Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was an architect and designer whose style has become world famous.

Who was he?

Mackintosh was born in 1868 in Glasgow, He was one of eleven children.

Mackintosh worked as an architect designing buildings between 1895 and 1906.

He often worked with his wife Margaret MacDonald. Together they designed everything from furniture to lights and wallpaper for some buildings. They also worked on the interior design of Kate Cranston's Tea Rooms.

Mackintosh's designs made him very popular with Art Nouveau and Secessionist artists and designers in Vienna and Central Europe. It was not as popular in Scotland and he found it hard to get work.

Eventually he gave up design and architecture. He spent the rest of his life between England and the South of France.

He died in 1928 aged 60. He is now known as one of the most unique designers and architects in the world.

Mackintosh only worked as an architect for 10 years but his designs have become famous.

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Glasgow Herald Building
1895 - Mackintosh designed this tower as part of the Glasgow Herald building on Mitchell Street in Glasgow. It held a huge water tank that protected the building from fire. The building is now a visitor centre all about design. It is called The Lighthouse and has a permanent exhibition about Mackintosh.
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Mackintosh Queens Cross Church
1896 - Queens Cross Church in Maryhill is the only church designed by Mackintosh. The stained glass window is very recognisable as Mackintosh style with drooping flowers and the heart shape. There are similar shapes carved into the woodwork and stone.
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Glasgow School of Art
1896 - Mackintosh won a competition to design a new building for the Glasgow School of Art. The design was more expensive than planned, so it took a long time to pay for and build. Work started in 1897 but didn't finish until 1909. Mackintosh and his wife Margaret MacDonald worked on the interior design. Sadly, the building was badly damaged by fires in 2014 and 2018.
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Daily Record Building
1901 - The Daily Record Building sits between two narrow, dark lanes in Glasgow city centre. Mackintosh used strong colours and white shiny bricks to make the lane and the building lighter and brighter..
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1902 - Hill House in Helensburgh was built as a home for Scottish publisher, Walter Blackie. Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald designed wallpaper, furniture, lights and other fittings for every room. There are patterns based on roses, thistles and other plants.
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1903 - The Willow Tea Rooms was one of a number of cafés that Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald designed for a Glasgow businesswoman, Kate Cranston. It looks very different to the buildings around it, with its smooth, curved walls and unusual windows.
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1903 - Scotland Street School was Mackintosh's last big design in Glasgow. The building was designed to be very bright inside with many glass windows. The building is now a museum all about what schools were like in the past.
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1990 - Mackintosh designed House for an Art Lover for a German architecture competition in 1901. It was not until 1990 that his original drawings were followed to build it in Glasgow's Bellahouston Park.

Glasgow Style

When he was a student at Glasgow School of Art, Mackintosh made friends with James Herbert McNair and two sisters, Margaret and Frances MacDonald. They started working on designs together and developed the Glasgow Style. Later James and Frances got married, and so did Charles and Margaret.

The style features simple shapes like squares, circles, hearts and vertical lines. There are stylised natural forms like flowers, seeds and leaves. The Glasgow Style was influenced by Art Nouveau design from Europe, traditional Celtic designs and Japanese art.

The most famous Glasgow Style designs were the interiors that Charles and Margaret worked together on for some of the buildings he designed and for Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms.