Assemble
Architecture
4th October, 2012
The very impressive Northcote studio space of Assemble and Assemble Papers. Photos - Sean Fennessy.
Assemble's Eugenia Lim at her desk. Ceiling detail designed by the Assemble crew, built by Wesley Old of Localspaces. Photos - Sean Fennessy.
Giuseppe 'Pino' Demaio, one of Assemble's three directors. Photos - Sean Fennessy.
Assemble is an inspiring young architecture, design and property development company focused on small footprint projects. The business was founded in 2010 by close pals Giuseppe 'Pino' Demaio, Ben Keck and Joachim Holland, whose varied backgrounds span architecture, design, property and finance. This dynamic group founded their practice based on the simple shared belief that small footprint living should not be a compromise. 'You can and should be able to live the fullest of lives in a small but well-considered space' they say. Hear Hear!
Based from a painfully cool workspace in Northcote (they've just finished the fit-out, amazing or what?!), this clever group of friends also publish a fantastic online publication called Assemble Papers, which supports their design practice, exploring the culture of living closer together and small footprint living.
Assemble Papers is a collaborative effort, edited in-house by artist and writer Eugenia Lim. It is such a seriously excellent and well considered publication, on first inspection to be honest it seemed kind of crazy to me that a busy studio like Assemble would have the time and energy to dedicate to such an epic side project! But as Giuseppe explained, the publication is in fact very closely connected to their core business. There is a symbiotic relationship between Assemble and Assemble Papers – each informs the other.
'As the three of us began sharing our inspiration and research for Assemble projects, we felt it made sense to broaden this conversation, to foster a wider dialogue about ideas of sustainability and ingenious living' explains Giuseppe. 'Living sustainably is not about being a hippy and living in a self-contained log cabin – the reality for most of us who live in cities or suburbs, is that it’s about approaching life in an informed, optimistic and connected way, understanding the impacts of our actions and taking responsibility for how we live and what we consume. Assemble Papers was born to collect, curate and proliferate this kind of thinking - offering a considered and practical approach to the clutter of contemporary life'.
Assemble Papers publishes new content weekly, with a free newsletter going out to our subscribers each Friday morning. Sign up here!
Eugenia Lim edits Assemble Papers. Photo - Sean Fennessy.
Assemble are an ambitious bunch. They're currently looking for a location in the inner north of Melbourne to build a special residential project that will bring to life their passion for small footprint living. 'Having spent most of last year developing a business plan to articulate (to ourselves and our investors) how we propose to do things a little differently, we finally secured funding for a small to medium scale apartment project, and we're now searching for the right location' says Giuseppe. I've no doubt they'll make it happen!
Very excited to read about these guys and hope they find a location soon for their apartment project. Hopefully it will be just the catalyst Melbourne’s development culture needs.
Design Files – love your work, but seriously the prevalence of ridiculous hipster beards is starting to look like a parody on well, ridiculous hipsters. Check out Portlandia and weep.
Inspirational Folk! I love what these guys are doing and I love their beards. ;)
At least said hipsters are doing good rather than doing nothing and lounging around posturing on brunswick st LULU. Ps Portlandia is an incredibly antiquated reference for beard attack. You might wanna catch up on your references. :)
Im in Design Love….again…..Love the studio, LOVE the Assemble website – another to add to my very long RSS feed – I think it is time for a few lesser ones to be culled :)
Thanks Lucy and her good readers! Yes there may be some old-growth beards in our midst, but that is certainly not all we cultivate. The beard-to-designing, creating, writing, publishing (and hopefully soon building) ratio is actually quite low! PS. thanks for the beard backup sonnie and blanc!
WOW everytime we put a photo of someone with a beard here there is always some controversy! ha ha point taken, but I can’t help it if people have beards! I just tell it like I see it :) x
This is great! This kind of living is very appealing – there will be sound demand for sure – good luck!
when i can afford it , i will book these guys. beards or not! im not just saying that because Lucy has featured me either. or because i have a close trimmed beard. rather that i appreciate good passionate and active workers.
Brilliant story! What a great bunch of creative people. Love the beards, you all look fabulous!
I’ve never heard of them before, but it looks like an awesome venture. Love it when creative people get together and do amazing things!
Oh these guys! I can’t believe it’s taken them so long to get this out. Good job guys. They are quintessential northside, just how I remember them but maybe a little further north tgan when I knew them. Next they’ll be up here in Castlemaine. So great TDF keeps me up with what the cool kids are doing!!
Beautiful, beautiful work. Don’t mind the beards either. But what is the dog’s name?
Just looooooove this…. so totttes amazeballs… would tooootes invest all my hard earned dollars in a bunch of people that look like they’ve never visited a building site. Amaaaazeballs…. solid business plan too mahhhn.
Thank you for posting….
http://www.kev4prez.com.au/
OMG I went to school with Eugenia, loved the school year book that she edited!