A German magazine, specializing in Architecture, held a contest in or about 19oo. Designers were asked to create a house for lovers of art. Charles Rennie MacIntosh, a son of Glasgow, submitted a design he had done in collaboration with his new wife. MacIntosh was disqualified because he had failed to submit all required drawings. Later, in the 1980's, when a fan saw the plans, he decided that they were too good not to build. With the help of his step daughter, he found a site and built the House for Art Lovers in Bellahouston Park.
The house was never a home, but was used as a centre for art study and a meeting facility. It is open to the pu
blic and Shush and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit. It is set beside a wonderful brick walled garden which the city crew maintain as a sanctuary with benches. The house itself is the art. Working from the MacIntosh drawings, and usin
g a degree of artistic licence to fill in details that were not obvious, the team of craftspeople and artists have brought the drawings to life.The house h
as a semibasement where a kitchen would have been and now houses the cafe and gift shop. The first floor has an entry foyer which is small and dark on purpose to increase the impact of the large bright greeting hall with ceilings rising two stories. Off this hall is a dining room and the music room. This room is the star of the show with one wall of glass leading out to a terrace. It is done in cream and pale greens and pinks. A large cream coloured piano dominates one end of the room and a fireplace at the other. An oval ladies room was nextdoor and then a gentlemen's room across the hall.
The top floor is reached by a wonderful staircase with a curved window looking over the gardens. A suspended open passage looks down on the greeting hall. It is decorated with the unique lighting fixtures and
stained glass that mark a MacIntosh designed house.We enjoyed our visit and found that, as always, we came away wishing we had the money to go home and do things like that with our house.
Sounds like fun and games but the question remains: what happened to CR MacIntosh's OLD wife? K
ReplyDeleteIt looks like just the sort of thing you must do in High River, I think your little place could take it. Of course it will cost so $$$$$$
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