1980s

摘要

The catalogue of Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners' 1988 RIBA exhibition titled Product + Process has an exuberant drawing of the Oxford Skating Rink on the cover. It effectively set out the practice's stall, showing an eye-catching building, strongly innovative and constructed at high speed and at low cost. It pointed to Grimshaw's priorities: flexibility, technological ingenuity and admirable efficiency. Examined more closely, the rink, a local authority amenity, had a clear glazed north elevation to attract the eye, the two great masts providing a column-free interior, their corrosion-free cables proven on North Sea oil rigs and the cladding panels borrowed from cold storage facilities. 3an Kaplicky, characterised by his biographer Martin Pawley as having a 'guiltless faith in the future of technology' was a perfect choice to design the two catalogue books in their clear plastic slipcase.