Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Hill House, located to the northwest of Scotland's largest city, Glasgow, has been described as “dissolving like an aspirin,” with much of the blame being attributed to the unconventional use of portland cement as a roughcast jacket over the structure. This webinar will cover the history of the various attempts to “solve” the water damage that materials, its unconventional design, and the impact of our changing climate have exerted on the House and how we are planning for its future resilience. The House has been temporarily protected and the process of deterioration slowed down by the cover provided by the so called “Big Box” since 2019, but this itself must be dismantled by the end of 2028. The National Trust for Scotland are therefore on a deadline to develop a roughcast that will for the first time in its 120-year history both encapsulate Mackintosh's aesthetic and sculptural vision AND protect the House from its previous relentless decline.

Presenter Liz Davidson is Project Director of Mackintosh Illuminated, the National Trust for Scotland's foremost capital initiative that seeks to widen and deepen appreciation of the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his artist partner Margaret Macdonald. In addition to new exploration into their lives and work and those of their extraordinary patrons, Mackintosh Illuminated will involve the comprehensive repair and restoration of his finest domestic commission: the Hill House.

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