One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for assembling a single content stream that enables downloading of a content collection using the single content stream over a network. During operation, the system obtains the content collection that includes a plurality of content components, and generates a manifest for the content collection. A respective entry in the manifest corresponds to a content component. The system assembles the single content stream by including the manifest followed by the plurality of content components. The manifest and the content components are packaged into objects under a same namespace, thereby facilitating a requester requesting one or more content components within the content collection using interests under the same namespace.