Climbing Great Buildings: Glasgow School of Art

Dr Jonathan Foyle, architectural historian and novice climber, scales Britain's most iconic structures to reveal their secrets and tells the story of how our architecture and construction have developed over the last 1,000 years. The next step of Jonathan's journey takes him to the Glasgow School of Art, built from 1897 by artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh. With unprecedented access, he looks at one of Britain's most controversial, challenging and celebrated buildings. Aided by top climber Lucy Creamer, Jonathan scales the school to reveal the myriad of influences, from medieval castles to Japanese heraldry, that Mackintosh used to create his modernist masterpiece. He explains how Mackintosh's building is modelled on a baronial castle, discovers how Mackintosh pokes fun at traditional architecture and investigates how nature and the Industrial Revolution combine in one of the greatests rooms in Europe - the Mackintosh Library