Here’s a really interesting transposition of Mackintosh’s design made for a 1903 Glasgow tearoom to an Andorran basilica by a Catalan architect in the 1970s.
The Meritxell Shrine is a basilica located in Andorra; it is the country’s most important religious site. It was rebuilt from 1974 to a design by Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill after the original shrine chapel was destroyed by fire in 1972.
Bofill’s design for the shrine’s sanctuary buildings is strongly geometric and monochromatic. The celebrant furniture suite selected is comprised of replicated pieces from Mackintosh’s design for The Willow Tearooms’ Order Desk chair. This throne-like piece featuring a complex lattice work back in the form of a stylised willow tree is possibly the most famous of all the furniture designs by Mackintosh. It has appeared in several movies and TV productions. Here two side stools have been produced by removing the backs from a chair and an intact chair provides the seating for the lead celebrant. The strong architectural character of these pieces suits Bofill’s design very well.
Interior detail: The Meritxell Shrine. Ricardo Bofill. 1974. Featured centre is a replica and variants of the Order Desk chair from The Willow Tearooms. Charles Rennie Mackintosh. 1904.
Ricardo Bofill was a big fan of Mackintosh and personally owned several reproductions of Mackintosh furniture pieces. They featured in his remarkable home La Fábrica, a converted cement factory near Barcelona. Interestingly one of Bofill’s pieces has links with Northampton. A dining table originally proposed by Mackintosh in 1918 for the country cottage of Northampton industrialist W.J. Bassett-Lowke is used at La Fábrica. The table design was rejected by Bassett-Lowke and was only manufactured for the first time by the Italian firm Cassina in the 1970s. Bofill’s dining table is accompanied by 8 replica chairs based on Mackintosh’s 1904 design for the Hill House desk chair. Completing the suite are two ‘domino’ tables designed in 1911 for the Chinese Room at Miss Cranston’s Ingram Street Tearooms. It is testament to Mackintosh’s design vocabulary that all of these pieces intended for three different client projects can work successfully together. That they look so at home in this repurposed industrial setting more than a century later is remarkable.
Interior detail: La Fabrica. Ricardo Bofill. 1974.
‘DS1’ table – Manufactured: Cassina c. 1972. Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh 1918. Image: Bonhams.
Mackintosh in Andorra
Here’s a really interesting transposition of Mackintosh’s design made for a 1903 Glasgow tearoom to an Andorran basilica by a Catalan architect in the 1970s.
The Meritxell Shrine is a basilica located in Andorra; it is the country’s most important religious site. It was rebuilt from 1974 to a design by Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill after the original shrine chapel was destroyed by fire in 1972.
Bofill’s design for the shrine’s sanctuary buildings is strongly geometric and monochromatic. The celebrant furniture suite selected is comprised of replicated pieces from Mackintosh’s design for The Willow Tearooms’ Order Desk chair. This throne-like piece featuring a complex lattice work back in the form of a stylised willow tree is possibly the most famous of all the furniture designs by Mackintosh. It has appeared in several movies and TV productions. Here two side stools have been produced by removing the backs from a chair and an intact chair provides the seating for the lead celebrant. The strong architectural character of these pieces suits Bofill’s design very well.
Interior detail: The Meritxell Shrine. Ricardo Bofill. 1974.
Featured centre is a replica and variants of the Order Desk chair from The Willow Tearooms. Charles Rennie Mackintosh. 1904.
Ricardo Bofill was a big fan of Mackintosh and personally owned several reproductions of Mackintosh furniture pieces. They featured in his remarkable home La Fábrica, a converted cement factory near Barcelona. Interestingly one of Bofill’s pieces has links with Northampton. A dining table originally proposed by Mackintosh in 1918 for the country cottage of Northampton industrialist W.J. Bassett-Lowke is used at La Fábrica. The table design was rejected by Bassett-Lowke and was only manufactured for the first time by the Italian firm Cassina in the 1970s. Bofill’s dining table is accompanied by 8 replica chairs based on Mackintosh’s 1904 design for the Hill House desk chair. Completing the suite are two ‘domino’ tables designed in 1911 for the Chinese Room at Miss Cranston’s Ingram Street Tearooms. It is testament to Mackintosh’s design vocabulary that all of these pieces intended for three different client projects can work successfully together. That they look so at home in this repurposed industrial setting more than a century later is remarkable.
Interior detail: La Fabrica. Ricardo Bofill. 1974.
‘DS1’ table – Manufactured: Cassina c. 1972. Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh 1918. Image: Bonhams.