STUDIO
At SWAP we challenge conventional approaches to design and bring creative thinking to development. We ensure our proposals realise best commercial value to our clients because that allows us to deliver social infrastructure to the communities in which we work. We engage local people to help us deliver their needs and embrace a role which sits between local community, development and innovation.
We enjoy the challenge of complex urban fabric and create crafted responses that offer a positive contribution to the physical environment in which we live. Our designs are informed by rigorous research and informed conversations. We embrace an exploratory design process which results in robust analytical solutions.
MATT WARD
FOUNDING DIRECTOR
Matt, founding director at SWAP, began his journey into architecture having trained as a master thatcher in the Cotswolds where he developed a unique appreciation for materiality and detailing through the mechanism of this traditional craft.
Studying at the University of East London Matt gained a first class diploma in architecture where he focused on the collision of opposing programme and the associated social benefit.
Matt has applied this theory through a portfolio of complex large-scale, mixed-use projects as Associate Director and Residential Sector Lead for HLM Architects where he worked for 10 years. During this time he was involved in a portfolio in excess of 3000 homes covering initial conception through to delivery, gaining experience in all tenure types from student, co-living and build-to-rent, through social, market to high-end luxury.
This broad-ranging experience provided the opportunity to challenge conventional approaches to development and deliver responsive social architecture to local communities. Innovative design solutions generated within the framework of the client’s brief have delivered schools, community centres and affordable workspace for local businesses.
DANAI SAGE
STUDIO DIRECTOR
Danai has been closely involved with a number of international architectural practices and over the past decade, engaging in rich and diverse design environments. With this unique background, Danai brings a wealth of experience to the forefront of the design efforts of SWAP.
Danai began his career at Foster + Partners in 2010 where he worked on the Banco Ciudad corporate offices in Buenos Aires, and while at Plasma Studio was a key designer on a 4,000sqm greenhouse in Xi’an, which won Wallpaper’s Best Building Site in 2011.
In 2011, Danai joined Heatherwick studio to work on the Learning Hub at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. As part of his work on the Learning Hub, Danai was invited as lead speaker to talk at the Building Centre where he explained the innovative techniques invented to contemporary enhance concrete visually and physically.
After that, Danai worked extensively on the design of a 100,000sqm office space for Google, as well as two large-scale projects in Asia and most recently was on the competition-winning team for the redesign of David Geffen Hall in New York.
JEREMY PICKARD
STUDIO DIRECTOR
Having worked previously with Matt at HLM Architects since 2008, Jeremy joined SWAP in 2020.
Growing up and educated in South Africa where architectural learning focussed on democratic design for people and communities in a young democracy, social concerns became a fundamental part of Jeremy’s interest in architecture and design.
Over the last 15 years, Jeremy has worked across a range of sectors, but most predominantly in healthcare and education, working with boroughs across London to deliver school places across a range of school building programmes, leading teams working with contractors, local authorities and private school providers.
Leading HLM’s studios in the United Arab Emirates from 2015 - 2019 as Design Director, and then Director, Jeremy led hospitality, education and healthcare projects across the MENA region in the UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman and Algeria, developing a broad experience of working in varying social and cultural environments, with a wide range of users and needs.
Jeremy brings this user-led and experientially-driven expertise to SWAP’s social agenda, along with expertise and thought leadership in designing for young people with Special Educational Needs, and also Designing for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA)