Bloke on the radio said he was on the phone to someine in Barcelona and said it was probaby the most important building Scotland. Reply – no you’re wrong, it’s probaby the most important building in Europe.
Tucked out of the way in a back street. There are numerous buildings of far less merit in far more prominent positions.
Gutted.

Barcelona, home to Guadi, is outweighed by a Glasgow Arts and Crafts building.

Sorry, but I just can’t see that.

See Sagrada Familia

So sad watching it unfold, it’s been on our to do list for a while, looks like it’ll remain there for another decade+ at least.

How common is it for architects to design all the fittings etc too? I know Frank Lloyd Wright did.

GSA’s Mackintosh building was designed for artists to study and work in. It went beyond being brilliantly functional to being inspiring. It’s always had a well worn in feeling. It’s so awful to see this.

Barcelona, home to Guadi, is outweighed by a Glasgow Arts and Crafts building.

Sorry, but I just can’t see that.

See Sagrada Familia

Blurty believe it. The asymmetry, the way exterior was subservient to the needs of the interior, use of glass and light, reduction of decoration. Revolutionary and forms a link to skyscraper building in North America and early modernism. [/pretentious]

As well as, as has been pointed out CRM didn’t just design the building, he designed everything, from the exterior to the door handles, all in a building designed for everyday use.

Very sad to see such a wonderful building in flames. Just read that the Library has been destroyed which is an worldwide architectural loss

Really really bad for the students as a lot will have had their degree show work destroyed before their final exams or their final year show,. You can’t just re-sit the exam if the actual work has been destroyed, it all needs to be redone which is up to several years of work.

v. glad no one was hurt.

A statement from the fire brigade gives some hope:

“With the incident under control indications are the firefighters’ efforts have ensured more than 90% of the structure is viable and protected up to 70% of the contents – including many students’ work.”

http://news.stv.tv/west-central/276365-rennie-mackintosh-glasgow-school-of-art-on-fire/

Bloke on the radio said he was on the phone to someine in Barcelona and said it was probaby the most important building Scotland. Reply – no you’re wrong, it’s probaby the most important building in Europe

That’s just hyperbole, it might be an important building from an architectural (and arts) point of view, but it’s hardly that important in any other way.

muddy@rseguy – Member

Really really bad for the students as a lot will have had their degree show work destroyed before their final exams or their final year show,. You can’t just re-sit the exam if the actual work has been destroyed, it all needs to be redone which is up to several years of work.
These days, most (maybe all? Would be for us, don’t know about them) work will have been assessed and considered before the final show so while it’s still a huge loss for the students it hopefully won’t have such an impact on their courses. Still, losing the exposure and experience of the show, and the portfolio of work, is terrible.

it might be an important building from an architectural (and arts) point of view, but it’s hardly that important in any other way

..and how many other ways are there for a building to be important?

Thats well bad
but is art work
i dont think so

Ahh the irony of expressing your disregard for the arts in the form of a haiku. 😆

bencooper – Member
A statement from the fire brigade gives some hope:

“With the incident under control indications are the firefighters’ efforts have ensured more than 90% of the structure is viable and protected up to 70% of the contents – including many students’ work.”

http://news.stv.tv/west-central/276365-rennie-mackintosh-glasgow-school-of-art-on-fire/

Please let this be true

..and how many other ways are there for a building to be important?

Basically what it stands for, what’s happened in it, etc. Without leaving the UK there are loads of far more important buildings: the Houses of Parliament, No. 10, Canterbury Cathedral, etc. From a historical point of view the Glasgow School of Art is a non-entity.

I hope that’s true also.

Northwind – it’s exactly that. It’s not so much the qualification, it’s where you go from the degree show. I would guess that a lot of work is documented but it’s loss at such an important time is awful for those graduating.

Basically what it stands for, what’s happened in it, etc. Without leaving the UK there are loads of far more important buildings: the Houses of Parliament, No. 10, Canterbury Cathedral, etc. From a historical point of view the Glasgow School of Art is a non-entity.

Guff. I work in a large hospital – day in and day out the whole panolopoly of the human experience plays out, births, deaths, tragedy and hope. But it’s just a building where stuff happens. The historical context doesn’t make it important, just like watching a great movie in the cinema doesn’t make that cinema great.

Northwind – it’s exactly that. It’s not so much the qualification, it’s where you go from the degree show. I would guess that a lot of work is documented but it’s loss at such an important time is awful for those graduating.

Degree shows are so important in the lives of new graduates. It can in some cases be their first chance to shine. Many collectors and dealers make a point of attending. To be denied that opportunity must be devastating.

I’ve visited the GSA many times over the years. I loved the space. I particularly liked that it was conceived as a working space and not a pristine museum space. That care worn patina will be impossible to replicate in its restoration.

That’s just hyperbole, it might be an important building from an architectural (and arts) point of view, but it’s hardly that important in any other way.

Theres not much point in having a pissing contest unless its helping damp the flames. Arts schools can have an unusual place in peoples hearts, compared to other forms of study where you might have a class here, a lecture there as and when the timetable dictates at an art school you arrive and you pretty much move in. No timetable to speak of, theres a corner thats yours and for 3 or 4 years (unless you’re in the pub) you’re there.

Ms Maccruiskeens mum waited til she was in her mid 50s to go to GSA and even through she only lived 20 miles up the road she left home and moved into digs in Glasgow because that commute time was time she could be in college and that wasn’t time she was prepared to waste. 20 years later she still calls it her second home and has been going to the library there pretty much every week since she graduated.

When you’re applying to art school quite often you’re auditioning the building as much as course or the tutors

I went to Birmingham School of Art which is a building of pretty much the same vintage, if not quite the same architectural merit, built at the time when they were built properly in the place where they belonged – shoulder to shoulder with the Library, the Museum and the Town Hall. I went there for the same reason as people go to GSA – because its a purpose built tool that you pretty much get to live and work in. We used to hid in cupboards on friday nights to get locked in over the weekend, there was was a panel in the sculpture dept (if you were in the know) that led out and up through a hatch in the pavement outside, so once locked in we had our own route in and out.

In one sense GSA is special because it may well be as completely designed an Art School as has ever been built, it was built at a time when Art Schools were built properly and as has been so right from the outset that nothing about i has ever been changed, its more like a giant piece of furniture than a building and its doubtful anything so resolved would every be built for that purpose anywhere or any time again because the time to build something like that will probably never happen again. So in thats sense its remarkable, but the other reason its so revered is (because of the building or otherwise) GSA has an incredible retention rate for students, so the whole arts infrastructure in Glasgow is pretty much run by GSA graduates, for GSA graduates (with 0.005 GSA lectureships) all playing to an audience of GSA graduates. I think thats as much of a curse as it is a blessing (but thats probably only because I’m an outsider) but I can certainly appreciate how gut wrenching it is for those people to see it in flames.

mcmoonter – Member

That care worn patina will be impossible to replicate in its restoration.

Yup. But it can be recreated, with another 100 years.

My wife is a GSA graduate and we have been talking about what has happened today and she is very sad about the whole thing.

Fingers crossed that everything is okay (or will be okay given time).

My youngest, who is 6, seems to have inherited her Mum’s artistic gene and apparently said last night that she also wants to study there. I reassured her that things will be right as rain in 12 years time 🙂

Basically what it stands for, what’s happened in it, etc. Without leaving the UK there are loads of far more important buildings: the Houses of Parliament, No. 10, Canterbury Cathedral, etc. From a historical point of view the Glasgow School of Art is a non-entity.

The RIBA voted the GSA the best British building of the last 175 years – but they’re just architects, what do they know?

Given the significance of the building, its contents and its history, and the reverence being paid to it, is it too soon to question the level of fire protection, or lack thereof?

I guess there would have been no internal fire compartments, but modern sprinklers can be really low profile, and some systems can be designed with a view to protecting delicate contents (i.e. watermist systems).

Just thinking out loud, really surprised to see a fire spread from a basement to a roof so quickly…

That’s just hyperbole, it might be an important building from an architectural (and arts) point of view, but it’s hardly that important in any other way.

I find it hard to think of any other reason a building might be important, other than from some historical context, and the architectural and arts aspects are just as much historical as anything else.

Basically what it stands for, what’s happened in it, etc. Without leaving the UK there are loads of far more important buildings: the Houses of Parliament, No. 10, Canterbury Cathedral, etc. From a historical point of view the Glasgow School of Art is a non-entity.

Sweet Baby Jesus! It’s precisely the historical view that makes it important! The history of the building is inextricably entwined with its architectural and artistic merit, because of who designed it, and every tiny aspect of it and it’s contents!
I shouldn’t have to try to point this out, and neither should anybody else, it should be self-evident to anyone with an ounce of common sense.
No 10 is just an average terrace building in an unremarkable street in London, it has no particular merit; if it was destroyed, and rebuilt, no-one would notice the difference, because it’s been re-built and modified internally over the years. Houses of Parliament? Hmmm, maybe, people would miss the exterior. Canterbury Cathedral; that would be true of any cathedral in the country, or abbey, and plenty of those have been destroyed over the years, or rebuilt.
The thing with cathedrals, they’re not the singular vision of one particular man, from the foundation right through the the window frames and door hinges and handles; that’s what makes the GSA unique; most cathedrals took decades, sometimes a couple of centuries to build.
Look at the Sagrada Familia, it’s taken so long to build, and involved other architects, that it’s quite arguable that the building has diverged significantly from Gáudi’s original vision; you only have to look at the more recent additions to see that Gáudi’s soft, organic design is changing into a harder edged appearance, which, to my eyes, has spoiled a remarkable building.

I suspect mogrim is trolling as no one can possibly be so ignorant about the historical and architectural significance of the building as to say From a historical point of view the Glasgow School of Art is a non-entity.

If he is trolling then he’s an arse of the highest order, and if he is serious then he’s a c u n thursday and someone i wouldn’t choose to urinate on if he was on fire.

mogrim – Member
The Glasgow School of Art is a non-entity.

a bit harsh, while i do agree that the lovies lavish too much praise upon it. It is a pretty spectacular building and very significant. I mind getting took up to it when i was at school, I had no great appreciation of art, but I can still remember lots of details about it. I can’t say that about any other builing I’ve been in.

I must be something of an oddity. Visited it, been inside, been to gsa degree shows quite a few times but didn’t ever consider the building anything other than a building, never struck me as in any way spectacular. Shame for the students though, not just the loss of work but also the disruption.

On the positive side, the fire service are claiming to have rescued 90% of the structure and 70% of the contents. Bit baffling that such a supposedly iconic building didn’t have built in protection?

Was gutted to read about it, had been seriously hoping it was the new block across the road 🙁

Even as an electrical engineer, a philistine of the highest order, I’d rank GSA above the mock gothic of Westminster. And number 10? Put a black panelled door with a 10 on any of a thousand London terraces and I’d be pressed to spot the difference.
Politicians will come and go. You don’t get quite so many CRMs.

If donations are needed. Im in. 🙁

Could have cried.

Strange how the fire spread so fast, no compartmentalisaion of the staircases and service ducts,but so lucky so many people got out without injury.

so lucky so many people got out without injury.

It’s an art school – most of them were probably in the pub 😉

Plus it was lunchtime. Early rise for students

Wouldn’t usually bother reliving a dead thread, but I can’t really let this kind of gratuitous insult pass without commment:

somafunk – Member
I suspect mogrim is trolling as no one can possibly be so ignorant about the historical and architectural significance of the building as to say From a historical point of view the Glasgow School of Art is a non-entity.

If he is trolling then he’s an arse of the highest order, and if he is serious then he’s a c u n thursday and someone i wouldn’t choose to urinate on if he was on fire.

Not trolling, and that’s a complete overreaction – my opinion (and it’s obviously an opinion) is that, other than architecturally, the Glasgow School of Arts is historically not that important. That doesn’t mean I wanted to see it burn down, or that I feel anything other than pity for the people who have studied there and love the building, but equally I’m not sure why holding this opinion should make me a c u n thursday and someone [you] wouldn’t choose to urinate on if he was on fire.

Pics from inside showing fire damage 🙁

I get the iporatnce of what went on there and the significance of th building (to a greater or lesser extent).

But I’m hating the politicians jumping on the bandwagon and why is the publc purse paying £5million?

why is the U.K publc purse paying £5million?

FTFY

Can’t they wait until devolution? Then it’s their problem and the oil can pay for it.

I lost all my first year photography degree work in a fire at The Polytechnic of Central London Riding House Street building in 1985. It would have been a small price to pay if that particular architectural gem had been razed to the ground but it was only our work that was lost.

Thanks for that MrSmith. I am a “they”. The statement didn’t need fixing. Thanks for your insightful input though, it has really added to the discussion and debate. Nice to see a bit of UKIP rhetoric about those foreign jonnies.

Can’t they wait until devolution? Then it’s their problem and the oil can pay for it.

It’s coming from the Scottish Government, troll. Keep up.

why is the publc purse paying £5million?

Because of the historic, cultural and professional importance to Scotland?

other than architecturally, the Glasgow School of Arts is historically not that important

In what other ways do you think buildings can be important? Do you apply this kind of logic to other kinds of art?

It might help you to think of this building as a 3D equivalent of a Picasso or Rembrandt – if one of those was damaged, you’d be all for restoring it, right? The UK government recently contributed to £50m for a Titian – and that didn’t catch fire, it was only being bought by an American.