However the plan arrangement (04.) highlights Mackintosh’s masterful integration of the dynamics of the primary circulation, in the form of the central staircase hung within a cage of wood, and the east–west circulation spine, within the static baronial hall–like gallery space. Our primary interest, rather than the foreground of the image, is the cluster of three figures in the background overlooking the central stair. Their casual body language appears strikingly relaxed to my contemporary gaze, offering what I perceive to be a candid insight to their daily lives within the building. Distance from the foreground seems to liberate the individuals to simply be, rather than conform to the photographer’s requirements. Indeed the blurring of the figure furthest from the photographer suggests the trio are consumed by a shared existential moment, which through the medium of photography the viewer can vicariously enter. Further examination of the plan arrangement (fig.4) indicates a subtle provision for just such an event in the arrangement of the balustrade to the main stair. A recess of approximately three hundred m illimetres in the balustrade, combined with a generous, softly moulded handrail, at just the right height to rest an elbow invites a moment of pause, whilst overlooking the spatial drama of the central staircase and the soft top–light falling from the gallery roof lights, to partially illuminate the gloom of the basement below. At once, Wilson’s notion of the building informing the inhabitants how to be is strongly evoked and Zumthor’s specific richness suggested. 04.
In the final analysis it is hoped that
when the current incumbents, both staff and students, have departed Holl’s building and the next generation have taken up residency, just such an image might capture the temporal and meaningful inhabitation of the Reid Building, perhaps a momentary event both invited and accommodated by one of Holl’s driven voids of light. Until such a moment, whether or not Holl’s building will attain the status of Zumthors’ specific richness must remain in doubt, extending the condition of uncertainty declared central to Holl’s design method. In the end time will tell, as only sustained occupation can deliver the evidence upon which such a judgment can be made.
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