We engage through play. It’s one of the most effective ways to inclusively connect people, in all kinds of scenarios and environments. We’ve made playful interventions for exhibitions, research projects and consultations for all kinds of organisations including Barbican Centre, University of Bristol, Replicate Europe and many more.
Talk to us about how to better connect with your public.
Public Map began as a pilot, multi-partner research project to co-design a digital mapping platform with and for young people and communities across Anglesey (Ynys Mon). It has now been funded for its next phase, expanding its reach across various locations in the UK, including Cardiff, Pontypridd, Cambridge and Wrexham.
Funded by AHRC and led by Cambridge University, the Public Map research project aims to empower communities by integrating diverse voices into spatial data, enhancing decision-making and resource allocation.
Play:Disrupt won a TET Inspire Future Generations 2025 award in Material Resources and Research for our work as part of the Public Map.
The Royal Parks (TRP) commissioned Play:Disrupt to engage children around the redesign of The Galleon and Treehouse Encampment at the iconic Diana, Princess of Wales’ Memorial Playground in Summer 2024.
Working alongside the TRP team and Timberplay, we designed playful interventions to excite and understand young people and families connected to the park. We also engaged people in neighbouring communities who had never visited, with a focus on accessibility and sustainability.
Image by Chris O’Donovan, © The Royal Parks
Play:Disrupt were commissioned by Anglesey County Council’s Supporting Families Unit to develop a toolkit to support community councillors on the island engage with young people on design and decision making for play spaces.
The project encompassed 3 stages; engagement with young people at youth clubs and an additional needs school; a two day playground building exercise with Woodland Tribe, and the research, design and development of the toolkit, now available to download.
Building a forest of ideas for a new green space in Portsmouth.
We devised and delivered an on-street event to engage people in the development of the city centre, and particularly a new city centre green space.
Play:Disrupt were commissioned by Cornwall Council to deliver a consultation seeking young people’s views on healthy eating, weight, and body image, to inform the design of a local healthy weight pathway.
We identified and recruited young people, including those from under-represented backgrounds, delivered creative and engaging workshops on sensitive subjects, and collected data and demographic information. Our findings are now being used to shape a future provision for young people in Cornwall which responds to local needs.
Play:Disrupt was commissioned by Bristol City Council to support them to engage with communities around the Temple Quarter regeneration project. The aim was to build awareness of, and interest in, the project, get feedback on some of the key principles detailed in the framework, and engage those who often don’t take part in formal consultation but are likely to be impacted by the changes proposed.
From January 2024 to March 2024, Play:Disrupt ran a series of public engagement events as part of a priority high streets project, funded by Bristol City Council and the West of England Combined Authority. Each high street will receive funding will go towards improvements to the street scene, greening and to deliver culture and events.
We invited local people to share their ideas about Ashley Road /Grosvenor Road in St Paul’s, Crow Lane in Henbury, and Oatlands Avenue in Whitchurch /Hengrove.
We were invited by Turner Works and the Place Bureau to design and deliver a city wide participation model to help support a vision for a new neighbourhood in Bristol’s- Western Harbour.
As part of a commission by Bristol City Council, Play:Disrupt delivered workshops and events in nine different areas of Bristol. These were to understand what kind of arts and cultural activities local people would like to see happen in their areas over the next 12 months.
Play:Disrupt delivered a community consultation engaging local residents with the opportunity to creatively respond to the existing ‘Colston Road’ name. We co-created ideas which are meaningful, thought-provoking and visual.
Find Your Village aims to explore how local policies about neighbourhood geography could take more account of the experiences of young people from ethnically diverse communities. This project is a collaboration between paediatrician Dr Tom Allport and community activist, mother and local resident Samira Musse. Play:Disrupt devised and delivered several interventions including walkabouts, photoshoots and building sessions.
Engagement Plane was created for Hengrove and Whitchurch Park Neighbourhood Planning Forum to creatively consult with local residents on the neighbourhood plan following council proposals for a large mixed development and regenerated green space.
Working with Civic Theatre in Tallaght, Dublin, we brought together a variety of stakeholders to kickstart a conversation about how to animate an underused public square.
Housing is an issue which touches everyone. We developed a set of interventions to offer an alternative approach to development consultation, using satire, play and imagination to draw people into having conversations about the future of the places they live.
2015 was Bristol’s Green Capital year and a set of neighbourhood commissions were awarded to create art with communities focusing on environmental issues. In our local area flytipping and rubbish was one of the biggest issues identified by residents. We created a large scale labyrinth marble run game, to engage people with this problem.
The REPLICATE project is a European funded smart city project that explores different technological solutions to improve people’s homes and lives. Knowle West Media Centre and Bristol City Council commissioned us with In Bristol Studios to create a mobile engagement tool to engage citizens in imagining future smart homes and raise awareness of how they can help us save energy.
We were invited by The National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration West (NIHR ARC West) to develop fun, interactive workshops that explored different groups’ attitudes to physical activity and how messages about physical activity should be communicated.
Exploring public knowledge of existing wellbeing provision in the Bristol wards of Southmead, Lockleaze, Knowle West and Hartcliffe, and uncovering the obstacles people might face when trying to engage with it.
A project focussing on pubs as important social spaces in the lives of men 65+ and the ways in which these spaces can help alleviate loneliness and social isolation in later life.
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Play:Disrupt
Easton Business Centre,
Felix Road,
BS5 0HE
© Copyright 2021 Mufti Games Ltd trading as Play:Disrupt
Registered Company no: 11137488
VAT number: 425775278
Image credits: Jack Offord, Paul Blakemore, Martin Nagle
& Zubru