Bringing Back the Mack
PhD Scholarship 2016-2020
Funded by Glasgow School of Art and Historic Environment Scotland
In 2016, I was the grateful recipient of the 'Bringing Back the Mack' PhD Scholarship, funded by Historic Environment Scotland and the Glasgow School of Art and supervised by Dr Robyne Calvert and Dr Ewan Hyslop. I was tasked with providing a critical analysis of the fire and subsequent restoration project. Over the next four years, I attended Design Team Meetings, explored the Mack, and recorded the restoration process. It was an incredible experience. After the devastating fire of 2018, I aided in the post-fire salvage of the building and in 2020 successfully defended my thesis. At present, the Mack sits shrouded in scaffolding, looming over Renfrew Street and its neighbouring GSA buildings, waiting for the next chapter in its history to begin. I do not know what the next chapter of this building’s story will contain, but I do know for certain that it can be re-created.
I am thrilled to say that my research on the restoration of Glasgow School of Art's Mackintosh Building is referenced in 'The Mack: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow School of Art ', published by Yale University Press and written by Dr Robyne Calvert, my PhD Supervisor and friend. 'The Mack' was published on 23rd April 2024 and is available from all good bookshops.
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Below is the abstract from my Doctoral Thesis, entitled In Case of Emergency: what do the 2014 and 2018 fires in the Mackintosh Building tell us about how we manage our built heritage?
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Since 2014, the Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh Building has suffered two fires; the first affected the West Side of the Building, destroying the Library, and the second fire in 2018 gutted the Building, transforming it into a roofless consolidated ruin shrouded in scaffolding. These fires are examples of calamities that could befall any of our traditional or historic buildings. Despite the shock of this happening twice, they were not exceptional events, and are indicative of a much wider problem: the way we currently manage our built heritage. Through studying the cause of the 2014 fire, the decision to restore, the fire of 2018 during that restoration, and the subsequent salvage operation, this thesis discusses the story of the Mackintosh Building as a cautionary tale. From this analysis, we can learn crucial lessons from these events about; not only how to best manage and maintain our built heritage, but also how to prepare for future disasters and emergencies.
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