I arrived in Glasgow quite late, so I could only visit the School of Art commissioned in 1896 to Charles Rennie MackIntosh and built in two phases 1897-99 and 1907-09 for the usual funding problems (well, this time was MackIntosh fault).
There is a great difference in the two parts of the building, luminous and refined the first, dark and basic the second. Great use of wood in the first, iron, steel and concrete in the second. As I learn from the description, this is a Free Style building. There is a great use of symbols: shapes and colours look numerically coded. Unfortunately, given that he did not write much about his work, they are undeciphered.
The rose was a leitmotif of the production of MackIntosh. It looks like his wife, Margareth Macdonald, used it to represent a womb, in the Hearth of the Rose. So while a rose window is the interface between the space of God and the space of men, the rose of MackIntosh may represet the interface between inner and outer world of human beings. Where the inner world is the psyche and its symbols, which would reflect the cultural ideas of that time.
Well, this is my opinion, if you appreciate it, please let me know, if you don't, please be respectful as I am.
