The Mack Project
May, 2017
Digital Placemaking, Service Design, UX Design
The Mack Project is a digital service that allows former students, employees and enthusiasts of the Mack to reconnect with the building and with each other remotely.
It’s a base of memories that could be positioned physically within a model of the building, allowing exploration of former events in a geographical context and giving an option to find connections between them, reuniting with those who you lost touch with.
It allows remote participation in the experience which is the Mack, and contribution to its living history and to the celebration of the opening.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh completed the first part of the building in 1899 and the second half in 1909: it’s been later described as one the first examples of Modern Architecture in Europe and a great inspiration for the developing of the Modern movement. The Mackintosh building has been a thriving and lively hub for creatives from all over the world, that studied many art disciplines at The Glasgow School of Art, and informed the city’s creative scenario.
In 2014 a fire sparked from the west wing of the building and although a major part of the building has been saved, a reconstruction project is running to reopen the school in 2019.
In 2014 a fire sparked from the west wing of the building and although a major part of the building has been saved, a reconstruction project is running to reopen the school in 2019.
The fire has enforced the attachment between the building and architecture enthusiasts from all over the world, students and alumni. Donations and auctions earnings arrived from all over the world, alumni devolved their own artworks and many interesting projects dealing with the tragedy have been produced and sold for the cause.
This informed our main insight, looking at the Mack as a Living Building. Many ex-students I interviewed told me that the building had an active role in their education, as an hub for creativity and a constant source of wonder. Now these creatives are returning the favour, donating their work to the school.
The Mack Project allows these community to reunite and contribute to the re-birth of the Mack, by celebrating their bond with the building.
This website is a collectively created database of memories, that visitors will leave inside.
Each of them has the opportunity to leave their memories registered in this database, contributing to form a collective representation of what the relationship between the Mack and its community in been in the past, as well as how it may change in the future.
Memories are geographically arranged within the space according to the place they happened in the past. The visitor can enter the building in this free-moving 3D visualization, and navigate the rooms and memories, or leave his own.