Community-built British architecture group, Assemble, celebrated its 15th anniversary
In a refreshing departure from polished monographs that often present a perfect view of a practice's history, the book "Assemble: Building Collective" offers an insightful retort. Published by Thames & Hudson, this retrospective spans the past 15 years of the Turner Prize-winning multidisciplinary architecture collective, Assemble.
The book invites readers deep into the stories, challenges, and triumphs behind Assemble's most distinctive works. Each chapter details a step in Assemble's journey, starting with their first project, The Cineroleum, a pop-up cinema in a disused petrol station in Clerkenwell, London.
Assemble's creativity and impact are evident in each temporary space they insert into urban landscapes. The collective's structure is constantly evolving, building not just spaces, but new and exciting ways of making them. The book's introduction analyzes the context and community within which Assemble exists, noting that the collective emerged from a time when new approaches to architecture were being explored that were deeply rooted in British traditions but addressed global issues.
The book covers the industrious buzz of Sugar House Studios, where Assemble made its own studio and workshop. It also discusses the playful reinvention of The Brutalist Playground exhibition at RIBA and the hands-on making of Granby Winter Garden, a community space in Liverpool.
The majority of the international projects of the architecture collective Assemble have been realised in the United Kingdom. However, the book doesn't shy away from projects that Assemble hasn't fully realised. The DH Chen Foundation Gallery, the Bell Square Pavilion, and the Kamikatz Brewery in Shikoku Island, Japan, are lesser-known projects in Assemble's oeuvre. The Kamikatz Brewery is one of Assemble's earliest international projects.
The book highlights the real-world problems of delivering complex and boundary-pushing schemes. It doesn't present a perfect view of Assemble's history but instead focuses on the unrealized projects, providing a raw and honest portrayal of the collective's work.
Written by architecture critic Aaron Betsky, the book is organized over seven chapters. It includes engaging photography, creative architectural drawings, and the collective's own voices. The last chapter, 'Still Assembling', suggests that Assemble is an unfinished project and its greatest work may be the collective itself.
The book doesn't sugarcoat the challenges faced by Assemble, but instead, it offers a refreshing and honest account of a collective that is constantly pushing the boundaries of architecture and community engagement.
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