Glasgow School of Art

Mackintosh’s art school combines Scottish castles, Japanese simplicity and the lines of Art Nouveau. The large north-facing studio windows, the wrought-iron details and the famous library in dark wood made it one of the most original buildings of its time. It was severely damaged by fires in 2014 and 2018.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was 28 when he won the competition for the school’s new building in 1896. The money was enough for only half, completed in 1899; the rest was built in 1907–1909, by which time Mackintosh had developed his style. The eastern part is softer and more Art Nouveau, the western more angular and vertical, with the library as a forest-like room of dark posts and hanging lamps.

Mackintosh designed everything, from the façade to chairs and lamps, and his wife Margaret Macdonald belonged to the same circle, The Glasgow Four. He was more appreciated in Vienna than at home, and the Secession invited him to exhibit in 1900. The fire of 2014 destroyed the library, and when the restoration was almost complete the whole building burned in 2018. The question of whether and how it should be rebuilt has led to a long debate about what it means to reconstruct a masterpiece.

• Art Nouveau
• Charles Rennie Mackintosh