The Royal Institute of British Architects has been reinventing itself of late: The esteemed organization has recently announced a newly elected president, a new website, and a new approach to exhibitions as it attempts to modernize and reaffirm its relevance to a fresh generation of millennial architects and students. Some things, though, need only be revisited to be appreciated anew, such is their class. The timeless designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh are one such example, and I visited the RIBA headquarters in London this week for a sneak preview of the much-anticipated exhibition of the Scottish master’s work. The huge wooden doors of the architecture gallery open up to an introductory room, comprising a large and complex timeline on one wall and a majestic oil portrait of Mackintosh on the other, the latter painted by Francis Newbery, headmaster of the Glasgow School of Art — the building widely regarded as the architect’s defining masterpiece. Moving through to the next space, I was greeted with a bounty of drawings from Mackintosh’s days working as a draughtsman at Glaswegian firm Honeyman and Keppie. These are primarily institutional and commercial projects realized in the 1890s, and display a subtle ...
The Royal Institute of British Architects has been reinventing itself of late: The esteemed organization has recently announced a newly elected president, a new website, and a new approach to exhibitions as it attempts to modernize and reaffirm its relevance to a fresh generation of millennial architects and students. Some things, though, need only be revisited to be appreciated anew, such is their class. The timeless designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh are one such example, and I visited the RIBA headquarters in London this week for a sneak preview of the much-anticipated exhibition of the Scottish master’s work. The huge wooden doors of the architecture gallery open up to an introductory room, comprising a large and complex timeline on one wall and a majestic oil portrait of Mackintosh on the other, the latter painted by Francis Newbery, headmaster of the Glasgow School of Art — the building widely regarded as the architect’s defining masterpiece. Moving through to the next space, I was greeted with a bounty of drawings from Mackintosh’s days working as a draughtsman at Glaswegian firm Honeyman and Keppie. These are primarily institutional and commercial projects realized in the 1890s, and display a subtle ...