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F E A T U R E S
the social purpose of art, and came to see
us about our projects. At this time we were
working on a project in Granby, Liverpool,
which was nominated for the Prize. We
didn’t know at this point that he was a judge
for the Turner Prize, and a little while later
we found out that we had been nominated;
it was a huge surprise. Although we had
won architectural awards before, this was
an award that is known to everyone both
inside and outside the art world. We
didn’t want the people who lived
in Liverpool as part of the Granby
project to be overlooked, as the
project is one part of a longstanding
process and we were there to realise
the ambitions of the residents and
make these ambitions visible in the
community. We were nominated, but
it wasn’t our story to tell.
How did the project in Liverpool
develop?
After the 1981 Toxteth Riots in the
Granby area, people were moved to
other areas of the city, and the
government planned and carried
out the destruction of high-density
housing to replace them with
low-density buildings. There was
a resistance from the remaining
residents to the development plans, as
they didn’t want to see some of the
oldest buildings of the most diverse
What was the path you took as part of
your decision to become an architect?
It evolved from conversations about the Art
Foundation course which I took at Falmouth
after leaving St Edward’s. I wanted to study
Architecture to accommodate the different
interests I developed at A Level and the
Foundation course felt like an introduction
to a way of working that felt both inclusive
and open-ended. I studied Architecture at
Cambridge, and there was a lot of history and
theory as part of the course. I played a lot of
golf then, which in retrospect was not hugely
useful when I should have been studying!
How did Assemble develop?
Assemble formed in 2010, and is an
architectural collective comprised of 18
individuals who share workshops and studios
to collaborate on different projects. Whilst
studying at university I was close with people
on the same course, and a group of us lived
together, moving accommodation quite a
lot which became quite a formative process
learning about new environments. One of
our tutors commented that we didn’t work
well as a group during our university years,
but it is that same group that went on to
form Assemble. We graduated in 2009 and
the jobs we entered weren’t fulfilling our
original expectations and it became quite
a struggle. After having being immersed in
a very intensive learning environment at
university, we felt like things had slowed
down and the projects became a new form
of education. We saw others working on
building developments, and decided to create
an opportunity for ourselves. We found a
derelict petrol station as the location of our
first project, at which time we didn’t have a
name for the group, and were still working our
day jobs, and coming to the studio to work
late into the evening. When things became
increasingly busy, there were a few nights
spent sleeping in the workshop.
Congratulations for winning
theTurner Prize. How did the
nomination come about?
Alistair Hudson, Director of Middlesbrough
Institute of Modern Art, has an interest in
The Granby Workshop
Building the Future
James Binning
(C, 2000-2005) in conversation with Nicola Hunter,
Assistant Head Academic and History of Art Teacher.