TENEMENTAL PLAY
erz with Vasantha Piyasena
Re-imagining of the Scottish tenement as social infrastructure — a framework supporting climate resilience, collective care and everyday playfulness.
An iconic Scottish house type, the tenement comprises eight flats over four storeys—arranged around a central “close” with a front terrace and shared front-door, and communal backcourt opening to a service lane. Terraced in long blocks, tenements evoke canyons of bay windows and red sandstone.
Historically, children “played out” in the streets. Backcourts had shared washhouses, “steamies”—ripe with gossip and were used for drying. Today, over a third of Scots live in flats, yet many of these richly social spaces are neglected: empty back courts, lanes reduced to bin routes, front terraces paved, and closes used to store bikes/prams. Conviviality is lost.
Our project invites play across every threshold. The front façades harvest rain into rills and raingardens, with puddleponds and stepping stones celebrating Glasgow’s weather. The close becomes a vertical playground: marble runs spiralling from top to bottom; stair games and poems underfoot; winter-garden pop-outs at the back for stories on wet days; climbing nets and hanging dens animate the stairwell; chutes whizz straight outside from upstairs.
Backcourts become shared orchards and all weather natural playscapes. Lanes are reimagined as safe, car-free commons - an animated connector between the individual tenements. Loop routes; urban sports; bins integrated into double walls that contain inglenooks, bread ovens, storage for toy libraries and communal kitchens. Above, lightweight play decks and winter gardens create overlooked, sociable spaces not just for playing but for playing and living together.
Team
Felicity Steers, Director, Erz Studio
Rhiannon Cowell, Associate, Erz Studio
Kevin Jones, Associate, Erz Studio
Jenny Mitchell, Graduate, Erz Studio
Layla Ng, Graduate, Erz Studio
Finn Delaney, Urban Designer, Erz Studio
Vasantha Piyasena, Architect
Mark Grimshaw, Play specialist, Timberplay Scotland