‘Future generations will curse us for its loss’: can nothing save Glasgow School of Art, Mackintosh’s masterpiece?

‘A building of such national importance requires a national response’ … the Mackintosh building of the Glasgow School of Art in 2002, before the fires. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/the Guardian

Doubly destroyed by two fires, Scotland’s finest piece of architecture, the Mackintosh building at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA), cuts a lamentable sight.

A 12-year saga of destruction, rebuilding and yet more destruction, all underscored by an unedifying seam of political and institutional wrangling, reached an apologetic conclusion of sorts, with the recent announcement that Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s exquisite art nouveau creation is unlikely to be rebuilt in its original form because of stratospheric cost.