Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Charles Rennie MackIntosh entered a competition in a German magazine to build a large house.  He did not win the competition, due to a technical breach of the rules, but he was given some money as they had been impressed with his plans.  At the time he was newly married to Margaret MacDonald, who is credited with some of the details in the interiors, I believe.

The house was never built in his lifetime, but in the 1990's a group of architects decided to build the house from his architectural drawings some 80 years after he designed it, not as a large dwelling house but as a space to be used by the public.

A site was found in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow and the house was built.  It is used for events, weddings, etc. and has a very nice cafe too.  

I was given a gift voucher for Christmas for an afternoon tea and an audio tour of the house, and today Bob and I took advantage of it and had a really lovely tea, and also a very interesting tour of the house.  It is quite a few years since I last was in it, and as ever I was impressed by how fresh the whole design is, given that it was designed in the early 1900's, when interiors were very much more fussy and ornate.