Assemble Talk

This week at university we have Subject features week, this is where a variety of outside speakers come in to talk to us about their different areas. Today James from Assemble, a Turner Prize winning company, gave a talk to us about the different projects that they have done.

Assemble work across the fields of art, design and architecture to create projects in tandem with the communities that inhabit them. The architectural spaces they create promote direct action and give people the chance to embrace in a DIY sensibility.

It was very interesting to hear James speak to us about his passion and give us an insight into how they design and get the opportunity to see what we could achieve in the future. One of the first projects that James spoke to us about was Cineroleum which is a cinema built from an old petrol station. This is the major project that interested me and so I decided to do some further research into it.

I found out that it was an experiment to see the potential for the wider re-use of the UK’s 4,000 empty petrol stations. What struck me the most about the work that Assemble do is how they get the wider community and volunteers to interact in the projects to learn, experiment together. It would be such an amazing to be able to be a part of something so interesting, as a designer I would have loved the opportunity to work with them on any of these projects.

There are many other projects that the company have been a part of which I could write about all day, they all help different communities and gives everyone the chance to get involved. However, I have decided to focus on the project from which they were awarded the UK’s most important art award. This project is Granby Four Streets, this was a collaboration with the residents of a rundown council housing estate to clean up the neighbourhood, paint empty houses and establish a local market. This project sounded like it would really make a difference to the community and offer building jobs and training to the locals who were interested in restoring their homes. Local residents had been constantly fighting plans for demolishment, battling to save the houses.

Assemble were able to present a sustainable and incremental vision for the area that built on the work already done by local residents and translate this into the refurbishments. I think it is truly amazing what the residents and Assemble managed to do for the place celebrating the heritage of the area and using materials from the demolished homes and incorporating these into new furniture and aspects. It sounded like a very challenging task but with everyone working together they are able to achieve such amazing things.

When asked about winning the Turner Prize he said “Before this it’s not something we ever bothered to think about,” “And it’s funny, because we are not in control of this perception of us as artists or not. For us it’s not that important: it’s an academic discussion. We are more interested in doing good projects.”

I think this shows that as designers we need to be focused on the project and completing something good in whatever context that may be, and if we achieve something greater from it then that is a plus. Assemble I feel have given everyone so many opportunities not only from their projects but the fact they have been able to win an award given usually to artists and as a group of architects to win this shows that anything is possible. I think that people’s perception of ‘what art is’ is changing and making people more open-minded.

I have taken a lot from this talk from James and feel grateful that I was given the opportunity to attend his talk and see what the company do. Most importantly I will take forward his advice “Be open-minded, this is only the beginning of your education. Don’t be afraid to try out things that other people are better at it’s the only way to achieve greater things.”