The assembly of colloidal nanoplatelets is key to the development and fabrication of optoelectronic devices. This collaborative report, where the IMOD Murray Group (University of Pennsylvania) worked with the Schall group from the University of Amsterdam, and the Kodger Group from the Wageningen University and Research, describes techniques to control this assembly process. The configuration and higher order structures of these CdSe nanoplatelets can be tuned by exploiting the energetics of the ligand exchange at the air/liquid interface. By exploring this space the team was able to direct the formation of 1D nanowires, and stacked structures.