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DESIGNED 1901, OPENED 1996

House for an Art Lover has a fascinating history which defines the pioneering creativity of its designer and the ambition and ingenuity of a group of dedicated artists and engineers who worked to complete his vision more than 70 years later.

In 1901 Mackintosh, Glasgow’s most famous architect, entered a competition to design a “Haus Eines Kunstfreundes” or “Art Lovers House” set by German design magazine “Zeitschrift Fur Innendekoration”.

The rules of the competition stated that only “genuinely original modern designs will be considered”. It went on to make the somewhat unusual proposition that ‘it is permissible and even desirable that an Architect and a Decorative Artist of modern tastes develop and submit the design jointly’, a situation which more than suited Mackintosh who worked on the project with his new wife, Margaret Macdonald.

The rules were comprehensive and included a specification of client requirements such as room sizes, position of staircases, external finishes and a maximum cost. Within these practical constraints, Mackintosh and Macdonald were able to exercise considerable freedom of design expression.

In the end, although Mackintosh was lauded for his competition design, his entry was disqualified on the grounds of a technical breach of the rules as he was late in submitting certain interior views of the house. The judges, however, were impressed by Mackintosh’s entry commending it for its distinctive colouring, impressive design and cohesiveness of inner and outer construction.

For more than 80 years Mackintosh’s concept remained merely that, an unrealised design on paper, until, in 1989, Graham Roxburgh, the Consulting Engineer responsible for restoring Mackintosh interiors in nearby Craigie Hall, had the idea to finally build the House for an Art Lover.

The drawings which Mackintosh produced, although very detailed for a competition entry, were not intended as technical plans from which an actual house would be built and the task of interpreting and turning them into reality was the challenge which faced Roxburgh’s team of architects, led by Professor Andy MacMillan, then Head of Architecture at Mackintosh’s world-renowned Glasgow School of Art.

Roxburgh’s dream finally became a reality in 1990 when the building exterior and much of the interior and craftwork were completed by his remarkable team of architects, designers, builders and craftsmen.

The degree of Doctor of the University was conferred on 6 November 2009 in recognition of Meta Ramsay's outstanding contribution to international affairs, national security and the political development of women.

Born and educated in Glasgow, Meta Ramsay was the first woman to be elected President of the University of Glasgow Students' Representative Council and President of the Scottish Union of Students. She served in the British Secret Intelligence Service - MI6 - for twenty-two years and a substantial part of her service took place in the Nordic countries close to the Soviet Union. She ended that period as SIS Head of Station in Helsinki. Baroness Ramsay later became Foreign Policy Adviser to John Smith and was made a Labour Peer in 1996, serving as a Government Whip from 1997 to 2001. She was the final Co-Chair with David Steel of the Scottish Constitutional Convention and helped take the Scotland Bill through the House of Lords. In the Lords, she specializes in Foreign Affairs, Europe, Defense, Intelligence, Women’s Affairs and Scotland.