When the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh built the Hill House as tower house in 1902 in Helensburgh, Scotland, 30 kilometres west from Glasgow, he was already way ahead of his time with its revolutionary layout. Today, the house is threatened by decay due to water damages. Therefore, a major conservation project was created in order to dry and rescue it with an estimated 15 years of renovation work.

Rather than incarcarating the house from the public, the project proposed a ‘big-box temporary museum‘ to contain and protect the Hill House as an artefact, whilst also maintaining access to the house for visitors.
The architectural concept of the new museum is kind of a huge garden pavilion with a steel frame extending over and along the complete Hill House. Its walls are made of alphamesh 12.0 stainless steel chain-mesh which spans a surface of 2.700 square metres. This semi-permanent enclosure protects the house from further moisture and at the same time renovation work can be carried out without interrupting the view to the house from outside.
This makes the project not only the biggest current chain-mail project around the world, but also the biggest project alphamesh has ever realised so far. That revolutionary approach would surely have pleased Charles Renni Mackintosh, too.

Project: The Hill House Box, Helensburgh
Country: Scotland, Great Britain
Architects / Designers: Carmody Groarke Ltd., London
Material: alphamesh 12.0 stainless steel