The only criticism the panel had for In Detail had to do with the slight stiffness in the binding. In the middle the book was perfectly amenable but at the beginning and end it was disinclined to cooperate. Otherwise there was nothing but praise.

This is a book with a mission, a presentation of the architectural detail in the work of the Delft architectural practice Cepezed. A good presentation is automatically an argument in favour: mission accomplished.

Here we are shown fifteen jobs, in each case with photographs coupled with architect’s drawings. The photos are never less than full page. In each case we start from a plan and move from there by way of a number of general views to the details, many of which are reproduced to a scale of 1:10. These have legends that read like poetry. ‘Smoothed concrete floor with transparent coating.’ ‘Powder coated aluminium sliding window with tinted insulating glass.’ The photos are black-and-white, the texts all a silvery grey.

Inside the narrow bands of black at the fore-edge this limited spectrum comes to life perfectly, right down to the equally designed white space. It is as classic as modernism can be. And yet it is also of its day: all of this is on uncoated paper. ‘Incredibly well printed.’