Assemble: Building Collective is the long-awaited monograph on the Turner Prize-winning architecture collective, bringing together more than a decade of collaborative practice through photographs, drawings, and the group's own words.
About This Book
Assemble operate outside the conventions of architectural practice. Formed in 2010 to build and run a temporary cinema on a disused petrol station site, the collective makes decisions by group consensus — from project selection to daily logistics. What followed was a body of work that spans the Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art in London, the workshops at Atelier Luma in Arles, and a wide range of community-driven projects including playgrounds and public spaces. Their 2015 Turner Prize win — an award more commonly associated with mid-career artists — signals the cultural weight of their approach. This monograph, developed through extensive conversations with architecture critic Aaron Betsky, is the definitive record of their collaborative architecture and its social ambitions.
Key Features
- Contributor credits: text by architecture critic Aaron Betsky, developed through extensive conversations with the collective
- Notable projects include the Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London, and Atelier Luma workshops, Arles
- Published by Thames and Hudson, 2015
What You'll Discover
- How Assemble's flat, consensus-based structure shapes not just their internal culture but the character of the architecture itself
- The trajectory from a self-built temporary cinema to internationally recognised cultural institutions
- The role of community projects — playgrounds, public spaces — within a practice more often discussed in gallery and museum contexts
- How Assemble's work sits at the intersection of art and architecture, as evidenced by their Turner Prize recognition
About the Author
Aaron Betsky is an architecture critic whose text here emerges from extensive conversations with the Assemble collective. [Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: [Details available upon request]
- Dimensions: 21.6 x 26.9 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9780500027004
- Publisher: Thames and Hudson
- Publication Date: 2015
Perfect For: Architects and students interested in collaborative practice models, design professionals engaged with community-led urbanism, and anyone tracking the overlap between contemporary art and architecture.