In 1906, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret MacDonald moved into an end terrace home in Glasgow. (Terrace being the UK version of the US’ row house.) They renovated the home to be their own, which they lived in until 1916. They ended up selling the home in 1920, and it was demolished in the early 1960s. Thankfully, the contents of the home were saved and a facsimile of the home was crafted into a Brutalist building as part of the Hunterian Collection of the University of Glasgow.

This is why the exterior looks a little strange these days.

The front door is now raised above the walkway of people who pass in front of it. Entry to the home is from the museum and enters into the middle of the main ground floor hallway. I wonder if this was where the bathroom was, as that room seems to be significantly missing when touring the home.

The inside of the front entry door. That first step out is a doozy.

An element that I really like about this home is thinking about how he used the bones of the existing home to build out his own. Mackintosh developed his own unique take on the Art Nouveau form that shines through in his buildings. Usually when one thinks of Art Nouveau architecture, they picture ornate buildings covered in curved, organic forms. Mackintosh used these forms, but let them be moments within the overall form. For instance, in looking at the entry door the coat rack and wall lighting have a curved, organic shape to them. A significant design direction that Mackintosh utilized was looking to revitalize the Scottish baronial architectural form, or Scottish medieval architecture. Similar to the Victorian’s revitalization of timbering with an emphasis on black beams and white plaster, but Mackintosh developed a focus in square forms over triangles and the addition of those Art Nouveau flourishes I was talking about. (This Victorian style could also be referred to as Mock-Tudor or Tudor Revival, but as a personal thing I prefer to use the construction technique name over a name relating to British royalty. Especially when the US uses similar names outside the time period of that reign. It’s strange and confusing because there were a lot of different styles in the Victorian era. With the passing of Elizabeth II recently, should we rename all the architecture from the 1950s to the 2020s as Second Elizabethan ? It’s strange, right ? Tangent aside.) What is also helping drive Mackintosh’s designs is Japanese architecture. Since the US naval Admiral Perry opened the borders of Japan in the 1850s, Japanese influence was finding its way around the world, especially in the arts. (Of course, through a contemporary lens, do we view this as appropriation or appreciation ? Personally, I lean towards believing the latter, but that is a whole large conversation for another time.)

The initial view when entering the home.

As one enters the home it has that classic terrace home layout present : the staircase is to the end of the hall with the first door being a room to entertain guests. Since it was a home at the end of a terrace, they had access to light entering the home from three sides. Here we see the entry hall window filling the passage with natural light. Another design element of Mackintosh is perhaps less his own. Margaret Macdonald, his wife, was a prolific artist and would personally create many elements within the home. Here in the entry she created the mirror, but she would frequently create sculptural mixed-media (usually gesso and watercolor) murals and painted sheer curtains. (Seems like some great couple goals.) One of the tenants of the Art Nouveau Movement was the idea of rebelling against the industrial production machine through the use of artisan goods. Macdonald aided in this in her works with Mackintosh, but Mackintosh also enlisted the help of artisans from the Glasgow School of Art for creating things like the furniture that he would fill his spaces with.

The entry hall chair. I feel like it should be moved just a few inches to the right so that it is perfectly centered between the seam of the fabric on the wall and the wood framing the fabric.

Through the use of fabric panels on the walls and rectangular framing, it recalls the imagery of Japanese Shoji screens. Although these do not slide open to reveal more spaces. The framing also visually connects to medieval timbering and establishes human sizing within the space separating the walls into upper and lower.

Entering into the dining room, which is the first door upon entering the home.

The dining room is the most colorful of the rooms in the house. Here we see the classic Victorian bay window helping flood the room in natural light. The upper portion of the walls are left white, which reflects the light around the room, helping brighten the space of dark green and dark stained wood. Mackintosh was well-known for his tall-backed chairs such as these at his dining table. The negative space opening at the tops of the chairs are all crescents, except for the one circle that is thought to represent the head of the table.

Looking across the table. I’m a big fan of how the table’s stain showed the palimpsest of meal routines. And it was a perfect companion to the wall’s blackened wood components.

Looking across the table at the far wall, the stenciled motif of flowers upon a trellis stands out. The floral meets geometric meets layers of flat layers of color definitely feels like Mackintosh and Macdonald were looking at woodblock prints coming out of Japan. The subtle depth of the paint stenciled upon the wall had a pleasant texture. Whereas wallpaper has a sheen to it, this was flat with a texture not dissimilar to looking to have a texture of paper. (Look with one’s eyes and not fingers in such a space. Even if I was quite tempted to touch and explore.)

The dining room fireplace.

Looking at the fireplace, natural meets geometric. The overall form is angular with cubby shelves on the sides which provide a rectangular motif not dissimilar to the trellis painted on the walls. (I wonder what they filled into those cubbies when living in the home.) In the center, we have one of Mackintosh’s Art Nouveau sculptural shapes. In chatting with Mackintosh experts around Scotland these are frequently attributed to flowers or growing plants, but they always make sure to say that Mackintosh never specified in his notes what they were exactly. The columns that flank either side of the fireplace taper until they connect with a metal shelf. Sprouting out from them are metal stems of flower bulbs waiting to bloom that match the painted wall detail.

The buffet cabinet.

Opposite the fireplace is the dining room buffet cabinet. The exposed hardware of hinges and latches embraces the irregularity of artisan details with a medieval influence. Similar to the dining table, it also has a stain that shows the palimpsest of time. Scratches of use shine through and show that it, while being a piece of art, also is a functional piece of the room. (Or at least was before it became a museum. Time has been paused.) Looking carefully here we can also see a seam to the carpet. (One thing that I have definitely noticed in the UK is that they like their carpets. I’ll assume it has something to do with insulating and retaining heat.) This was in to reference Japanese interior design again and their use of Tatami Mats as floor covering. These mats are rectangular and create defined lines upon the floor when they are laid out so here we see Mackintosh choosing to not have the carpet spread fully across the floor as a singular piece, but to roll out in strips. (We also see the door opening towards the room and not the nearby wall with a stopper installed into the floor to prevent the door from striking the cabinet. I’ve still yet to figure out this design preference in the UK.)

This room has such a comforting array of natural colors.

And we’re walking.

A Victorian spiraling staircase to climb.

The drawingroom with a long window facing to the Southwest full of Scottish sunlight.

Up one floor we come upon the drawing room (or is it a salon or a studio ?). This L-shaped space is actually the combination of two rooms where the separating wall was removed. This side of the space was designed by Mackintosh for his wife to have a little desk and to enjoy the sunshine. The creamy ivory white of this room bounced that natural day lighting around the room, filling the double-height space with a feeling of openness. The off-white ivory color added a warmth to the white. Whereas I usually find white rooms anxious, this was relaxing. I can only imagine how lovely it would be sitting at that table in the morning to take one’s tea.

Detail of that little two-top.

Even though the wood is painted white there is a nice quality and texture to the natural materials used in the furniture. One also has to love those little painted Art Nouveau details on the fabric backs to the chairs. Green leafs and pink roses.

Margaret Macdonald’s desk.

Next to Margaret’s window is her desk. The stamped metal detail being her own artwork she added to the furniture. Mackintosh’s furniture design appears to enjoy employing lots of storage, but not putting it on display. The sides of the desk open out for storage, but closed up provide the form of heavy sides.

The beauty of a sitting chair.

The bay window facing the East.

Pivoting from Margaret’s desk we have an area for sitting. The openness of the space appears to use the collection of furniture to determine the usage of the parts of the space. This museum recreation of the building is just displaced across a pathway from where the house originally existed so the way sunlight fills the space is near exact for how Mackintosh reconfigured his home to react to it.

The bay window : a detail.

To capture that rising sunlight, but limit the daylight Mackintosh installed this wall dropping from the double height ceiling. Painted white it acts as a light well capturing and reflecting the light that hits it to bounce the light into the greater space in the superior indirect light. By harnessing indirect light there would be fewer problems with glare and would be superior artists working. Think about how artist studio spaces from before electric lighting would have large windows facing north where the sun wouldn’t cause glare. Sometimes if that rising morning light was still too excessive Mackintosh has installed these curtains to be drawn. The Victorians had a beautiful dance of layers of curtains with the sunlight of the day.

The living room fireplace.

Flat, rectangular, geometric form disrupted by a singular curve. Again, we can see some Japanese influence in the design here. Sitting on either side of the fireplace on cushions chatting over the crackle of a fire seems like a lovely romantic moment to design for. The recess of the fireplace using a grey seems like it would be a conscious attempt to address not having to clean soot from the fire as frequently. The Victorian world of coal fires would have made a white space a much more cleaning-intensive space.

Cabinets.

Flanking either side of the fireplace are these cabinets. White, flat, and sculptural when closed, when opened the inside of the doors are painted by Macdonald with reflective aluminum paint. The pink inlaid petals are made of pink glass painted white on the back so they have the shine of glass, but not the ability to shine through. This is a very common detail with Mackintosh. To catch the light and sparkle, but not to go dark when darkness is behind.

The form of the Victorian overstuffed chair meets Art Nouveau. To sit and read with these high sides would make for a lovely sensory deprivation to get lost in the world of the book one is reading. Those carved ends as well are just gorgeous. The hand of the artisan shines through.

The room changes but the space does not. (Or is it that the space changes, but the room does not ?)

To create the large open space that captures light from three sides Mackintosh removed a wall (or a few walls). This is the point where a major wall was removed. Probably structural we see that, like the bay window wall, it still exists above in the double height space. This is probably hiding a structural beam to keep the house standing. This point of change can be seen as a transition from Margaret’s side to Mackintosh’s side. A curtain is placed so that if they would like it could still have a physical barrier of separation, but one that still lets light and air flow. Mackintosh’s side is emphasized by books and bookcases on one side of the room and cabinets and more shelves on the other.

Cabinets and shelves.

The shelves look like they were designed with specific functions in mind. Mackintosh, being an architect, I would guess that these would have held blueprints and drawings of certain forms. I like how the cabinet doors have a motif of a growing plant with the glow of a full moon shining through. The unpainted glass taking on the darkness of the cabinet behind. Locked and shut I wonder what this stained glass looks like when opened and catches the light. Perhaps a new moon with a glowing sky.

Mackintosh’s office fireplace.

Before the era of centralized heat there were fireplaces in almost every room of a house. This fireplace is a different style that the others in the house where there is a higher and lower portion for a concentrated fire in the lower, smaller section. I’d be interested to know what the little metal shelves were used for. Perhaps something that they would like to keep warm from the fire. Fireplace irons, those decorative metal items that can be placed into a fireplace and appear to be used for holding the burning wood in place serve another function. They would collect and radiate the heat from the fire out from the fireplace and into the room. The wood on the floor establishes an area to be safely away from the fire. The Victorians would sometimes have these as raised railings that they could sit on to warm their backsides. Perhaps this is similar but with another sitting on the floor detail of Japanese inspiration. Above the fireplace is placed one of Margaret Macdonald’s Art Nouveau gesso paintings.

Mackintosh’s desk.

Not the same as what we would think of as a desk with our computers defining desk usage and design, this desk of Mackintosh instead consisted of slots to store books and files of papers. In the far back center of the desk is a metal stamped piece of art by Margaret. This end of the room faces towards the West and unlike the Eastern bay window this one opens up to the full double height of the space. In using passive solar design this would heat up the room in the late evening with the setting of the sun (that is if the neighboring buildings didn’t block too much of it).

Western window.

There is a privacy curtain at the lower level. This would work to protect the inhabitants from the eyes of those passing by, or neighboring homes nearby at a similar level. Mackintosh has again used his colored glass motif here to catch the light so when the sun passes by blue squares dances across the room and glow from the window.

And we’re walking. Climbing the stairs again to the second storey.

At the top of the rear stairs in the double height space is a sculptural artistic panel. It was a little complicated to photograph as all of it is white.

Entering the bedroom.

Turning around we have the entrance to the bedroom. (There’s a little staircase hiding behind the open door, but that part of the house wasn’t recreated by the museum so it becomes one of those optical illusion passages where when you start climbing the stairs the ceiling doesn’t get higher and you end up feeling like a giant who is too big to continue up.) I have noticed that Scottish architecture likes using glass panels embedded into doors to let light through. Usually these are opaque pieces of glass to only let light through and not peeking eyes, but not always as the room’s function usually determines. Mackintosh continues this theme, but in his own way throughout the house with his blue, heart-shaped, pieces of glass. In touring this home I overheard a comment by one of the other people touring that one can tell that Mackintosh and Macdonald never had children because everything in the home is so white. History paints a different picture of showing that while the couple didn’t have children of their own they frequently hosted nieces and nephews visiting their home. So, perhaps the larger question is, how did they keep their whites so white ?

Armoire.

Closets are a relatively new design feature. Usually rooms would just be rooms and it was the furniture that was places into them that would fulfill the needs of the people living in the home. The clothes hanger is also a relatively new invention originating in the late 1800s or early 1900s so the way we dealt with storing clothing was different. Here the Art Nouveau sculptural motifs work as handles to open and close the armoire (or is it armoires ? The top and bottom look like singular elements while the cabinet centers look like two distinct pieces. Matching his and hers nevertheless.)

The bedroom.

Here we see the bedroom of the couple. Their four poster bed, the nearby fireplace, and the full length mirror that with drawers looks to double as a vanity.

Bedroom fireplace.

The stone at the base of the fireplace would capture and retain the heat after the fire was extinguished and help keep the room warm. Above the fireplace is another stamped metal artwork by Margaret.

Art Nouveau poster bed.

Margaret would have made the printing on the valance curtains. Even though it is all painted white the details of the bed’s construction show that it is wood. The square joining and the lines of the panels express traditional furniture building techniques. The embedded pieces of colored glass would have caught the morning light while the couple slept in the morning.

Thus ends the tour of the home. The museum continues with utilizing what some of the spaces that would have been necessary for functioning in a home (but less interesting to a touring audience) as a place to blend the original home with the Brutalist museum it is growing out of. So, we sadly do not get to see how mackintosh would have designed his kitchen or bath, but we instead get a multistory museum exhibit to showcase collected pieces of the Mackintosh furniture, Margaret’s artwork, and photos of spaces lost to time.

Bonus :

A space lost to time, but the furniture was saved. A later Mackintosh-designed bedroom. Progressing with his style the Art Nouveau grew into a unique proto-Art Deco style. This was tucked away in the upper-museum attachment of the home.

Thank you for reading. À la prochaine !