Drawings help Glasgow School of Art Mackintosh building restoration

GSA director Professor Tom Inns (left) and Professor George Cairns with the drawings

The project to restore Glasgow School of Art's (GSA) fire-damaged Mackintosh building has been boosted by a donation of detailed architectural drawings.

The scale drawings of the Mackintosh were made by Queensland University of Technology professor George Cairns in the 1990s as part of a Phd at GSA.

He has now donated them to the art school in the hope they can aid efforts to restore the iconic building.

GSA is still engaged in a bid to raise £20m to restore the Mackintosh.

• What's happening in Scotland today? Keep in touch through our live page.

Prof Cairns said: "I am delighted to be able to return to Glasgow today after so many years and to be able to donate this set of drawings which I made as part of my doctoral thesis to the GSA.

"I hope very much that they will prove of interest and use to the teams working on the restoration of the Mack and to generations of students who have the privilege to study Mackintosh's masterpiece."

The drawings depict the Mackintosh as it was when completed in 1908

GSA said it would add the drawings to its "significant archive of material relating to Mackintosh's masterpiece".

They will be digitised and accessible for academic and public research through the GSA's online archives in the coming months.

Liz Davidson, senior project manager for the Mackintosh Building restoration project, said: "We are keen to continue to access as much information as possible about the building in planning our approach to the restoration.

"Professor Cairns has already been generous in his time in liaising with the design team and these particularly detailed drawings are going to be an invaluable source of information."