Mackintosh School of Architecture: The Latest Architecture and News

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It has been confirmed that parts of the Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh building are to be dismantled. A statement by Glasgow City Council, reported by the BBC, revealed that substantial movement in the building’s walls had been detected from surveys following the June 15th fire, indicating the sudden partial collapse of the structure was likely.

Work on the dismantling is to begin “as a matter of urgency” focusing on the south façade, which was the most seriously damaged during the fire; the second blaze to devastate the building in four years.

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Ten days after fire engulfed Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s iconic Mackintosh Building at the Glasgow School of Art for the second time in four years, there is still much to learn about how the fire started, how it could have been prevented, and what should now happen to the ruined masterpiece.

While a full investigation into the cause of the fire will likely take some time, the first reports are emerging of fire safety measures being only weeks away from installation before the tragedy struck. Meanwhile, we read new details on an almost-daily basis about the current state of the building, as architects and public figures share their views and opinions on the future of one of Glasgow’s most iconic buildings.

To keep you up to date on the situation, we have compiled the latest information arranged in three stages: the condition of the building before the latest fire, the current status of the building, and some views on the building’s fate.

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A little over two years since a fire devastated parts of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art, which was deemed to have been caused by fumes from a can of spray foam entering a projector fan, appointed architects Page\Park are making headway in their restoration of the building's iconic library. As part of the project, and alongside Edinburgh-based joinery firm Laurence McIntosh, the practice will create a full-scale prototype of one of the library bays in order to "test the materials and techniques used to construct the original library."

Page\Park Architects have been announced as winner of a competition to restore Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art (GSA). The Scottish practice, chosen ahead of four other shortlisted architects, will now develop plans to restore the building’s library and all other areas devastated by fire in May of last year.

Highlighting Page\Park’s “extensive track record in both restoring and reinvigoration major historic buildings” and previous work on the Mac, GSA director Prof Tom Inns said: “The team assembled by Page\Park Architects impressed us not only with their deep knowledge of the building, but of the wider work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh… Page\Park have ongoing relationships with key crafts specialists and artists in Scotland and wider afield, and presented exciting proposals for expanding the legacy of the restoration by working with a new generation of creative talent.”

Five practices are the running to restore Charles Rennie Mackintosh's celebrated school of art in Glasgow. UK based John McAslan + Partners (who restored Mackintosh's last major commission), Scottish practice Page \ Park, and London and Hong-Kong based architects Purcell are all in the frame to lead the restoration of the Mackintosh Building amid a debate over how best to approach the rebuilding of the library and the areas of the building that were devastated by fire in May of last year. The selection of Avanti Architects and LDN Architects complete the rostra.

The Glasgow School of Art have announced that they will hold two symposiums in order to discuss the restoration of the school's library which was devastated in a fire in May of this year. The first conference, to be held in Venice's Querini Stampalia, will act as a precursor to a second conference to be held in Glasgow in 2015. According to Professor Christopher Platt, head of the Mackintosh School of Architecture, the meetings will help to answer the question: "What should the plans be for bringing the Mackintosh building into full use once more and how should we approach the particular issue of the Macintosh library?"

Steven Holl Architects, in collaboration with Spirit of Space, have created two short films of the recently completed Seona Reid Building at Glasgow School of Art. The film series explores the complementary contrast of the new Reid Building and Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s 1909 building (which recently suffered a devastating fire), where "each work of architecture heightens the integral qualities of the other."

The first film takes the viewers on a "poetic climb" up and through the building's social circuit, which "purposefully encourages inter-disciplinary activity, with the hope to inspire positive energy for the future of art." The second film unpacks the design of the Reid Building in a conversation with design architects Steven Holl and Chris McVoy.