AN international competition has been launched to celebrate Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Entries are being sought for contemporary re-imaginings the Scottish architect’s Ideal House for an artist couple.

Based on two hypothetical “ideal” homes for artists, envisaged by Mackintosh around 1900, the competition is looking for designs for a contemporary pair of houses that explore variations on a theme.

The Twin Dwellings of Singular Interest competition is being organised by the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society in the wake of Mackintosh’s 150th anniversary last year.

The Society wants entrants to research Mackintosh’s domestic designs as well as his work generally and submit designs reflecting the needs of modern contemporary life.

Director Stuart Robertson said the Society had been planning the competition for some time and had started thinking about it before the second “catastrophic” fire that destroyed the Mackintosh Building at the Glasgow School of Art last year.

“The competition is such a great opportunity for students and practitioners to explore and develop their own beliefs and architectural convictions, in a similar manner to that of Charles Rennie Mackintosh,” he said. “I cannot wait to see the various entries.

“Mackintosh was only 21 when he created the concept drawings for an Artist’s Cottage and Studio and an Artist’s Town House and Studio.

“The drawings give almost no idea of setting, and both designs were probably ‘ideal’ schemes, not intended to be built.”

Roberston added: “Mackintosh’s design philosophy was solidly rooted in Scottish tradition; he disregarded the architecture of Greece and Rome as unsympathetic to the needs of Scotland.

All competition entries and forms must be submitted to the Society by November 8 this year.