Assemble

The eighteen members of the London-based architecture collective Assemble began collaborating in 2010, following their graduation from Cambridge University. In the years since, they have built projects across a wide range of style and function, including a temporary cinema at a former gas station, affordable workspaces for artists, the foundation of social enterprises, the revitalization of a former working-class neighborhood, and designing a new art gallery for Goldsmiths, University of London. To all of their projects they bring an awareness of the social, economic, and political conditions of a society, with the aim of changing the status quo through enabling community action. That work culminated in Assemble's selection as the winner of the 2015 Turner Prize--the first time the prize, Europe's most distinguished for contemporary art, had been awarded to architects. Assemble: How we Build offers the first illustrated look at the work of the collective, presenting a closer look at ten selected projects, along with essays that present background information and reflections on Assemble's objectives and philosophy.