Born at the Design Museum. Built to help children dream bigger.
About noook play
95% recycled · Made in Britain · Patent protected
Born at the Design Museum
noook play was designed during a residency at the Design Museum, London, and launched as part of a landmark exhibition that welcomed over 100,000 visitors. The brief was simple: make something children could build themselves, without tools, without instructions, and without a screen in sight.
The answer was a set of identical interlocking discs — each the size of a dinner plate, cut from engineered heavy-duty board — that click together edge-to-edge to form dens, towers, forts, and whatever else a child can imagine. The Design Council recognised it. It went on to win Best New Product in Play at Top Drawer A/W25. It is patent protected.
noook play is made in Britain from 95% recycled material. No plastics. No batteries. No small parts. Just a material that bends and holds, and children who want to build the biggest thing they can imagine.
Where it started
Design Museum, London
The noook play concept takes shape during a six-month Designer-in-Residence exhibition at the Design Museum. Over 100,000 visitors get hands on with the discs. Something clicks.
Refining the process
We spend several years perfecting the manufacturing process. Getting engineered heavy-duty board to hold its shape, connect reliably and survive the rigours of real children's play takes time.
Testing in the wild
We take noook play into schools across north London. Real classrooms, real children, real feedback. It works.
Cracked, then stopped
We've worked out how to make noook discs at scale. Production runs are ready. Then COVID-19 arrives. Factories close. Plans are shelved.
Back and growing
We restart, rebuild relationships with our manufacturing partners and return to market with a full product range: Starter, Family and Bumper Packs, Top-Up and Expansion Packs, and storage accessories.
Award-winning
noook play wins Best New Product in Play at the Top Drawer A/W25 Spotlight Awards, the UK's leading design-led retail trade show.
What we stand for
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Designed in London
Conceived during a Design Museum residency and validated by 100,000 visitors. Design Council recognised. Patent protected.
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Built for learning
Every build is a STEAM lesson in disguise. Children plan, problem-solve, and construct — developing spatial reasoning, engineering thinking, and confidence.
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Made with care
95% recycled engineered heavy-duty board. No plastics. No batteries. Made in Britain by suppliers we trust.
Good play
We believe in what we call good play: creative, open-ended, physical, hands-on play that builds confidence, imagination and problem-solving alongside the structures themselves.
Good play doesn't need a screen. It doesn't need batteries. It doesn't need instructions.
It needs space, time and the right tools. That's what noook play provides.
From families who play
The most engaged my children have been with any toy. They built a den big enough to sleep in and kept adding to it for weeks.
Catherine R., verified customer, Bumper Pack
We bought the Starter Set on a whim. Six months later we have the Bumper Pack and my son still builds something new every weekend.
James T., verified customer, Starter Set
Built on a conviction
noook play was built on a single conviction: that children learn best when they build something real. Not a model, not a kit with instructions, but something big enough to climb inside, show off, and defend as their own.
Everything about the product follows from that. The scale. The simplicity. The material. The fact that every pack packs flat and comes back out again and again.
Made in Britain
noook play discs are made in Britain from engineered heavy-duty board, 95% of which is recycled content. Every disc is 100% recyclable and treated with a food-grade wax coating that resists spills and sticky fingers. Each disc is formed under more than 250 tonnes of pressure. It's stronger than it looks.
We're patent protected. We're CE marked, UKCA marked and FSC certified. And we're made right here in Britain.
As recognised by
Design Museum LondonDesigner-in-Residence
Top Drawer A/W25Best New Product in Play
Design CouncilOne to Watch · SPARK Final 10
WiredAs featured in
DezeenAs featured in
Ready to build something?
noook play ships across the UK. Gift wrapping available at checkout. Buy now, pay later with Klarna.
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