Restoration nation

With a probable final price tag equivalent to that of the new £50 million Reid Building project opposite - and guaranteed kudos to whoever restores this burned-out shell back to functioning life - star practices from New York to Tokyo may also be ready to drop everything to collaborate with the ghost of one of architecture's all-time greats.

Whoever wins the contract, the resurrection of Mackintosh's masterpiece will showcase a field - conservation architecture - where Scotland's enjoys world leadership.

Although the Glasgow School of Art is trumpeting a worldwide search, there is a good chance that the Mac competition winner will be a homegrown architect. Once the desired end result is determined - surely most likely an exact replica of what Mackintosh intended - the school is likely to opt for a known quantity less likely to be caught out by Scottish weather or Scottish regulation.

The quality of work in this area of architecture that adapts or extends existing structures has come more to the forefront in recent years as the recession took its toll on private and commercial commissions. Tough economic times also encouraged a client mindset of adapt-and-improve over demolish-and-replace. As Karen Pickering of leading Glasgow-based practice Page Park puts it: "Our newbuild came to a standstill in the recession and clients thought it was better to build on what we had."

Times have been hard for architects. Although now beginning to pick up again, work dried up in the recession, meaning practices have shrunk and profit margins, comfortably around 7% in the boom times, have been shaved to about half of that percentage as practices struggled to retain staff.

Scotland's claim to architectural fame in recent years has largely been via public-sector projects, which have taken the glories of the country's rich built heritage and boldly repurposed them for contemporary use, such as with the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the McManus gallery in Dundee (both Page Park), Edinburgh University's Old College Quad (Simpson & Brown), Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (Malcolm Fraser) and the National Museum of Scotland (Gareth Hoskins).

While the public takes the professional skill in fusing ancient and modern for granted, there are many in the industry who believe that Scotland has quietly earned itself a world leadership role in conservation architecture that is worth shouting about.

"I do think we have something special in this country," says James Simpson of Simpson & Brown, who literally wrote the book on the subject (The Care And Conservation Of Ancient Monuments And Historic Buildings By Government Departments in Scotland). "We have great professional strength in conservation architecture, well supported by bodies like the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland [RIAS] over the years."

As well as RIAS's peer-reviewed accreditation scheme - the oldest in the UK - Simpson cites the strength of Scottish university teaching on the subject, including internationally regarded courses at Edinburgh, Dundee and Strathclyde universities.

Simpson, 70, has witnessed massive changes in conservation philosophy in Scotland since the 1960s ("not a great period for conservation"). He cites the pioneering work of Scots experts, for example in ensuring the preservation of Edinburgh's New Town, as a project that has helped set global standards as well as being worth billions of pounds to the Scottish visitor economy.

He is currently involved in major conservation projects of colonial-era building overseas, including the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta and a masterplan for the Ministers Building in Burma for the Yangon Heritage Trust.

"There is great potential, especially in Asia, for exporting Scottish skills," he says.

Despite their impeccable pedigree, Simpson & Brown will not be competing for the Mackintosh commission. This is not because Simpson has lost patience with the laborious process of procurement - though he has. He claims that form-filling and hoop-jumping absorbs about 10% of his company's turnover. He also disapproves of "procurement" of professional services in general, saying that it is like choosing a heart surgeon or QC on the basis of who offers the cheapest price.

But on the Mackintosh building, he defers to Page Park - the practice has worked closely with the Glasgow School of Art for 20 years and lead architect Brian Park is, says Simpson, like the "family doctor" to the Mac. However, despite having the task of providing an interim "estate management plan", Page Park rejects the suggestion that the job is its to lose, or that the competition is anything but wide open.

Karen Pickering says Scotland's leadership in the business of heritage architecture is largely down to having a lot of heritage to conserve.

"There is so much good architecture in this country that is historic; we have to keep restoring it, refurbishing it, keeping it useful," she says.

"Conservation architecture is a huge part of our business, perhaps more than 50%. Whether it's refurbishing existing business or extending them, it's all linked to the existing fabric.

"We have so many listed buildings - that's part of the heritage and part of the national brand. Look at Edinburgh, a Georgian city that's almost intact. Glasgow got knocked about a bit in the sixties, but the grid is intact; all those buildings are being adapted and re-used for commercial purposes.

"I think it's something Scotland is particularly good at. Berlin had to rebuild, but Madrid and Barcelona, they tend to knock down and build newbuild more than we do. Scots have always been more cautious and looked after things better."

As a category A listed building, all plans for the Mac will be made only with the approval of with Ranald MacInnes, head of historic management for Historic Scotland, the agency that manages the Government's historic estate. Its categorisation of Scotland's 47,700 listed buildings in Scotland (8% category A, 50% category B, 42% category C) determines the degree to which they can be adapted.

Along with charity the National Trust for Scotland, Historic Scotland is a pioneer in the theory and practice of keeping attractive and interesting old buildings intact, useful and relevant. Its publications and traditional skills programmes are major contributors to what makes Scotland stand out.

MacInnes also ascribes this strong national performance to "a lot of practice".

"Even in the early 19th century, people were conserving buildings. The idea of old buildings being important national assets seems to have arrived early on.

"It started with churches being preserved, but that same attachment to heritage and place has applied itself to more ordinary buildings, so that something like the art school would be regarded as a national asset. At one time, Glasgow Cathedral was something that had to be restored by the state, but that same notion of preciousness has applied to less vaunted buildings."

While piety towards the past failed to stop Victorians from levelling Glasgow University's intact 15th-century Old College near the High Street to create a railway marshalling yard, the modern standard version means that Edinburgh University's David Hume Tower, a 1960s carbuncle in the capital's George Square is category A listed, with Page Park being employed to refurbish it while keeping it looking as brutal as the day it was built.

The fact that Scottish laws and Scottish conservation architects lavish so much care on "important" buildings that few people love inspires hope that it will do right by those that everybody does love.

Which means that the new Mackintosh building that rises from the ashes is likely to put the quality and flair of conservation architecture in Scotland in the global spotlight.

return of the mac

Last week, Glasgow School of Art issued a call for "a suitably skilled and experienced architect-led, multi-disciplinary design team" to repair the ravages of the May 23 fire. Conservation architects are asked to declare an interest by November 10.

The restoration task facing the Mac team is immensely complex, involving highly subjective judgments. For example, would it be appropriate for the fire to be acknowledged somehow in the restored building, perhaps by retaining some charred timbers?

Five months after the blaze, there is no firm costing for the project. The insurance settlement, which is still being negotiated, is likely to be in the region of £25 million. The ultimate price, currently estimated at around £30m, is likely to climb well beyond that.