|

Library interior, Glasgow School of Art
Architect: Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1907-1909)
Photograph: H. Snoek (1970)
Source: RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection

The best known interior of the School of Art is the library. It is also the most confusing. In photographs, like this, the room’s scale appears far greater than it actually is. Much relies on Mackintosh’s manipulation of space and light. The room, essentially square, appears to be far taller than its two storeys, and far wider: the ceilings melt into darkness; the walls recede back into gloom. And yet the library is functional: the study tables well-lit; this seems an ideal place to read and think.

Snoek’s wonderful photograph concentrates on the contrast between the dark timbers, deep shadows and the daylight streaming in from the upper balcony window. Strips of light illuminate the clustered lamp-shades. Half-ziggurat, half-skyscraper, these, like the table legs and balcony friezes, are delicately pierced. Most of the other furnishings and structural members, however, are surprisingly simple. Honest in construction, yet they still possess a certain elegance.

Here, Mackintosh is clearly playing with contemporary Arts and Crafts ideals. However, mature in his powers, his geometric games are intensely personal, the puzzling interior profoundly intense.