Mackintosh Architecture Symposium

In July The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, launched a major exhibition and a new online resource, Mackintosh Architecture: Context, Making and Meaning. The website is the culmination of a four-year project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which has developed the first catalogue raisonné of Mackintosh’s architecture and that of the practice of John Honeyman & Keppie / Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh.

This is the first substantial exhibition devoted to Mackintosh’s architecture, with over 80 architectural drawings, many never exhibited before, rarely seen archival material, and specially commissioned films and models.

The Scottish architect and designer, Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868–1928), is celebrated worldwide, hailed variously as an exponent of art nouveau, a modernist, a symbolist, an artist-architect. Understanding of his architectural career has tended to focus on a familiar group of buildings and unbuilt designs, marked out by the individuality of their formal design and detailing.The exhibition at The Hunterian is on till the 4 January 2015. It will then go on tour to the RIBA (London and Liverpool) in 2015.

Today's one-day symposium at The Hunterian celebrated the completion of the research project 'Mackintosh Architecture: Context, Making and Meaning'. We had the opportunity to get an overview of the project and listen to key members of the team and explore the development of the project and its research outcomes. Speakers today included Professor Pamela Robertson, Joseph Sharples, Dr Nicky Imrie, Roger Billcliffe, Ranald MacInnes, David Stark and Dr William Kilbride.

It was an excellent day with some fascinating insights into the world of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.