Pound’s Park has brought play, nature and new opportunities for people to spend time together into the heart of Sheffield city centre. But what can a well-designed play space contribute to a city beyond the play itself?

In this episode, Beth Cooper is joined by Professor Helen Woolley, Head of the School of Architecture and Landscape at the University of Sheffield, to explore the relationship between play, landscape and public life.

From coining the influential term Kit, Fence, Carpet (KFC) to helping embed landscape design into Timberplay, Helen reflects on the limitations of conventional playgrounds and the opportunities created by more natural, varied and challenging environments. Together, they explore what it means to design places around people, why children’s voices need to be heard, and how play can become part of everyday urban life rather than something confined to designated spaces.

The conversation also draws on Helen’s research into children’s play in very different contexts, including post-disaster Japan, before returning to Pound’s Park and what its use reveals about the role of play in a changing city centre.

Whether you’re involved in landscape architecture, placemaking, public policy or play, this episode offers a thought-provoking look at how we create places that welcome children and make room for play.

What else you’ll hear:

• How the Kit, Fence, Carpet model came about, and why Helen began questioning the play value of conventional playgrounds.
• What children’s use of skateboards and public spaces reveals about how we design cities.
• The lessons Helen learned from observing children’s play following the disaster in Japan.
• Why time, space and the support of playworkers were vital to children’s opportunities to play.
• What surprised Helen about the number of adults using Pound’s Park.
• How landscape, levels, seating and varied play opportunities can support inclusion, challenge and social connection.
• Why risk, nature and children’s freedom to explore deserve greater consideration in public space.

Find out more:

University of Sheffield – Helen Woolley

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

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Timberplay

Over the past year, we’ve asked every Play Attention guest the same question: if you could click your fingers and change one thing tomorrow to improve opportunities for play, what would it be?

For Episode 10, we bring their answers together in a montage of ideas, hopes and provocations.

From practical changes to big ambitions, from heartfelt reflections to calls to challenge the rules, the answers reveal the many different ways people are thinking about a better future for play.

Some guests chose one thing. A few broke the rules and wanted two...

Together, their voices create a fascinating picture of what could change — and what might be possible if we made more space for play.

Who you'll hear from:

Professor Helen Dodd, Professor of Child Psychology at the University of Exeter; Dr Sarah Louise Hurst, Clinical Psychologist | Founder of Fortitude Mums; Ash Perrin, Founder of The Flying Seagull Project; Anamaria Castillo, Landscape Strategies Director at KALQ Studio; Scott Chalmers, Head of Green Infrastructure at Urban&Civic; Cas Holman, author, designer, educator and play expert; Eugene Minogue, Executive Director of Play England; Parth Divekar, Founder & Managing Director of Grade Landscape Architecture; Ben Tawil and Mike Barclay, Founders of Ludicology; Emma Bearman, Founder of Playful Anywhere and Jenny Rutherford, Play Strategy Officer at Leeds City Council.

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:
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Timberplay

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:

Ludicology

Child Friendly Leeds

Tim Gill - Rethinking Childhood

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:
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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 Studio

The Gathering Place, Tulsa

Waller Creek Park

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:
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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 Therapy

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:
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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 tick
• The reason fencing dominates playground design, and why it often points to a problem in the design process
• How nature, landscape, and play can work together to build stronger communities
• The commercial case for play, and why better spaces actually drive value
• What developers, planners, and designers need to do differently to raise the standard everywhere

Find out More:

Urban&Civic

Priors Hall Park

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:
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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 Project

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:
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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 play
• Bringing risk assessors into the play conversation
• Designing playgrounds in places leaders cannot ignore
• Letting children be rowdy
• Why removing the outcome unlocks imagination

A energising conversation about resisting over-optimisation, and designing both playgrounds and adult lives with more possibility.

Find our More:

Cas Holman

Anji Play

Timberplay

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:
Instagram
LinkedIn

Timberplay