Over 30 Years Expertise
Leadership
& Experience
Dr. Shaneen Fantin has over 30 years of industry expertise specialising in co-design, engagement, sustainability, placed-based, and community-driven projects. She has qualifications in architecture and project management, is an Adjunct Associate Professor at two universities, and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects.
2014 – 2024 | Cairns, QLD
Director POD
People Oriented Design
Shaneen was a founder and co-director of People Oriented Design with Belinda Allwood. POD is an award winning, multidisciplinary architecture, landscape, project management, and community engagement practice. POD is nationally recognised for its commitment to sustainability and delivering quality architecture and master planning that is responsive to place and respectful of First Nations culture. Project locations spanned Cape York, the Torres Strait, all of Queensland, and the Pacific.
In 2021, she received the Women in Sustainability Award (shared with Belinda Allwood) by InDesign Media.
2011 – 2013 | Cairns, QLD
Qld Program Manager, Home Ownership Team on Indigenous Lands
Department of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Remote Indigenous Land & Infrastructure Program Office
Community Engagement & Employment Workforce Development Manager
New Future Alliance
Shaneen worked on the delivery of the Strategic Indigenous Housing & Infrastructure Program (SIHIP). She was responsible for a team of twelve people working across many communities in the NT. The community engagement plan she developed was used as a template exemplar by the NT Government for the other alliances and the government agencies delivering the work.
She was a finalist in the Australian Institute of Management Manager of the Year Awards in 2011.
Associate
Edge Architecture
Program/Project Manager
Indigenous Health Projects, Arup
Shaneen managed the delivery of capital works to Indigenous health organisations in the far north Qld region for the Department of Health.
She received the 2005 Year of the Built Environment Award for Program Management of OATSIH Capital Works.
Lecturer A & Coordinator of 3rd year Architecture & Technology
Louis Laybourne Smith School of Architecture & Design
1998 – 2003 | Brisbane, QLD
PhD Candidate, Tutor & Guest Lecturer, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre
University of Queensland
Shaneen’s PhD, Housing Aboriginal Culture in North-East Arnhem Land, included research into the relationship between culture and the built environment with Yolngu people at Ramingining and Galiwin’ku.
In 2000, Shaneen was awarded the NT History Award by the NT Government, and an Australian Postgraduate Scholarship from the University of Qld.
1994 – 1998 | Darwin, NT | Cairns, QLD | Yellowknife, Canada
Graduate of Architecture
Troppo Architects & Pin Architects
For Troppo, Shaneen worked on many residential and community housing projects in Darwin, Arnhem Land and Cape York. In Canada, she worked with Tłı̨chǫ people of Rae-Edzo on a community centre and cultural heritage tour.
Shaneen was the recipient of the AE Brooks Travelling Scholarship in Architecture from the University of Qld in 1998.
Logo: Lawyer Cane or wait-a-while plant (Calamus australis) from Yidinji Country. Permission for use granted by Gimuy Walubara Yidinji elder Uncle Bumi Hyde