Following Mackintosh
Competition to decide who builds the new Glasgow School of Art building may have thinned out but it's no less intense.
Seven firms were shortlisted today - among them, the Glasgow-based practice Elder and Cannon, the Irish company Grafton Architects and Francisco Mangado Architects from Pamplona in Spain.
Their task? To build a new £50m student building for the expanded Glasgow School of Art campus - and no pressure, but it has to stand alongside Charles Rennie Mackintosh's iconic school.
Mackintosh of course famously won a competition to design that building.
He was not quite 30 and working for the Glasgow firm Honeyman and Keppie, so there's huge kudos in winning this commission which perhaps explains the phenomenal interest in the competition.
Nine thousand people expressed interest in the project by downloading the application form in the first instance.
The 153 companies who officially entered the competition gave a much fairer assessment of interest but the organisers say it is still "extraordinary and unprecedented".
With big hitters such as Lord Foster and Zaha Hadid allegedly interested, the only concern was whether the judges would be swayed by "starchitects".
But according to today's shortlist, they're not.
A good mixture of local and international, two of the seven have Glasgow partnerships, one is a completely Scottish operation.
The task now is to focus their final submissions for interviews with the judges, with the winner being announced in September and the new building up and running by 2013.
It will be interesting to see whether the winner - and the budget - allow the sort of design crossover that Mackintosh achieved in fusing arts and crafts and architecture inside and outside his building.and whether the new building is as fresh and iconic in a hundred years time as the Mac is today.
Not London’s South Bank, but the south bank of the River Clyde in Glasgow - every bit as lively in cultural terms as its namesake. I’m Pauline McLean, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Scotland’s arts correspondent, and I’ll be blogging here about arts events and issues happening across the country.
Comment number 1.
At 24th May 2009, crazyislander wrote:Well, as long as this new building actually does compliment and blend in with the original building. We don't need another mess like the Scottish Parliament Building which might have looked good on paper but turned out to be a mess that was nearly impossible to build and will with time, be more or less impossible to repair and maintain.
Macintosh's building whilst unique in style was underneath the ornate and stylish adornments a conventional building which sat quite well with Victorian and Edwardian Glasgow architecture.
Also, why isn't the competition limited to Scotland? In this present fiscal meltdown, our architects and builders need all the work they can get. After all, charity begins at home.
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Comment number 2.
At 25th May 2009, dunabib wrote:The idea of a new building is very exciting and the competition looks to be off to a good start but developments like this have to be considered in the context of other developments at GSA like the demise of the ceramics department and the cuts in full-time lecturing posts. The new building will have to function in the context of its purpose and this will be reliant on appropriate staff and activities.
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Comment number 3.
At 25th May 2009, newsjock wrote:Whatever happens this building must be designed by a UK, if not a Scottish firm.
I know that this bucks EU legislation, but look what happened at Holyrood - a monstrosity of a building, with no times scale, no cost control, designed by a money-no-object Spanish company with little thought to long-term maintenance.
Very good submissions were submitted by Scottish and British architects, one of which should have been adopted.
Part of our nationality is defined by our architecture, so buildings like the seat of our national parliament and this proposed extension to the Glasgow School of Art should showcase our artistic skills.
By all means consider proposals from other country's firms, but be sure to pick the worthy winner from our own shores.
Of course the EU may well question the ultimate choice, but let's just sit back and let them prove their case.
Shredders should help our position !
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