assemble: a practice based on collaboration and continuity
Convene has developed a practice that moves between architecture, design and social engagement, working at different scales to produce not only buildings but also the conditions that sustain them. Co-founder Anthony Engi Meacock, during his conversation with designboom editor-in-chief Sofia Lekka Angelopoulou (find designboom coverage here), describes an approach based on collaboration, creation and long-term thinking.
Founded in 2010 to undertake a single construction project, the London-based collective arose out of a desire to act directly on the built environment. As Meacock explains, early work was driven by “trying to work together again the way we did at university” and from “Exploring our company as designers in public.” What began as an informal collaboration has since evolved into a practice that maintains a non-hierarchical structure while dealing with increasingly complex projects.
Central to Assemble’s work is an expanded understanding of architecture itself. Rather than focusing solely on form, the collective works through what Meacock describes as “a very holistic idea of the kind of activities that fall under architecture”, which includes planning, construction and long-term use. This approach allows projects to extend beyond their initial construction, embedding themselves into existing communities and systems and supporting forms of continuity that resist the short-term logic of conventional development, where Utopia it is less imagined than experienced. “It’s not just the work we’re doing now. It’s about creating a sustainable framework for the future,” Meacock adds, highlighting a practice that prioritizes continuity, adaptability, and co-authoring over fixed outcomes.
The Cineroleum (2010)
from self-constructed experiments to collective infrastructures
Assemble began as a loose collective test of what architecture could do outside of supplies. In 2010, just after the financial crash, its members came together to realize The Cineroleum, a self-built cinema in a disused petrol station in London. With no formal structure and minimal resources, the project became an overall writing exercise. “We designed it, we built it…we planned it, we made the uniforms, we made the signs, we chose the movies, we made it happen,” co-founder Anthony Engi Meacock recalls. This project shaped the collective’s way of working, which was rooted in immediacy, collaboration and a shared sense of agency.
This early, improvised model continues to underpin collective practice today. Assemble approaches architecture as an evolving context, an expanded understanding made clearer in projects such as the Blackhorse Workshop in Walthamstow, a community workshop developed in the wake of the 2011 riots. Designed as ‘a tool library’, the space remains deliberately minimal while the enabling social infrastructure continues to grow. Importantly, the project operates independently of the studio. “it’s a separate organism … something we’ve created and then let go,” Meacock explains, emphasizing a recurring ambition to build systems that can be maintained beyond the architect’s control.
This approach extends to more traditional supplies without losing its experimental edge. At Goldsmiths Center for Contemporary Art, Assemble works within an existing industrial structure, developing materials through on-site testing and fabrication. Working with tight budgets, the team produces custom elements in-house, from facade components to tiles and finishes, integrating the vessel directly into the construction process. As Meacock notes, this allowed them to “to create a very economical and affordable type of built element in a building, demonstrating how practical creation can work even within institutional constraints.
a self-built cinema in a disused petrol station in London
granby as lived utopia
“You don’t try to start over,” Meacock explains, describing an approach that prioritizes existing communities, materials and networks. This principle finds its most compelling expression in Granby Four Streets in Liverpool, a long-term partnership with residents in a neighborhood shaped by decades of decline and failed regeneration policies. Where previous interventions had erased local identity, replacing “real material culture… and real community” with “too limitless, too lifeless” Developments, Assemble begins by listening instead.
By the time the collective got involved, residents had already begun their own forms of resistance, painting empty houses, planting gardens and organizing street markets. “They would take matters into their own hands,” Meacock recalls. Rather than imposing a master plan, Assemble develops an incremental strategy that works with these existing efforts.
In restored houses, small gestures carry significant weight. After years of neglect, many interiors had been completely stripped. ‘All valuables were removed from the property,’ read the notices they left behind. In response, Assemble allocates a small portion of the budget to what they call “enhancements,” bringing back moments of care and identity. Fireplaces, in particular, become symbolic anchors, described by Meacock as a “Phoenix-like renaissance of the house”. These elements persist even as new residents adapt the spaces to their own needs, suggesting a form of continuity that extends beyond the initial intervention.
The project is further extended through the Granby Workshop, a social enterprise that produces handcrafted items inspired by the neighborhood’s architectural details. Originally developed as part of Assemble’s Turner Prize nomination, the workshop has since evolved into a worker-owned company, creating jobs and sustaining local production. Creating a kind of economic activity in the area, Meacock explains, points to a broader ambition: architecture not just as a spatial intervention, but as a catalyst for long-term social and economic structures.
Granby Four Streets (2013)
thinking ecologically, not just sustainably
Alongside this socially engaged work, Assemble’s practice is also deeply engaged in material research. Challenging conventional notions of sustainability, Meacock suggests a more grounded approach: “We are like architects like primitives … we are interested in things being things.” Rather than relying on technological systems, the collective focuses on the inherent properties of materials and their relationship to place, approaching design through ecological thinking rather than optimization.
This thinking is further developed in their collaboration with Atelier LUMA in Arles, where the team works with local resources such as rice husks, sunflower stalks and limestone dust to develop new construction systems. The process is iterative and experimental, with multiple materials tested on site. “There are about 20 different materials… three or four actually turned into things that were usable,” notes Meacock, emphasizing the role of trial and error and its impact on the design process.
a long-term partnership with residents
a method at multiple scales
Across installations, buildings and urban strategies, Assemble maintains a steadfast focus on participation, craftsmanship and adaptability. “Our diversity is a strength and sometimes a weakness,” Meacock reflects, yet this breadth allows the studio to work across disciplines while maintaining a clear underlying approach. Regardless of scale, architecture is not understood as a fixed result, but as a process that unfolds through use. Through research into community land trusts and locally driven housing models, Assemble explores alternatives to conventional top-down systems. What a different model development might look like, Meacock suggests, indicates a shift from designing individual projects to shaping the contexts that produce them.
This ethos is reflected internally within the practice itself. Operating with a flat hierarchy, Assemble allows long-term collaborators to become partners, ensuring continuity while maintaining its collective structure. “Whoever participates … is entitled to participate in the partnership,” Meacock explains, reinforcing a model based on shared authorship and incremental evolution.
Rather than proposing utopia as a distant or idealized vision, Assemble builds it incrementally, through projects that are embedded, adaptive and open.
painting empty houses, planting gardens and organizing street markets
Granby Winter Garden (2019)
an incremental strategy that works with existing efforts
the team maintains a firm focus on participation, artistry and adaptability
