Why were students being taught inside art school during rebuild?

Students were being taught inside the Glasgow School of Art months before a second devastating fire at the iconic building.

Despite restoration work being carried out on the Charles Rennie Mackintosh building at the time, students still visited the building as part of their studies.

It was described by one lecturer as part of an “in-depth educational experience” for art students.

Photographs on social media show students inside the building in November 2017, just seven months before the second fire, while restoration work was still being carried out.

Architect Gordon Gibb, director of professional studies at the GSA’S architecture department, said the grade-A listed building would have been in a “vulnerable and dangerous” condition at the time of the visit.

Mr Gibb, who has criticised the art school board’s management of the building said: “It is clear to me that the GSA regarded the use of the building, with some restriction, to be akin to ‘business as usual’, with the construction site seen as an attractive resource, rather than a dangerous, vulnerable enclosure that needed to be respected and avoided.”

The building, known as the Mack, was heavily damaged by fire in 2014 after a projector ignited gases from a foam canister used in a student project.

It was due to reopen this year after a £32 million appeal headed by Peter Capaldi and Brad Pitt raised the money needed to restore it.

But it caught fire again a year ago in a far more devastating blaze. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service have not yet identified the cause.

GSA students were photographed posing in hard hats, high-visibility vests and protective gloves, glasses and boots next to scaffolding and ladders in a part of the building in November 2017.

But they were also pictured without protective clothing in a room known as the furniture gallery.

It was previously revealed that the room was also used to host a “Mackintosh memories tea party”.

Businesses had also been taken on tours of the building as part of fundraising efforts. Mr Gibb said: “The extent of use was more restricted after (contractors) Kier were involved but, during their contract, the GSA used the building for their project office, held staff meetings, social gatherings and fundraising events and teaching was carried out in the building.

“It is also clear that personal protective equipment was not worn all of the times. All of this occurred in a vulnerable and dangerous building without the benefit of the required compartmentation and without the benefit of the sprinklers that would have saved the building and reduced the risk to its users.”

He added: “I don’t believe allowing students within the building was appropriate in any circumstances.”

Holyrood’s culture committee has said the board did not give sufficient priority to safeguarding the building and has called for a full public inquiry into the two fires.

According to a submission to the committee by a GSA lecturer, site visits to the Mack were made by GSA third year students as part of a “Rediscovering Mackintosh” course and an “in-depth educational experience” of the project.

Glasgow School of Art said yesterday that public access via the contractor to construction and restoration projects “under strictly managed conditions and health and safety protocols are both common and encouraged to engage the wider public”.

A spokesman added the art school had “engaged in this activity for the benefit of our diverse range of stakeholders with an interest in the Mackintosh restoration”.

Two weeks ago, Scottish Fire & Rescue said several hundred tonnes of debris still had to be removed from the remains of the building.