The work of Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh belongs to the early modernity period during 19th century, along with that of the Vienna Secession's Adolf Loos, the Art Nouveau's Victor Horta or the Modernism's Antoni Gaudí. Though Mackintosh built few projects during his career, the that have survived have continued to be of great importance for modern architectural history.
Hill House, residence built for publisher Walter Blackie in 1902, in the hills of Helensburgh, Scotland, is among the most significant. Designed by Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, the home rises from the landscape. It contrasts a roughcast concrete exterior with a highly decorative interior.
The house is located in Helensburgh, west of Glasgow, facing out over the River Clyde estuary. This, coupled with the experimental approach to construction, led to the building suffering extensive water damage.. The 115 year old home has been a popular tourist destination for years, though it had long been in serious need of preservation. The wet weather of Northern Scotland has been increasingly challenging for the Portland cement exterior, and calls for preservation proposals were made in 2017.
The metal mesh is designed to halt the decay of the building's aging materials while the metal structure overhead allows for protection against the rain. Altogether, the site now features two architecturally significant sites: the historic home and the scaffolding that protects it.
Carmody Groarke provided a brilliant strategy for allowing the home to heal while also allowing the public to enjoy it through novel mean.
Description of project by Carmody Groarke
The Hill House Box
The Hill House is one of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s most significant works, one of Scotland most acclaimed buildings, and a seminal part of early 20th century European architecture. Built in 1902 for the publisher Walter Blackie and his young family, it is sited in Helensburgh, 30km west of Glasgow, and commands panoramic views south over the River Clyde estuary.
Machintosh’s domestic masterpiece sits like a 20th-century Scottish tower house, with its roughcast walls, slate roof, asymmetrical disposition of windows, picturesque roofline, and lack of historic ornament. The house proposed a radical layout and three-dimensional spatial progression, and although the architecture was embedded in the picturesque tradition of Scottish Baronial, Mackintosh was also clearly influenced by the contemporary technological advances of Modernism happening elsewhere in Europe. This unusual hybridisation of tradition and invention in the construction of the building has led to some fundamental long-term problems of prolonged water damage that require a major conservation project to help the house survive.
Rather than incarcerate the house away from view whilst the restoration is undertaken, a more radical approach to active conservation has been taken. As an integral part of this process of conservation, which it is thought will take up to 15 years, the project proposes a ‘big-box’ temporary museum to contain and protect the Hill House as an ‘artefact’, whilst also maintaining access to the house for visitors.
The new museum’s architectural identity will be a huge, abstracted garden pavilion whose walls are covered entirely with a stainless-steel chain-mail mesh. This semi-permanent enclosure provides a basic ‘drying-room’ shelter to the original house whilst its rain-soaked existing construction is slowly repaired. This delicate enclosure also allows uninterrupted views, night-and-day, to-and-from the landscape to Mackintosh’s architectural icon. The cross-braced steel frame is designed to be grounded with minimum impact on the existing terraced-garden landscape.
Within this safe, sheltered construction working territory, the “museum” will provide a remarkable public visitor experience of the conservation in progress, achieved by an elevated walkway which loops around and over the Hill House at high level. The museum’s enclosure will also contain visitor facilities in a timber standalone building.
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La caja de la casa de la colina
The Hill House es una de las obras más importantes de Charles Rennie Mackintosh, uno de los edificios más aclamados de Escocia y una parte fundamental de la arquitectura europea de principios del siglo XX. Construido en 1902 para el editor Walter Blackie y su joven familia, está ubicado en Helensburgh, a 30 km al oeste de Glasgow, y ofrece vistas panorámicas al sur sobre el estuario del río Clyde.
La obra maestra doméstica de Machintosh se asemeja a una torre de estilo escocés del siglo XX, con sus paredes encajonadas, techo de pizarra, disposición asimétrica de ventanas, techo pintoresco y falta de adornos históricos. La casa propuso un diseño radical y una progresión espacial tridimensional, y aunque la arquitectura estaba incrustada en la pintoresca tradición de Scottish Baronial, Mackintosh también estaba claramente influenciada por los avances tecnológicos contemporáneos del Modernismo que se producen en otras partes de Europa. Esta hibridación inusual de tradición e invención en la construcción del edificio ha dado lugar a algunos problemas fundamentales a largo plazo de daños prolongados por el agua que requieren un proyecto de conservación importante para ayudar a la casa a sobrevivir.
En lugar de encarcelar la casa lejos de la vista mientras se realiza la restauración, se ha adoptado un enfoque más radical para la conservación activa. Como parte integral de este proceso de conservación, que se cree que tomará hasta 15 años, el proyecto propone un museo temporal de "caja grande" para contener y proteger la Casa de la Colina como un "artefacto", al tiempo que mantiene el acceso a La casa para los visitantes.
La identidad arquitectónica del nuevo museo será un pabellón de jardín enorme y abstracto cuyas paredes están completamente cubiertas con una malla de acero inoxidable. Este recinto semipermanente proporciona un refugio básico de "sala de secado" a la casa original, mientras que su construcción existente empapada de lluvia se repara lentamente. Este delicado recinto también permite vistas ininterrumpidas, de día y de noche, desde y hacia el paisaje hasta el icono arquitectónico de Mackintosh. El marco de acero reforzado está diseñado para ser conectado a tierra con un impacto mínimo en el paisaje de jardín en terrazas existente.
Dentro de este territorio de trabajo de construcción seguro y protegido, el "museo" brindará a los visitantes una experiencia de conservación del progreso en curso, lograda por una pasarela elevada que recorre la Casa Hill en alto nivel. El recinto del museo también contendrá instalaciones para visitantes en un edificio independiente de madera.
