Official Mackintosh Tour

Its really hard to walk, listen and write and the same time but I tried!

• Between finishing the first half of the building and starting the second half, Mackintosh redesigned the west section of building as his ideals had changed.


• Originally the Gallery was used as a drawing room.


• Even though this was one of the first buildings to have electricity, natural light was still very much needed, as seen in the massive windows in the Gallery.


• The Gallery space and the main staircase shows Mackintosh's Japanese influences in the pillars and the cage like structures.


• The corridors were made wide enough to be used at studio spaces too so to accommodate more students.


• Mackintosh never wrote about his work which means he has left many puzzles that will never be solved. This gives the Building a mysterious feel.


• Alcoves at either side of the studio doors were made to house a glass vase with a single red rose. this was to inspire students when they arrive but understandably it was very expensive and was almost immediately stopped.


• Mackintosh used the most expensive technique of staining glass to decorate the windows in the studio doors which meant he had to use the cheapest building materials for the rest of the building. this has later caused problems as they are starting to be damaged.


• The staircase walls are finished with highly polished cement.


• Tile Motifs are inlaid at each landing on the staircases, no two tile patterns are exactly the same.


• Mackintosh turned the building on its head by making the building darker as you go up the building. On the Loggia it was originally very dark and crypt like (once again making a space that's high up in the building look like it belongs in the basement) However in the 60's someone painted its bare brick work white in order to make it 'a more pleasant working environment'.


• At the top of the East staircase a font is seen. This was not originally placed by Mackintosh but was a piece of work made by a student in the 60's. The font was made in such a heavy material and was made on site that no one can move it! N.B. Either this person felt silly or they had just worked out the most amazing way to get a piece of worked displayed indefinitely!


• It was unusual for a greenhouse to be structurally built into an art school, but Mackintosh believed that all artists must first learn from the beauty of nature before they too can make works of art.


• Students were asked to leave one piece of their work when they had graduated and they were kept in the Store Room. This meant that the room would be holding a lot of weight, so this room was suspended by iron stirrups from the buildings structural H-Beams.


• The Library was meant to feel like a forest. The four elements of the world were represented in this room in the spars on the railings- white-air, blue- water, green- earth, red- fire.