Charles Rennie Mackintosh was born in 1868 in Glasgow, the fourth of eleven children. In 1884, he started work as a pupil in the architect's office of John Hutchison, attending architecture classes at the Glasgow School of Art. In 1889, he joined the firm of Honeyman and Keppie, established names in the architectural world.

Mackintosh was one of a group of architects and designers whose work most closely identified with the Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts movements. His major work is to be found in and around Glasgow. The best known of his designs are the Glasgow School of Art, the Willow Tea Rooms, Hill House, and Scotland Street School. He designed large buildings, furnishings and furniture helped and inspired by his wife, Margaret Macdonald, herself an accomplished artist.

This house was assembled from a kit designed by The Dolls' House Emporium of Ripley, Derbyshire as a tribute to the architect in the Millenium year. The house is not a copy of an actual house but is intended to capture the essence of the architect's work. The furniture is based on actual pieces from several different places particularly the Glasgow School of Art, Hill House, the Argyle Street Tea Rooms and the apartment that the couple lived in when they married, 120 Mains Street.