Where else to start when examining Glasgow’s design heritage than the Mackintosh Building? Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s fire-stricken 1909 masterpiece is regarded as one of the most important works of early 20th-century architecture, uniting references to Scottish vernacular with the clean lines and craftsmanship that signalled a new modern sensibility.

Seen as marking a pivotal moment in the shift from late 19th-century art nouveau to 20th-century modernism, it has long stood as an emblem of the city’s progressive design culture.

But the Glasgow School of Art building, with work on-going towards delivering a full restoration by 2030, is also the product of a lost age when Glasgow was the “second city” of the British Empire, one of the largest cities in Europe and the shipbuilding capital of the world. 

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