Engineering Impact, One Playground at a Time

My name is Gaby Winarta, and I am the President of the Engineers Without Borders Society at UCL. One of our biggest projects this year involved establishing a volunteering partnership with London Play Design, a non-profit organisation dedicated to preserving London’s adventure playgrounds through hands-on, volunteer-led projects. Volunteers contribute to surveying, drawing, demolition, design, engineering, and construction work across multiple sites.

This project was particularly meaningful for me to develop. As a Sustainable Engineering student, it provided a fantastic opportunity to gain hands-on experience in engineering, construction, design, sustainability, and urban planning. Beyond the technical experience, it also allowed me to contribute meaningfully to local London communities, which made the project especially rewarding on a personal level.

One metric of success was the number of volunteer sign-ups, which totalled six participants. While this may appear modest, it was actually highly encouraging considering this was the first time EWB UCL had ever organised a partnership of this kind. The fact that multiple students were interested and committed to participating demonstrated the project’s potential and marked a successful first step towards future collaborations.

The journey was long but rewarding. Discussions with representatives from London Play Design began in 2025 and involved multiple site visits to their adventure playground construction projects. Initially, we explored the possibility of funding and designing an entire adventure playground. However, we soon realised that the financial investment required was too substantial, with even a single design challenge costing approximately £7,550. As a result, we shifted our focus towards volunteering on an existing site, where we were presented with two potential projects.

The first project involved demolishing, redesigning, and rebuilding a set of “spectator stands” to increase play value while reducing long-term maintenance costs. The second involved surveying an existing swing structure that had been incorrectly aligned, then re-engineering and rebuilding a new set of swing platforms with improved safety standards and accessibility.

With two possible projects available, the committee ultimately decided that focusing on one would be more manageable given the relatively small number of volunteers and the fact that this was EWB UCL’s first NGO partnership. This decision also allowed us to better coordinate logistics and ensure that participants gained a meaningful and well-organised experience.

In the end, the swings project was chosen due to the engineering interest it generated, particularly regarding the mathematical applications involved in swing geometry and structural alignment. Its significance as a core playground feature also made it a more impactful and engaging project for volunteers. It became a fantastic opportunity to gain practical, on-site engineering experience. Volunteers were involved in cutting timber, digging, measuring, fixing structures, and solving real construction challenges as they arose, all while working alongside the London Play Design team. It was an excellent way to develop engineering aspirations through direct, hands-on application.

The experience was also extremely valuable for the committee itself. We learned a great deal about forming professional partnerships, managing external collaborations, organising volunteers, and coordinating technical activities. Looking ahead, there are certainly ways the initiative could be expanded. Although we promoted the opportunity through Instagram and WhatsApp groups, broader outreach could have increased participation further. In future years, collaborating with other Engineers Without Borders university chapters could help scale the project and create an even larger impact.

Overall, this partnership demonstrated how engineering can directly support communities in meaningful and tangible ways. It reinforced the importance of practical experience, collaboration, and socially conscious design, while laying the foundation for future EWB UCL partnerships with NGOs and community organisations.