Assembly Speaker - 24 June
Alice Edgerley - Assemble (Turner Prize winning Architecture collective)
The Sixth Form assembly was led by architect and Cambridge graduate Alice Edgerly. She informed us about her architecture group ‘Assemble’ and their specialisation in bespoke architectural projects. Alice also discussed her early life with us, and what her degree led her to accomplish.
Alice attended Cambridge university studying Architecture which led her and a group of friends to form a group named ‘Assemble’ which is a multi-disciplinary collective working across architecture, design and art. Assemble has created over 80 projects focusing on artistic drawing, model making, making furniture and organising community events whilst also focusing on digital infrastructure like forming websites.
Alice started the talk by discussing her temporary projects, especially her first one named ‘The Cineroleum’. The Cineroleum (on Clerkenwell Road) was created by her and her colleagues through regenerating a derelict petrol station and turning it into a cinema. As they were volunteers, they struggled with a lack of funding, however, they used this to their advantage by using industrial fabrics and recyclable materials as these were the cheapest options and this allowed her to not harm the environment.
It was a great success and, after showing a completely sold out show with all 200 tickets bought, they were able to lift up the curtains which were acting like walls and this gave them the ability to suddenly show the audience how simplistic the architecture was by them being on the pavement.
Alice then started to discuss her projects abroad and how this was interesting through the variety of locations and in products used. One project was based in the mountainous region of Shikoku island in Japan where her group Assemble made a wine and beer tasting building which sits on a mountain, creating a beautiful mountainous view. As she was in a forest, Alice discovered there was a lot of Cedar wood there, so took advantage of this and used it to build her building. It was a wood that was traditionally used around Japan. Another material they used was Indigo dye, which was produced heavily in the region. She experimented with the Indigo dye and explained that it was the perfect scenic colour for her to use.
Another project Alice focused on was her Granby project, for which Assemble won the Turner prize in 2015, where she converted two derelict houses in Liverpool into a shared garden which was freely accessible to local residents and the neighbourhood. For this project, Alice and her team had a collaboration with ‘Granby Four Streets CLT’ which assisted Assemble to bring about a larger sense of community. They did this instead of demolishing, repairing and remodelling the houses. This was one of Alice’s favourite projects as it was much easier to do, resulting in a better outcome. Her team received funding from the local council, which led to her being able to remodel the houses perfectly and add trees and unique flowers in the garden. For Assemble's contribution to the Turner Prize Exhibition 2015, they built a showroom to launch Granby Workshop.
To conclude, I can say for our whole year that we all were able to get a thorough understanding of what architecture is, where it can lead to in life, and the variety of outcomes that can occur from pursuing the skill of architecture.
Patrick
ixth Form Senior Prefect
