GLASGOW School of Art’s Mackintosh building can be rebuilt, according to at least one expert ... but an insurance specialist has warned the next few days will be key to its future.
Professor Miles Glendinning, director of the Scottish Centre for Conservation Studies at Edinburgh College of Art, says the “devastating” fire does not necessarily mean the site is lost for good.
He told The National yesterday that the landmark, world-renowned building draw is more than just bricks and mortar, pointing to damage inflicted on post-war Germany to prove the case.
Glendinning said: “For something like Glasgow School of Art, the value is in its design and fittings, and also the cult of Mackintosh. It’s about his ideas.
“The core value doesn’t depend on the fabric of the building, it’s all about the form.
‘‘It doesn’t matter ultimately if the whole building has to be replaced – and I don’t think it will be – it will still be the Mack after that.”
He went on: “If you look at Germany, during the war very often buildings were burned out multiple times.
“People would be astonished at the number of venerated historic buildings that don’t show any signs of being gutted by fire.
“Look at the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche in Dresden. That took 10 years, but it happened and this will happen too.”
Glendinning argues that the key is the 3D digital modelling of the entire structure that was carried out after the 2014 blaze in the west wing.
The latest incident is thought to have begun in the eastern part, which has suffered the most damage, and Glendinning says it is a “miracle” that its specifications were recorded in the 3D scheme.
He said: “People say they are worse off than they were after the 2014 fire but in a way that’s not true. Because of the digital map, they have a level of detail that they didn’t have before, so they are better off.”
On funding any future works, he went on: “It’s going to be a long process. They will be able to press the reload button. It will in many ways be a rerun of what they were already doing.”
But other experts were less optimistic. Billy Hare, deputy director of The Beam Research Centre at Glasgow Caledonian University, said there was a “growing consensus” the building may have to be pulled down.
Hare warned that it could be structurally unsound, and compared the intensity of the blaze with a fire that started in the roof of a building housing Victoria’s nightclub in nearby Sauchiehall Street in March.
Glasgow City Council confirmed it would demolish that building within days of that fire.
He said: ‘‘At that stage, the decision was taken fairly quickly to demolish that building.
“However, the Mack being such a globally recognised building of significance, this would probably have a bit more deliberation before they come to that decision.
“But the consensus is beginning to grow over the last 24 hours that that might very well be the case.”
Hare estimated that rebuild costs would be at least £100 million.
A specialist who did not want to be named told The National that all of the insurance firms involved would be asking serious questions as they try to gauge who should pay out, and how much.
He said: “The next few days are key for any insurance company. Everyone’s keeping quiet until the fire brigade can give us an indication of how the fire started.
“If you are a joiner or an electrician or a brickie working there, they’ll all be holding their breath hoping it points to one of the other people, not them.
“Everyone will have to be held accountable. When you look at the terms of any insurance contract, there are terms that have to be met. Inevitably one of those will be security of some description.
“There will be questions about that – whose liability, which insurer and is there enough to cover what will be in the tens of millions?
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