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By Dasha Orlov & Lily-Rose Day
The Operations Lead & Associate for this project, made for their 2026 UW Design Capstone.
The spaces we move through each day shape how we feel, how we work, and how we treat the people around us. We believe that the spaces we inhabit should be designed to support playfulness and presence.
On the University of Washington’s campus, a great example is the Swing in the HUB Yard. People love this swing, so we chose to ask:
How hard could it be?
If a handful of students could do this back in 2010, how hard would it be for us to do it again?
And so, we began our research; asking countless questions, sending cold emails, walking into unfamiliar rooms, driven by the truth that having moments of playfulness is not only valuable, but essential in a high-stress academic environment that rewards extreme productivity.
Swing located at the UW Husky Union Building (HUB) Lawn photographed in February 2026. It has since been removed.
Looking into the origins of the HUB swing, the history turned out to be more interesting than we expected. Sixteen years ago, students in a Construction Materials class were given the assignment to build a bench. Instead of following the conventions for what a bench should be, they chose to make a swing.
It was originally installed near Terry Hall, but the building was slated for demolition just four years later. The swing was meant to be removed, but students successfully petitioned to preserve it, and the swing was relocated to the HUB Yard where it has remained ever since.
Over the years, this swing has garnered quite the reputation: It is clear that students adore it.
And it’s also become clear that one swing is not enough.
It's not just students who care.
When talking to Kristine Kenney, the UW’s Executive Director of Campus Design & Planning, she met us with genuine enthusiasm for our idea.
When we asked her what she thought of the concept in general, this is what she had to say:
"What inspires me about working at a college campus is that there is a legacy, a history, a shared memory of place that extends multiple generations.
And that, to me, is why I do what I do.
There's a lot on your shoulders, and to be able to release that every now and again with just a little moment — we need those across campus. So for me, I am fully supportive of it."
Kristine wasn’t the only person who supported our idea. The more people we spoke to, the more we realized that the need for small, peace-filled respites across campus is real.
Building for the School of Art, Art History & Design at UW.
But we knew that, as Design students within the School of Art, if we really wanted to build & permanently install a new swing, we would have to collaborate with students who had more subject matter knowledge in working with physical infrastructure.
Building for the College of Built Environments at UW.
We reached out to students within the College of Built Environments and collaborated with the Freedom by Design RSO to host a Design Charrette Sprint. This is where a group of people come together, are given a set of constraints, and are encouraged to collaborate and let their creativity flow to generate lots of ideas quickly.
We needed to spread the word that this project was underway, and recruit interested students with the skills we needed to make it a reality.
We aggressively promoted the event, printing posters, leveraging social media, and going in-person to architecture studios to announce the event.
And it worked!
The event brought together over fifty students from all different backgrounds, united under the same core belief that there is value in play, and we want to work to reflect that value in the campus we call home.
We successfully recruited incredibly talented and driven students to join our core team, and chose the exact site for the future swing, and got to work designing the swing itself.
Although we were incredibly inspired for what the possibilities could look like, we were quickly hit with the reality that if this was a structure that we were actually going to fabricate ourselves, within just a few months, that would become a part of campus for years after we graduate... we had to change our approach.
Besides the obvious feasibility constraints, Faculty within the School of Art did not want this swing to be as bright and extravagant as the existing Red Swing, to preserve the flexibility of the Art Courtyard space as an extension of the Jacob Lawrence Gallery.
And so, we shifted the design direction to be more restrained, while still emphasizing the function and affordance that a swing provides.
We were building a swing for students, so we thought through details that would be helpful, such as hooks attached to the frame to hang up backpack, or adding a little table for setting your drink down.
And just as we were ironing out the final details, down to the price of each hardware component, even meeting with the UW Facilities Structural Engineer at the UW’s Carpentry Shop to determine the final logistics...
...the grant that we had applied to, in hopes it would cover the cost of materials, decided to not fund our project.
Although this meant that we would not be able to build the swing we had worked hard to envision, we had already made incredible progress. We removed an existing, derelict bench, cleaned up the site, and established relationships with the people whose job it is to steward the spaces we often take for granted.
By illuminating these relationships, we were able to not only have agency within these systems, but also to be grateful for all of the effort and labor done by people we had never met.
This project has shown us the value of small, playful moments on campus. Amidst the stressful push towards productivity, there are opportunities to take a break from the screen, breathe deeply, and enjoy the peaceful nature that surrounds us.
This project would not be possible without the hours of work done by our powerhouse of a team. Thank you to the many, many people who have touched this project to make it possible.
Pictured: Lily-Rose Day, Emily Hao, Lia Chon, Dasha Orlov, Mark Jarosz, Ethan Petrick, Kat Lew, Joseph Perkins
It turned out that to permanently install something on a college campus, you have to talk to a lot of people. At least 73 meetings, across the School of Art, the College of Built Environments, Campus Design and Planning, UW Facilities, Grounds, etc.
And this is just the first step.
Although we might be graduating, there is hope that future students will pick up where we left off. Our work proves that students want a swing on campus, and that students have the power to make that dream a reality.
Thank you!
Aaliyah Diaz, Adrian de Laczay, Alex Perkins, Alex Shearman, Ananya Juneja, Arden Ng, Arjun Kissane, Ashley Kwong, Akezhan Khan, Brenan Chambers, Brooke Lawrence, Charlie Johnson, Coleman Brenner, Daniel Hiltz, Dasha Goeda, Elijah Fink, Eloise Ho, Elliot Palmer, Ethan Petrick, Fatimah Siddiqui, Fay Ma, Fiona Du, Gabriel Meyer-Yen, Helen Xia, Ian Schauer, Jessica Gutierrez-Ramirez, Jessica MacDonald, Jimeno Chang, Jose Altamirano, Joseph Perkins, Junmiy Tan, Kassandra Southam, Lilya Ukhimuk, Lily-Rose Day, Mark Jarosz, Michael Main, Nancy Kong, Nihya Guduri, Paeyvim Sotoung, Ruby Piu, Samantha Jepperson, Shae Bentley, Shelton Saubec-Hau, Shrijani Giri, Spencer Gagen, Svong Vittuli, Sydney Lai, Talei Hobbs, Talantarith Serma Jahn, Tina Tran, Yesun Choi, Yoyo Ho, Zach Isele, and everyone else who showed up, stayed curious, and believed a swing was worth building.