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Ddestroyed by two fires, the best house in Scotland, Mackintosh’s house at Glasgow School of Art (GSA), cuts a tragic figure, his flaming flesh covered in sheets of white plastic, like a vacuum-filled Christo sculpture.
A saga of 12 years destructionrebuilding is however much destructionboth shown by the conflicting political and institutional conflicts, came to an apologetic conclusion, and recent announcement that Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s magnificent creation cannot be rebuilt in its original form because of its cost.
The GSA said a full rebuild or “faithful restoration” of the 1909 landmark, which, despite its long-term ambition, would cost £265m, four times the original estimate and five times the GSA’s annual revenue.
The school admitted that it could not afford to rebuild the building on its own, and explained how it had progressed by fixing the remaining shell of the building and removing the external cables. The plastic cover will also be removed, revealing the stone walls that remain. How things progress from there is still a matter of debate. The cost of the permanent work, although not confirmed, is understood to have been covered by the recent settlement by insurers following the dispute.
The future of a building considered as synonymous with Scotland as Gaudí’s famous Sagrada Familia in Barcelona or Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is still uncertain. But when Notre Dame, destroyed by fire in 2019it was the story of the reconstruction of one country that allowed it to do so re-opened after five yearsMackintosh’s masterpiece is still more than a decade old, and seems nowhere near being restored as a working school.
Professional bodies including the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and the Royal Institute of British Architects have welcomed the current approach but said “faithful restoration must remain the preferred outcome”.
In a joint statement, they added: “We need leadership from the Scottish and UK governments to find the necessary resources to ensure the faithful restoration of the Mackintosh building and safeguard its future as a creative regeneration centre. GlasgowScotland is a country. Construction is very important if the country needs to do something for the country if the future generations will not curse us because of its loss or cutting.”
Writing in the Journal of ArchitectsLabor MSP for Glasgow Paul Sweeney echoed this call. Sweeney, who has been campaigning to renovate the building, suggested that a more inclusive approach to rebuilding the Mac should be considered. “It’s about the Scottish and UK governments putting their arms around the technical school and trying to support the reform as a global project,” he said.
But in the midst of life’s crisis, which is at stake politically and culturally, it is doubtful whether such resources can or will be found. Is it time for a rich man to support his life’s work?
Some have been more critical. “The loss of the Mackintosh building would be devastating,” says architect and former GSA lecturer Gordon Gibb. “Even a bit of rebuilding, or a lifeless preservation of key values, can lead to the loss of our heritage and the decline of Glasgow. If you don’t rebuild it as it was intended, you lose all its integrity – and you’re doing nothing more than celebrating the failure of its temporary managers who caused it to die.”
The whole tragedy started with a small fire that broke out at a student fair in late 2014, when an aerosol can of expanding foam that was placed near a heating project caused flammable gases to ignite. It could and should have been saved, but Mackintosh’s arrangement of wood with grooves and ducts was designed to spread the flames. However, almost all of the building was saved, and a £35m renovation began. A few weeks before completion in 2018, the building was gutted by a second fire.
Well known to those who sell gifts in museums, it is perhaps difficult to imagine how difficult Mackintosh’s art and architecture was in his day. An angry artist who took his inspiration from the movements of fin de siècle Europe – art nouveau, Japonism, symbolism – his work was particularly interesting in the conventions of Victorian neoclassicism. “It’s ridiculous to see modern buildings built in imitation of Greek temples!” concluded in 1893. “We must dress modern ideas in modern clothes.”
Mackintosh experienced many changes by chance. In 1900, his fame was such that on a trip to Vienna, “Toshie” and his wife, the artist Margaret Macdonald, were welcomed as heroes of Caledonia by the separatist group and were cheered on the streets in a carriage decorated with flowers. But the First World War broke ties with Europe and poverty and uncertainty began to decline. By 1928, Mackintosh had died of oral cancer at the age of 60, fueled by his drinking and smoking habits, a bohemian end to a very good life.
If the Mac is not to be rebuilt as it was, there are examples of methods that can be called “destructive destruction”, mixing new and old parts to tell the main story of the building. Influenced by wartime bombs, Berlin’s neoclassical New Museum it lay in ruins for more than 40 years until the persuasive scheme of David Chipperfield, with the help of conservative scholar Julian Harrap, changed its fortunes. The city’s Reichstag building, renovated by Norman Foster, still holds the inscriptions written by the victorious Russian soldiers.
Yet the glory of the Mac is that everything is a piece, from the door panels to the furniture, the stained glass to the light fixtures, all of which Mackintosh considered an exemplary Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art. His double destruction has been a tragedy, but, right now, his rebirth as a precious phoenix from the fire feels as distant as ever.
