Five years on from graduating from college, Assemble are a collective or architecture, art and design professionals based in the Sugar House Studios in London and covering a large range of disciplines.
Their core ideology is that it is too easy to be disconnected to the cities that we live in and therefore they are all about opening up the building and design process to people in the environment. By continually reinterpreting cultural norms and taking things we do on a daily basis, they often build new things in old places and with a handmade element that gives a unique and theatrical element to their finished constructs; their 'Petrol Station Cinema' using upcycled materials is a perfect example of this.
Moving from project to project, they learn lessons and build things larger both in scale and in concept and adapt to the needs of the community as it is to make city spaces more approachable and malleable to the people who feel them most.
I love how the constructs they create are designed to evolve over time as people's needs continually change. By daring to not just challenge but to change the way we perceive our environments, Assemble are changing the landscape of cities as we know them; bringing out the playful, the practical and even the necessary pragmatic side in people as they interact with their constructs.
I would genuinely love to see collectives like Assemble in Dublin as the work they have done not only in their native London but revitalising some of Liverpool (in its post industrial decline) has been mesmerising, practical and genuinely heart warming; it is no surprise that they were nominated for a Turner Prize last year....
I am Timi