leaving violence. My work includes developing solutions for adaptive reuse, existing accommodation, modular units and new sites. I work closely with providers, managers, and women with lived experience to find the best options for each service. The significance of well designed spaces for those working with and those who have experienced trauma is a field of enquiry that emphasises that good design should benefit everyone, not just a privileged few.  

My research involves site visits to existing refuges in New South Wales to understand the impact of the built environment and the social and physical contexts in which the services operate. With support from a UTS Shopfront Research Fellowship, I produced a design guide for refuge accommodation for women and children for urban refuges in the greater Sydney area that has been extensively used by stakeholders and government departments to integrate design strategies in proposed developments. This guide will be expanded with additional findings from regional New South Wales and will expand on trauma-informed design for core and cluster model housing.

A memorable win

With the support of the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation, I am working with the XYX Lab and Schored Projects to evaluate housing types for women over 45 in the Melbourne area. This research involves the input of community housing providers and women with lived experience and has resulted in the production of a design guide that will be launched at the Pride Centre during Melbourne Design Week in 2022. An accompanying series of workshops will be held at the MPavilion in April.

Women over the age of 55 are the fastest growing cohort of homeless in Australia and current research estimates that there are over 400,000 women over the age of 45 at risk of homelessness. Many of these women have led productive lives and have had conventional housing histories. However, they find themselves facing homelessness in later life. How did we reach this point of crisis?

Making Home will tell the stories of women who find themselves in this situation. We will unpack the issues and policies that have led to this crisis, talk to people who are working to prevent it and look at current research into providing homes for these women at risk.

The Making Homes series, installation and workshops have been made possible with generous support from MPavilion and the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation.

This event is part of Melbourne Design Week 2022.

My article – Why it’s essential that refuges are built with the needs of the women and children that use them at heart? – was recently published in Women’s Agenda on the back of the NSW government's announcement about funding 75 new refuge. 

Bio: Samantha’s architectural work focuses on social impact, gender-sensitive design and trauma-informed design. She has worked with not-for-profit organisations and vulnerable communities on projects that respond to the need for spaces that provide a sense of dignity and care. 

Samantha currently lectures at UTS in the School of Architecture and is an active collaborator with the UTS Design Innovation Research Centre and the XYX Lab at Monash on projects that address violence through design. 

As a PhD candidate at Monash University, Samantha’s research considers the benefits of tailored accommodation for women and children leaving violence and the importance of safe, long-term housing for older women.  

Websites

The Making Homes series: https://mpavilion.org/program/making-home/

Recent publications

Donnelly, S. and Chan, H. (2021) How Chinese courtyard housing can help older women, The Conversation, 19 Feb, 2021, https://theconversation.com/how-chinese-courtyard-housing-can-help-older-australian-women-avoid-homelessness-151378

Cant, R, Dean, S, Donnelly, S, Dawbin, B, Sherwen, M, (2021) Empathy by design. Building empathy in secondary students through a Design Thinking project; a case study, Australian Journal of Education, http://www.iier.org.au/iier31/2021conts.html

Online articles 

Online podcast 

The significance of well designed spaces for those working with and those who have experienced trauma is a field of enquiry that emphasises that good design should benefit everyone, not just a privileged few. – Samantha Donnelly, School of Architecture

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.