The Turner Prize Award

London-based Assemble won the £40,000 Turner Prize Award after transforming a neighbourhood through "guerilla gardening."

18:17 08 December 2015

A project by London-based Assemble has won the Turner Prize Award for transforming the Toxteth area of the city through "guerilla gardening."

 

Assemble took home the £40,000 prize after being invited by locals to regenerate housing and public spaces in the Cairns Street area of Toxteth.

 

Juror Alistair Hudson said that the area had been "left decimated" and had become "a no-go zone."

 

He said of Assemble: "They don't occupy the realm of the single genius solitary artist.

 

"This is collective activity working within society, not in the hierarchical structure of the art world.

 

"It's not about making art forms ... but about changing the way the world works, making the world a better place...making life more artful."

 

"In the age when anything can be art, why not have a housing estate?"

 

The group used low-cost materials and demolition waste to transform the houses.

 

The collective was described as working “across the fields of art, design and architecture to create projects in tandem with the communities who use and inhabit them.”

 

It adds: "Their architectural spaces and environments promote direct action and embrace a DIY sensibility.”