Assemble: Building Collective

The long-awaited monograph on the Turner Prize-winning multidisciplinary architecture collective Assemble, gathering more than a decade of their groundbreaking collaborative work.

Assemble are not your usual architects. They work as a collective, where everything from which projects to take on to who clears away lunch is decided by the group. Formed in 2010 to conceive, build and run a temporary cinema on the site of a disused petrol station, they went on to design the celebrated Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art in London and the workshops at Atelier Luma in Arles, alongside numerous community projects such as playgrounds and public spaces. The fact that in 2015 they scooped the prestigious Turner Prize – more often given to mid-career artists – along the way gives some indication of the nature of their surprising, collaborative work and its cultural impact.

This book is the result of extensive conversations between the group and architecture critic Aaron Betsky, bringing together all of their significant projects to date through photographs, drawings and their own words.

About the Author

Aaron Betsky is a critic and teacher living in Philadelphia. Previously, he was Professor and Director of the School of Architecture and Design at Virginia Tech and, prior to that, President of the School of Architecture at Taliesin. A critic of art, architecture and design, Betsky is the author of over twenty books on those subjects including 50 Lessons to Learn from Frank Lloyd Wright (2021), Making It Modern (2016), Architecture Matters (2017) and The Monster Leviathan: Anarchitecture (2024).