Charles Rennie Mackintosh found modernism from light and from the way he dealt with that light. He was the Glasgow architect who gained, if only after his death, something like folk-hero status in his native Scotland, in a way that no more than a handful of architects in the world have ever done. His delicately perfect drawings have made him a draughtsman's draughtsman, and his slightly austere exteriors epitomise Scottish buildings, but it is within those impenetrable walls that his real legacy is concealed. To venture inside a Mackintosh building is be met with brilliant light, often dazzling whiteness and the serendipity of tiny beguiling details. The main surprise, though, comes from his shocking modernism and the sheer disbelief that such spaces could have been designed so long ago.
Born in Glasgow in 1868, Mackintosh was at his most prolific as the nineteenth century faded into the grasp of the twentieth century, although a great deal of his work was never realised in his lifetime. The affection and reverence in which he is held is exemplified by the way his House for an Art Lover design was finally completed in a Glasgow park in 1996, funded by a local charitable trust of the same name. Designed by Mackintosh in 1901 for a German competition (and disqualified on a technicality) it was built to follow his designs as nearly as possible.
It is well known that Mackintosh was taken with Japanese design, and the connection to his work is easy to see. (See my blog about Japanese paper screens for Japanese rooms which could almost be Mackintosh's own work). Those screens and windows let the light into a world of dingy Victoriana, but then Mackintosh began to work with the light that those windows let in. He worked out that the lighter the walls then the lighter the room. He worked out that the lighter the ceiling and then the floor, carpeted outrageously in white, then the lighter still the space. His windows didn't just allow views, instead they selected and framed those views. Tiny pieces of stained glass coloured the light as it fell, magically, onto dazzling walls. Tiny holes carved in posts and mullions made bright pinpricks of light and selected tiny views. I think Mackintosh had decoded light and had discovered modernism.
It is well known that Mackintosh was taken with Japanese design, and the connection to his work is easy to see. (See my blog about Japanese paper screens for Japanese rooms which could almost be Mackintosh's own work). Those screens and windows let the light into a world of dingy Victoriana, but then Mackintosh began to work with the light that those windows let in. He worked out that the lighter the walls then the lighter the room. He worked out that the lighter the ceiling and then the floor, carpeted outrageously in white, then the lighter still the space. His windows didn't just allow views, instead they selected and framed those views. Tiny pieces of stained glass coloured the light as it fell, magically, onto dazzling walls. Tiny holes carved in posts and mullions made bright pinpricks of light and selected tiny views. I think Mackintosh had decoded light and had discovered modernism.
1 The Music Room, Charles Rennie Mackintosh's House for an Art Lover, Glasgow. Image by Jean-Pierre Dalbera. Detail from Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Willow Tea Rooms, Glasgow. Image by Brian Ledgard 3 Ceiling lights in the Dining Room, House for an Art Lover, Glasgow. Image by Jean-Pierre Dalbera. All images from Flickr under CC BY license.
