Design collective Assemble has been shortlisted for the $60,000 Turner Prize, the first time a company from the construction industry has been so nominated.
The practice, which is based in Stratford, east London, has previously transformed a derelict petrol station into a hand-built cinema, built a wooden 450-seat "pop-up" theatre in the centre of Southampton and created a public space under a disused motorway undercroft that attracted 40,000 visitors.
The project that has earned the group the Turner nomination is called Granby Four Streets, a collaboration with the residents of a council estate in Toxteth, Liverpool, that was intended to save properties from demolition.
Alistair Hudson, a Turner Prize judge and director of Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, said: "In an age when anything can be art, why not have a housing estate?"
Some 16 people are part of the Assemble collective, all of whom are all still in their mid-20s.
The annual Turner Prize, is organised by the Tate gallery and is named after the 19-century painter JMW Turner. The other nominees are artist Bonnie Camplin, multimedia artist Janice Kerbel and German sculptor Nicole Wermers.
Previous winners of the Turner Prize are Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley and Grayson Perry.
For more information about Granby Four Streets click here.
Images via Assemble
