A direct action collective described by one member as “sort of architects, sort of not, sort of maybe” has won the UK’s most prestigious art prize with an urban regeneration project.

The 18 members of London-based Assemble were named winners of the 31st Turner prize on Monday night, receiving their £25,000 prize from the Sonic Youth co-founder and artist Kim Gordon at an awards dinner broadcast live on Channel 4 from Tramway, Glasgow.

Assemble are the first non-artists, in the strictest sense of the word, to win the prize. They were nominated for their work tackling urban dereliction in Toxteth, Liverpool, the aim being to use art and design to improve houses and the lives of residents living in an area called Granby Four Streets.

Judges praised what they called “a ground-up approach to regeneration, city planning and development in opposition to corporate gentrification”. The winning citation added: “They [Assemble] draw on long traditions of artistic and collective initiatives that experiment in art, design and architecture. In doing so they offer alternative models to how societies can work. The long-term collaboration between Granby Four Streets and Assemble shows the importance of artistic practice being able to drive and shape urgent issues.”

It’s fair to say nothing like it has previously been considered for the Turner prize: Assemble’s project is a far cry from other winners such as Damien Hirst’s bisected cow and calf in formaldehyde, or Martin Creed’s light going on and off. This work is about art making a tangible difference to a wider society.

A late surge of betting interest meant Assemble were bookies’ favourite to win, with William Hill offering odds of just 1-2 on Sunday.

Assemble admitted they were as surprised as anyone to get the nomination – and there will be those who question whether doing up houses that had been set for demolition after the Toxteth riots of 1981 can be called art.

They are the first collective to win and with an age range of 26 to 29 they are also the youngest people to ever win the Turner prize.

They were surprised to hear their name being called, they said. “It is super exciting,” said Lewis Jones. “It’s amazing, the whole past six months has been a total whirlwind and this takes it over the threshold.”

The collective have never claimed to be artists. But by crowning them winners, that is what the Turner prize judges see them as.

One Assemble member, Anthony Engi-Meacock, said: “It’s just not a conversation we have. I mean what is an artist? There is no answer to it.”



Fran Edgerley added: “The more we talk about it the more we realise our practice is incredibly similar to artists and designers. The labels aren’t as important as the works.”

Maria Lisogorskaya said sometimes they were designers or architects while sometimes they were “plumbers or campaigners”.

They said they would need to have a “meeting” before deciding what to do with the prize money but the most immediate plan was, they said, to go out dancing in Glasgow.

Assemble unquestionably have a social conscience but they also have an entrepreneurial flair. For the Turner prize show they created a shop/showroom of products made by a social enterprise set up by the collective as a result of the nomination.

About nine Granby Street residents have been trained and employed in a workshop making handmade products from demolition waste and construction rubble.

When items are sold, the money is ploughed back into the project. For £15 people have been able to buy a door handle made from sawdust, there are pairs of Granby rock bookends at £40, while £150 will buy a pressed terracotta lampshade.

Bonnie Camplin’s The Military Industrial Complex. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/the Guardian

Assemble won the prize from a shortlist of four. Bonnie Camplin was nominated for a study centre she created where people could spend hours – days, even – listening to bizarre conspiracy theories spanning topics from state-sponsored mind control to the power of a secret band of yoga-loving alien reptiles.

Part of Nicole Wermers’ installation Infrastruktur. Photograph: Anita Russo/Rex Shutterstock

Nicole Wermers was in contention for an installation which, among other things, explored the gender politics of modern design. It consists of 10 Marcel Breuer chairs with fur coats stitched into their backs and was, arguably, the art installation that most looked like an art installation.

Part of Janice Kerbel’s Doug. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/the Guardian

The shortlist was completed by Canadian-born artist Janice Kerbel, who learned musical theory in order to produce her work, Doug. It is a piece of music for six singers, Doug being a character who experiences one bizarre mishap after another.

This year’s Turner prize was presented in Scotland for the first time, continuing the policy of having the event in London one year and outside the capital the next. In 2017, Hull will be the venue.

The judging panel was chaired by Tate Britain’s new director, Alex Farquharson, who arrived in the job only a week ago. The judges were Alistair Hudson, director of Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art; the critic and curator Jan Verwoert; Joanna Mytkowska, director of the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; and Kyla McDonald, artistic director of Glasgow Sculpture Studios.