Assemble, Practice, Making
During the University of Northampton's subject futures week I attended a speech by guest speaker James Binney, whose architect's firm's work has been awarded a Turner Prize.
He spoken broadly about the interesting and bespoke effects and designs that could be created by engaging the client in making part of the finished product, whether that was a piece of furniture or a house.
Assemble Studio as an Architect's firm is a fairly new approach to tackling problems, as the group is made up of not only architects and closely related professionals but also more general designers and less technically minded members like artists.
The first project which he talked about in detail was "The Cineroleum" which was a project that they started themselves without a clear need or client, just out of curiosity and experimentation. The main theme of the project was reuse, from the site to the materials themselves. There are over 4000 abandoned petrol stations throughout the UK and the team wanted to do something to start to tackle this problem. I found the concept of solving a problem that they have noticed but nobody has complained about very interesting and must be very rewarding for the team involved.
The second problem that the studio sought to tackle was that of the town of New Addington and their substandard public spaces. The square for the town was disused and had led to a lack of a feeling of community so the 'New Addington Central Parade' was a public environment improvement project to deal with this issue. The Assemble Studio team collaborated with local residents and authorities to redesign the place into one which promoted community events and was as much a landscaping project as anything else.
The third project was a communal workshop built with the intention of getting people into DIY and reintroducing people to a make do and mend lifestyle. This passage from the Assemble Studios website words it better than I can:
"The workshop is a place for both working and learning, for everyone from independent practitioners, individual hobbyists through to sole traders and small businesses. It offers a wide range of equipment and a regular programme of classes and activities. A café-bakery and brewery are open to the public, space is offered for hire, and a monthly food and maker market."
The Granby Four Streets project is one of Assemble Studios ongoing projects with an interesting backstory. The surrounding area in Liverpool was purchased by the council for demolition but the residents of some buildings refused to sell their houses, resulting in halted plans for the council. They left the surrounding streets to decay and become derelict in an attempt to make the remaining residents move out. They have battled plans for demolition from the council and have improved their homes themselves over the course of the last 10 years.
Assemble Studios have set in motion a plan for gradual and incremental regeneration of the area by rebuilding the houses and community.
This talk was in general very interesting and it is no surprise to me that their charitable work has won a Turner Prize. All the images I have used are from their official website: http://assemblestudio.co.uk/
