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The Mackintosh building should not be rebuilt, Glasgow architect Alan Dunlop has urged.

Instead a design competition should be held and Scottish architects should not be mere 鈥渢okens鈥� on the shortlist, he said.

鈥淭he whole thing is devastating but we have to accept the original Mackintosh building has gone,鈥� he said.

Nothing was left of the interior, he said, and the stone facade appeared to have been severely damaged by the combination of fire and 鈥渕illions of gallons of water pumped from the Clyde鈥� by firefighters.

鈥淭here are calls saying we should restore it but it鈥檚 not a restoration job. There鈥檚 nothing left to restore. It would be replication and while there鈥檚 a debate to be had over that, my view is that replication is something they do in China, not here.

鈥淚t鈥檚 irreparable and can鈥檛 be brought back into life. Mackintosh was an innovator not a copyist and if he was around today he wouldn鈥檛 be rebuilding it, he would be building a new school.鈥�

Dunlop, who studied at Glasgow School of Art, acknowledged that the detailed digital picture created after the 2014 fire meant it could be rebuilt. But he said it would be sterile without the years of student activity that had created a palpable presence in the original building.

鈥淭here should be a design competition for a new building and I would like to think a Scottish architect would be seriously in the running, not there to make up the numbers,鈥� he said.

鈥淎ll the major public buildings in Scotland have been built by architects other than Scots,鈥� he said, citing Steven Holl鈥檚 building opposite the Mac, built by Sir Robert McAlpine, along with Zaha Hadid鈥檚 transport museum and Kengo Kuma鈥檚 V&A Dundee both of which have been built by Bam.

鈥淚 know there鈥檚 a currency in getting starchitects in to build a building but I would like to think we have enough talent here in Scotland.

鈥淢ackintosh was in his late 20s when he did the first element of design for the Mac and there are young architects capable of producing something just as outstanding.鈥�