Our approach is fundamentally simple - we care about how buildings and places are made and used. This is reflected in our design reputation - for aesthetically and intellectually rigorous architecture set in a social and urban context - no wonder we are ranked the top School in Scotland and one of the best in the UK.

• Architecture has been taught at the GSA from the middle of the 19th century with the first professor of architecture Eugene Bourdon, who was trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Bourdons impact on Glasgow can be seen in the work of his pupils, the best of whom were sent to work in New York architectural offices
• The School of Architecture takes its name from Scotland's most famous architect and the GSA's most famous alumnus - Charles Rennie Mackintosh
• Alumni of "the Mac" include Jack Coia, Andy MacMillan and Isi Metzstein, of the post-war architectural practice Gillespie Kidd and Coia, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Alan Dunlop, Gareth Hoskins, Andrew Whalley and Thomas Tait
• The School provides the teaching required for registration as an architect in the United Kingdom, and is recognised by the Architects Registration Board (ARB) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
• The School has its own dedicated science-led green research unit - the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU)
• The School attracts the foremost international architects, designers and critics to contribute including David Page of Page and Park Glasgow, Tom Verebes of o.c.e.a.n.uk; Sunand Prasad, Penoyre Prasad Architects London, Kisa Kawakami, sculptor and architect Tokyo, David Chipperfield, Murray Griggor, film maker, Louisa Hutton, Sauerbruch Hutton Architects in Berlin, Rein Korteknie, Parasite Foundation in Rotterdam, Martha Lagess, LaMa Arlington, Texas and Graeme Moreland, architect from Los Angeles
• Students become involved in live projects, field and study visits, research and competitions. Visits have inclued Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris, Copenhagen, Graz, Chicago, and New York and are complimented by a programme of exchanges with leading international schools in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Lausanne, Madrid, Mendrisio, Paris, Urbana-Champaign, and Vienna
• Honorary professors of the Mac include John Gibbons, Chief Architect with the Scottish Executive, C J Lim, Director of the Bartlett Architecture Lab at UCL, Dickon Robinson, Peabody Trust, and Wim Van Den Bergh practicing architect in the Netherlands and Professor of Architecture at the University of Aachen in Germany.
• Graduates of the Mac can be found in RMJM, Foster and Partners, David Chipperfield Architects, Michael Wildford & Partners, Terry Farrell and Partners, CZWG, Graven Images, Richard Rogers Partners, Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, Page and Park, BDP, Michael Hopkins and Partners and professional practice across the world
• In surveys by the Architects' Journal, the Mac has been consistently ranked by the architecture profession as the best architecture school in Scotland and in the top five in the UK