Is it possible to pin down the style of Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners? Yes, in the sense that there is a certain way the practice puts buildings together, a way it has of expressing designed components from structural columns to connectors and fasteners, a concern with generous circulation and social spaces. The practice always seeks alternative and better means to address an architectural problem, such as a suspended glass wall or the creation of adaptable free-span space. In the early days, perhaps, all this might have been done with a degree of austerity. The buildings were tighter, more introverted. In recent years, the style has loosened. Structure and to a lesser extent services are increasingly celebrated in a way that goes far beyond function - though there is always a functional programme at the bottom of it. This change can be attributed to a number of causes: the influence of a new generation of architects in the practice; new building types to consider; a different, more ambitious breed of client; bigger budgets; an all-round greater confidence and more relaxed approach to building; and the new design possibilities offered by computers, particularly when designing on the curve. Waterloo could not have been built without computers: the Sainsbury's store in London's Camden Town, completed in 1988, was the last project from the office to be essentially hand-drawn.
Despite the very diverse portfolio of projects, you can always recognise the authorship of an NGP building. Partly this is to do with the way the buildings are put together. There is that craft aspect, involving among much else the design of individual components, often unique to just one building. Secondly it is to do with the pedigree. There is a discernible line of development, a steady evolution, from the earliest buildings to the latest. There are ways of wrapping skin round structure, ways of creating free-flowing internal spaces, ways of supporting sheer glass, ways of achieving large clear spans. There is a clear sense that a building must be able to change over time, to be adapted, extended, perhaps given over to completely different uses, that its social purposes come first.
The fact that the design response is so distinct, coupled with an increasing air of what might be termed "celebration" in the expression of function, helps to explain why NGP has become an international force. In the years since Waterloo, Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners has moved without fuss or fanfare onto centre stage. It competes for and wins commissions at the highest level, in the most sensitive locations. The familiar bite and determination is now receiving due recognition. Unlike some of their peers, there is no sense of complacency. More important than international success is the fact that these architects spring surprises, can confound expectations. They are still explorers.
