Play Attention

What does it actually mean for children to have enough opportunities to play?In this episode, Beth Cooper is joined by Mike Barclay and Ben Tawil from Ludicology to explore the idea of play sufficiency - a principle that is quietly reshaping how councils, planners, schools and communities think about children's everyday lives.Rather than seeing play as something that happens only in playgrounds, Mike and Ben explain why play depends on three essential ingredients: time, space and permission. Together they discuss how listening to children has transformed their understanding of what makes places truly playable and why creating great play opportunities is about everyone-from planners and landscape architects to transport teams, schools and local authorities-playing a role.The conversation also explores real-world examples from Wales and across England, including Leeds' pioneering work on play sufficiency, and asks what it would take to create neighbourhoods where children can once again play as part of everyday life. Whether you're involved in placemaking, education, public policy, or care about creating better places for children, this episode offers a fresh perspective on what thriving communities really look like. What else you'll hear:Why play sufficiency is about much more than playgrounds.The three conditions every child needs: time, space and permission.How children's perspectives challenge adult assumptions about play.Why play is everyone's responsibility – from planners to public health.The story behind Leeds' pioneering work on play sufficiency.Why playable neighbourhoods matter more than destination playgrounds.How simple policy changes could transform children's everyday lives.Find out more:LudicologyChild Friendly LeedsTim Gill - Rethinking ChildhoodPlay Attention is a podcast from Timberplay - exploring the thinkers, designers and changemakers shaping the future of play.Hosted by Beth Cooper, Independent Play Consultant.Theme music by Dave Mullen Jnr Connect with Timberplay:InstagramLinkedIn Timberplay 

This week on Play Attention, Beth is joined by India-based landscape architect Parth Divekar, founder of Grade Landscape Architecture, whose work spans luxury residential developments, public landscapes and civic projects across the country.Having grown up in India, studied at Cornell University and worked on landmark projects in the United States - including the Gathering Space Playground in Tulsa - Parth brings a unique perspective on how culture, childhood and urbanisation shape the way we design places for play.Together, Beth and Parth explore what designers can learn from different cultures, why play should be viewed as a fundamental quality of landscape rather than a designated space, and how rapidly growing cities like Mumbai are forcing us to rethink childhood, community and public life.This is a conversation about far more than playgrounds. It's about the environments that shape us, and the responsibility designers have in creating places where children, families and communities can thrive.What else you'll hear:Why Parth believes "play is the most fundamental thing of spaces."Growing up in India and how childhood has changed in just one generation.What studying and practising in the United States taught him about landscape architecture.Why landscape architects should design entire landscapes - not just playgrounds - to encourage play.The relationship between aesthetics, luxury residential development and meaningful play.Why unresolved landscapes encourage imagination, exploration and critical thinking.What landscape architects around the world can learn from India's rapidly changing cities.Why "play is not sport" - and why one cannot replace the other.The importance of designing for agency, risk and discovery.Find out More:GLA StudioThe Gathering Place, TulsaWaller Creek ParkPlay Attention is a podcast from Timberplay - exploring the thinkers, designers and changemakers shaping the future of play.Hosted by Beth Cooper, Independent Play Consultant.Theme music by Dave Mullen Jnr Connect with Timberplay:InstagramLinkedIn Timberplay 

"You can have the most beautifully designed play space, but if the adults standing around the outside are flooded with anxiety, that is going to impact the function of that space."In this episode of Play Attention, Beth Cooper is joined by Helen Dodd, Professor of Child Psychology at the University of Exeter, and Dr Sarah-Louise Hurst, Clinical Psychologist and founder of Fortitude Mums.Together, they discuss the Fear Less Play project, an innovative piece of research exploring the connections between adventurous play, parental anxiety and children's development. Drawing on expertise in child psychology, mental health and play, they explore why risk is an essential part of childhood, how adults can support rather than limit children's opportunities for challenge, and what this means for the design of play spaces and the wider systems that shape children's opportunities to play.In this episode, you'll hear:Why children need opportunities to experience risk and uncertainty through play.How parental anxiety can influence children's play experiences.What "graduated risk" means and why it matters.The role of adventurous play in building resilience and confidence.What designers, planners and local authorities can learn from the Fear Less Play research.Find Out More:Fortitude TherapyPlay Attention is a podcast from Timberplay - exploring the thinkers, designers and changemakers shaping the future of play.Hosted by Beth Cooper, Independent Play Consultant.Theme music by Dave Mullen Jnr Connect with Timberplay:InstagramLinkedIn Timberplay 

In this episode of Play Attention, we sit down with Scott Chalmers, Head of Green Infrastructure at Urban&Civic, to challenge the assumption that play belongs in a designated, fenced-off area.Drawing on years of experience delivering large-scale communities, Scott shares why play should never be “dropped in” to meet planning requirements, but embedded from the very first moment of design.From removing fences and rethinking risk, to creating landscapes that invite people to stay, dwell, and connect, this conversation explores what happens when play is the foundation, not an afterthought.You’ll hear:Why play space should be an open canvas, not a box to tickThe reason fencing dominates playground design, and why it often points to a problem in the design processHow nature, landscape, and play can work together to build stronger communitiesThe commercial case for play, and why better spaces actually drive valueWhat developers, planners, and designers need to do differently to raise the standard everywhereFind out More:Urban&CivicPriors Hall ParkPlay Attention is a podcast from Timberplay - exploring the thinkers, designers and changemakers shaping the future of play.Hosted by Beth Cooper, Independent Play Consultant.Theme music by Dave Mullen Jnr Connect with Timberplay:InstagramLinkedIn Timberplay 

In this episode of Play Attention, we sit down with someone we’ve admired for many years - Ash Perrin, co-founder and CEO of the Flying Seagull Project.Timberplay and the Flying Seagulls have crossed paths time and time again through shared conversations, workshops and events, and through a deep, mutual belief in the power of play. We have enormous respect for the work Ash and his team do, bringing joy, laughter and meaningful play to children and families living through conflict, displacement, trauma and isolation, both across the world and here in the UK.But this conversation isn’t only about extraordinary places or extreme circumstances. What becomes clear as you listen is that everything Ash does, believes in and talks about is hugely relevant to all of us who work in, design for, advocate for, or simply value play.Ash challenges us to move play beyond the idea of “wouldn’t it be nice” and towards recognising it as something essential, something that supports healing, connection, development and dignity. In his words, play isn’t an add-on. It’s part of how children survive and thrive. Throughout the episode, he shares powerful reflections from nearly two decades of working directly with children in some of the most complex environments imaginable, and reminds us that the lessons learned there apply just as much in our schools, parks, communities and neighbourhoods.We also get a special sneak preview of Ash’s forthcoming book, Forgotten Games: A Compendium of Play, due for release in early 2027 - a joyful collection of more than 100 children’s games from across cultures and history, celebrating the timeless universality of play. Find out more:The Flying Seagull ProjectPlay Attention is a podcast from Timberplay - exploring the thinkers, designers and changemakers shaping the future of play.Hosted by Beth Cooper, Independent Play Consultant.Theme music by Dave Mullen Jnr Connect with Timberplay:InstagramLinkedIn Timberplay 

In this episode of Play Attention, Beth Cooper speaks with designer, educator and author Cas Holman about her new book, Playful, and why reclaiming free play matters just as much for adults as it does for children.At the heart of the conversation is a simple design principle: name by function. Start with what something is really for - connection, risk, rowdiness, joy - before deciding what it should look like.From rooftop playgrounds in Brooklyn to refugee encampments on the US-Mexico border, Cas reflects on what happens when we flatten abstraction into compliance, efficiency or tidy solutions.Drawing on her work with urban schools, loose parts environments and Anji Play, Cas and Beth explore:How releasing judgment helps adults rediscover free playBringing risk assessors into the play conversationDesigning playgrounds in places leaders cannot ignoreLetting children be rowdyWhy removing the outcome unlocks imaginationA energising conversation about resisting over-optimisation, and designing both playgrounds and adult lives with more possibility.Find our More:Cas HolmanAnji PlayTimberplayPlay Attention is a podcast from Timberplay - exploring the thinkers, designers and changemakers shaping the future of play.Hosted by Beth Cooper, Independent Play Consultant.Theme music by Dave Mullen Jnr Connect with Timberplay:InstagramLinkedIn Timberplay 

In this episode of Play Attention, Beth Cooper is joined by Anamaria Castillo, Landscape Strategies Director at KALQ Studio, who argues that if landscape architects want to design for play, they need far more in-depth training to do it well.She shares why play is still often treated as a “tick-box” extra rather than core urban infrastructure, and why education in play design should be as fundamental as planting, drainage or materials.From Dubai to Costa Rica, the US to Europe, Anamaria gives a global perspective on how climate shapes play, why flexibility and capacity matter in urban spaces and why one group is consistently overlooked: teenagers, who - she says - still very much want to play!They also discuss inclusive design, listening to children’s voices, and what it would take to create cities that genuinely support play for everyone.Find out more:KALQ StudioPlay Attention is a podcast from Timberplay - exploring the thinkers, designers and changemakers shaping the future of play.Hosted by Beth Cooper, Independent Play Consultant.Theme music by Dave Mullen Jnr Connect with Timberplay:InstagramLinkedIn Timberplay 

Leeds is quietly doing something radical: treating play as an essential outcome in its own right.In this episode of Play Attention, host Beth Cooper is joined by Emma Bearman, Founder of Playful Anywhere, and Jenny Rutherford, Play Strategy Officer at Leeds City Council, to explore how Leeds is blazing a trail for play sufficiency, and what other towns and cities can learn from it.Together, they discuss how play sufficiency moved from an idea to action, why play isn’t just a tool to deliver other outcomes but something worth valuing in and of itself, and why making space for play is everyone’s business.What you’ll hear about:How Leeds got play sufficiency off the ground, and what made it possibleWhy legitimising play as the outcome (not the means) is such a powerful shiftHow play helps cities tackle complex challenges and imagine better futuresThe value of water play in urban environmentsWhat it really means to embed play across policy, practice and place, beyond the playgroundFind out more:Playful AnywhereChild Friendly LeedsLucicologyPlay Attention is a podcast from Timberplay - exploring the thinkers, designers and changemakers shaping the future of play.Hosted by Beth Cooper, Independent Play Consultant.Theme music by Dave Mullen Jnr Connect with Timberplay:InstagramLinkedIn Timberplay 

England is closer than it has been in years to a new national play strategy. In this debut episode of The Play Attention Podcast, host Beth Cooper sits down with Eugene Minogue, Executive Director of Play England, to explore the long-awaited push for a play strategy in England - 17 years after the last one. What you’ll hear about:Why embedding play in planning and design matters now more than ever Why play is the answer to arming children with the social and emotional skills to thrive in an AGI - Artificial General Intelligence - futureWhat a “play-sufficiency duty” could mean for every child’s access to time, space and freedom to play How adults, designers and communities can support this shift in mindset, beyond the playground.Play Attention is a podcast from Timberplay - exploring the thinkers, designers and changemakers shaping the future of play.Hosted by Beth Cooper, Independent Play Consultant.Theme music by Dave Mullen Jnr Connect with Timberplay:InstagramLinkedIn Timberplay