Turner Prize: London-based architecture group Assemble win £25,000 award

The architecture collective who are all still in their 20s, were stunned to find out they had won the Turner Prize, the most sought-after art gong. The group said they were "really, really humbled" to win. "I think it's safe to say this nomination was a surprise to all of us and the last six months has been a super-surreal experience, but it's allowed us this amazing opportunity to start something - Granby workshop - which we hope will live on for a very, very, very long time."

They worked with the local community in Toxteth, Liverpool, to transform 10 rundown houses in an area which has seen huge deprivation since the 1981 Toxteth Riots. The architecture collective developed imaginative designs for the interiors of terraced houses in the Granby Four Streets area of Toxteth.

"Assemble are the only ones who have ever sat and listened to the residents, and then translated their vision into drawings and models, and now into reality," Erika Rushton, chair of the community land trust told the Guardian.

Their designs include building mantelpieces using brick and rubble construction waste from the streets and ceramic door handles fired in barbecues fuelled by sawdust left over from building work.

There was some controversy over whether Assemble should have been eligible for the prize. Speaking after the announcement on Channel 4, author and broadcaster Muriel Gray said: "I think it's changed the nature of the Turner Prize because I don't think it is modern art.

"I think it's socially responsible, beautiful architecture. But it's a very peculiar year."

Group member Lewis Jones has described the collective as "the real antithesis of the conventional model of a Turner Prize nominee being a single genius artist".

The other nominees were:

• Bonnie Camplin, who has created a supernatural study centre, showing interviews with people who claim to have had paranormal experiences.
• Janice Kerbel, who has written an avant-garde, a capella 24-minute opera about a hapless fictional character called Doug.
• The nominated installation by Nicole Wermers consists of 10 dining chairs with fur coats sewn into their backs.