I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but girls eventually become women.

And while research shows there’s a significant physical transformation involved in that process, in my firsthand experience, their brains remain fully intact.

(It’s only when we approach cronehood* that things start to go sideways. Where is my phone? For the thousandth time today.)

Recently, I came across research out of an organization in Northern England looking at how public outdoor spaces can better serve teenage girls. The findings were… illuminating.

One major takeaway
Girls don’t like MUGAs.

In landscape terms, a MUGA is a Multi-Use Games Area—those fenced, hard-surfaced courts designed to host everything from soccer to basketball to whatever else needs containing.

(Apparently, MUGA is also the name of a cancer-screening tool, which feels… thematically consistent.)

If girls don’t like MUGAs, then—by the transitive property**—we can reasonably conclude that women don’t either.

But here’s where the research got interesting.

When shown images of different outdoor spaces, the girls consistently disengaged from the MUGAs. Then they were shown this image:

You already know what it was, don’t you?

If you are a woman, I’m confident you do.

Before we even registered the design intent, our collective brains went straight to:

• Who owns that creepy white van?
• No logo? No thank you.
• CODE RED. ABORT MISSION.
• I’m supposed to be evaluating the space? Sorry, I’m busy assessing my exit strategy.

The teenage girls reacted the same way. The research team, I hope, learned an unexpected lesson about what actually makes a place feel inviting—or unsafe—for women.

Now for the contrast.

The space that elicited the most positive response?

Adult-sized swings.

This tracks.

There was a tree swing outside my college house. It was the site of the most consequential conversations of my early adulthood—breakups, reconciliations, life pivots, quiet epiphanies. It wasn’t designed as a “programmed space.” It just worked.

A mega-swing in Moscow’s, Gorky park has won multiple design awards. I suspect it’s not just for the lighting.

An empty swing in a landscape tells a complete story in a single glance.

Swings aren’t juvenile. They’re human.

And they don’t have to look like playground equipment.

You can:

• hang one between two trees
• integrate one into a vine-covered frame
• use a swinging bench instead of a static one
• tuck a swing chair into a tight passageway

They’re affordable. They’re sculptural. They invite pause.

And—this part matters—they feel safe.

There’s a public swing in a small Spanish village that was installed to revitalize the area. It overlooks the town and functions as a shared landmark. I believe there’s a boy pictured using it.

Good.

Because here’s the thing—boys often like being where girls like to be. So designing spaces women enjoy doesn’t exclude anyone. It broadens the invitation.

MUGAs center competition and containment.
Swings center presence and possibility.

If you’re designing for the public realm, don’t default to the loudest use or the most defensible structure. Design for the people who are constantly scanning for danger while just trying to exist.

And if you’re designing your own garden?

Add a swing.

You deserve a place where your nervous system can unclench.

—

*Still waiting on a better word than “crone.”
**Girls’ brains = women’s brains. Girls don’t like MUGAs → women don’t like MUGAs.
***A logo would only slightly improve the van situation. Let’s not pretend uniforms have ever guaranteed safety.

---

Resources and References:

Swings don’t have to look like something from the playground. Here are some of my favorite ideas for placing a swing your own garden.

Clockwise from top left: 1) Natural and pretty swings can be created between two trees. Much better in my opinion than having to construct a purpose built frame and then make it not look like it was just plopped down in the garden. 2) Swing frames are a great vertical structure to grow vines like wisteria. 3) A swinging garden bench in Chicago designed by Hoerr Schaudt. 4) No place to hang a swing, how about a swing chair? by Joe Parr Design. 5) Limited on space? I think this would be perfect for a snicket**** (from Pragma-trading) 6) Stylish women might like their swing to double as sculpture. 7) Peg and Awl keep it traditional and simple with their handmade olde fashioned wooden tree swings. 8) Macrame swing. 9) Fermob’s 1900 hanging chair comes in many pretty colors, but I am partial to ‘cactus’. 10) Not pictured – porch swings and swings instead of benches are two other ways of easily adding a swing to your life.

I thought this was a great and helpful sketch for not overcomplicating a way to hang a rope swing from a tree branch or an overhead bar. (From Peg and Awl)

As I dove down the rabbit hole of swings, I discovered a much better word for ‘side yard’. Where side yards are afterthoughts, dumping grounds, and generally the last place we tend to turn our design eye – snickets are something else. A snicket (defined as a passageway between walls or fences) is magical. Can we all please agree to make an immediate lingual switch?