GSA Launches International Search For Architects To Redevelop Its Estate

The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) has launched an international competition to select the

team who will design a major new building opposite the iconic Mackintosh Building in Garnethill.

Glasgow as Phase 1 of the School's estate redevelopment plans supported by the Scottish Funding Council.

The competition will be managed on behalf of The Glasgow School of Art by Malcolm Reading

Consultants, with a judging panel, chaired by international architect David Mackay of MBM Arquitectes, Barcelona, making the final selection of the architect led team who will work with the GSA to agree the campus master plan and design and deliver the Phase 1 building.

With the Phase 1 building set to open in 2013, and Phase 2 planned to follow soon after, the complete redevelopment of the School’s estate will transform the current incoherent and inefficient scatter of buildings across Garnethill which are no longer fit for purpose, into a coherent urban campus providing world-class teaching and research facilities and space for growth.


When complete, the new estate will reinforce the GSA's position as one of Europe's leading art, design and architecture schools, supporting the creative entrepreneurs of tomorrow and ensuring that Glasgow maintains its position as one of Europe's most creative cities.

With the highest design and sustainability values, the new Phase 1 building will be an important development in one of Glasgow's most interesting and diverse conservation areas significantly enhancing the setting for the Grade A listed Mackintosh Building opposite.

Capital costs for the estate redevelopment will be funded by a combination of SFC funding, School cash balances, land sales, borrowing and philanthropic sources. The Scottish Funding Council has committed up to £50m towards the Phase 1 building with a commitment to discuss and agree with the School a funding package for future phases.

The Chair of the competition judging panel David Mackay said: "Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art Building is a mine for discovering the discipline of architecture and one leaves the Building challenged and motivated to reach the same coherence achieved by this architect, when he was only 30 years old.

"That is what this competition is about: open to all, from the thirty year olds to those, like Loius Khan, who emerged later in life, over sixty and still learning.

"To find that architect or team of architects will not be an easy task, but the jury will be looking for the intelligent capacity and sensitive dexterity of the applicants to translate, not copy, those pioneers of modern architecture, within the historic context of Glasgow."

(GK/JM)