London-based design collective Assemble is the winner of the 2015 Turner Prize. Comprising 18 young architects, artists, and designers all under the age of 30, the five-year-old practice was given the United Kingdom’s most prestigious art award for their multidisciplinary work in public projects.
The annual prize is bestowed by the Tate Gallery, a British art institution comprised of a family of four gallery spaces, which has recognized British visual artists under the age of 50 since 1984. This year, however, is momentous on two fronts. The foremost being that this is the first time a group of architects and designers have won. Another is that this is the the second time the prize has gone to more than one person. Assemble’s work on Granby Four Streets, a housing regeneration project in Liverpool, England, is what helped them stand out from the rest of the shortlisted nominees. The collaborative endeavor, which the designers were invited by area residents to join following the establishment of a community land trust, included removing blight, painting empty houses, and creating a local market.
The cash prize is £25,000 (roughly $38,000), and reaffirms Assemble as a mainstay in the United Kingdom’s design community. The studio also participated in the 2015 Chicago Biennial.
This year’s Turner Prize finalists included British multimedia artist and lecturer Bonnie Camplin; Canadian performance artist Janice Kerbel; and German photographer, sculptor, and collage artist Nicole Wermers—a threesome of female artists who all reside in London, according to The Guardian. All of these contenders will receive £5,000 ($7,500). Work from all of these recognized creatives is currently on display at Tramway—an art institution in Glasgow, Scotland—through Jan. 17, 2016.
This year’s jury included Joanna Mytkowska, director of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland; art critic Jan Verwoert; Alistair Hudson, director of the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, in England; and Kyla McDonald, artistic director of the Glasgow Sculpture Studios, in Scotland. The jury was chaired by Tate Gallery director Alex Farquharson.
Check out how Assemble’s work on the Liverpool homes helped to rejuvenate the area in the video below.
