Assemble + Common Treasures
Common Treasures is a new, independent organisation established by members of Assemble and a community of collaborators to develop models of architecture practice that equip organisations and communities that are largely excluded from architectural design services with the tools, resources and capacity to design for better outcomes in rural parts of the UK.
Barely half a century ago, almost half of architects were employed by the public sector doing work in the public interest. Today, that figure is less than 1%. Implicit within this shift is a pivot toward private, project-based work on a service-based consultancy model that inhibits the building of deep knowledge, long-term capacity and the strong relationships that underpin good work and working conditions.
Common Treasures aims to develop and test alternatives models, working within and alongside organisations doing practical, impactful work to develop design-led responses to chronic issues in housing, planning and land that sit at the centre of so many of the systemic issues experienced in Britain today.
Common Treasures has grown out of 5 years of teaching and research with students at the Ecole Polytechnic de Lausanne as well as work with community-led groups with a focus on housing, land and environmental issues in Southern England and Wales.
Assemble has a strong track-record of seeding independent mission-oriented organisations and Common Treasures is a part of this tradition – an independent organisation that will work in the spirit and ethos established in Assemble’s work over the past 15 years.
