A New School of Architecture and Library_Mackintosh School of Art_Glasgow, Scotland

This project was team Illinois’ entry for the Mackintosh Centenary International Student Competition, in which I was one of three invited.  This competition was a three day design charette for a new school of architecture and library designed with the current design school (completed by Mackintosh) in mind.  Our team was the only team invited from the United States, and was comprised of two other students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and two students from Mackintosh.

Our master plan and building designs are based on a core/edge relationship. In the architecture building, the core, spatially defined by a thin folding mesh, is a vertical void that originates in the steep slope of the site.  In the library, the books are the core.

 

Studio levels take form of open floor plans. The permeable screens softly filters exterior views to create a more tranquil work environment. Through this screen, the students can easily view the interior of the library across Renfrew street. The activities inside of the library will be visible through the layers of facade screening, reading room boxes and book shelves. On the other hand, the students working in the architecture building becomes a scene for occupants at the library.

The new buildings take the alignment of the existing buildings (The Glasgow School of Art main building, Assembly, and CCA) redefining the corner of the Renfrew Street and Scott Street, as the point of convergence for the entire art school.

 

 There is a link between the studio levels to the north to the social spaces, crit rooms, and faculty offices to the south is provided by means of stairs that weave along the core. The studio spaces float above this void on the north side of the site, echoing the position and vertical dimension of the studio spaces in the current School of Architecture designed by Mackintosh.

 

In the library, the reading and the support spaces both embrace it and become light-filtering elements, while a central light well illuminates the stacks of books in the center.

 

 

Light study

Interior Perspective of Central Circulation Space in the Architecture Building

Transverse Building Sections Displaying Central Circulation and Main Spaces

View of the Exterior of the Library from the Studio Spaces

KNHStudio