Play Attention

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, displaceme...

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 borde...

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 give...

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...

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...