The Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society, a member-led charity founded in 1973 to champion the architect and protect his legacy, has published an 11-page paper titled Mackintosh Building: The Way Ahead.

Drawn up by the Society’s expert panel in heritage buildings, it proposes a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), a body similar to a trust, with a constitutional duty to rebuild the Mack and return it to the nation.

Under the proposal, the SPV would be formed through a partnership of government bodies and heritage organisations. The Society has offered to use its standing in the Mackintosh community to convene the group if needed, then step back and leave the work to it.

The paper argues that only such a partnership can deliver authenticity in restoring the building to its condition before the first fire in 2014, and it says the process could be timely and transparent.

On the building’s eventual use, the paper says the SPV should decide following “wide consultation and business case analysis”. The final use, however, must allow public access, space to learn about Mackintosh’s work, and room for the creative arts and culture.

The Society notes that Mackintosh already draws visitors to Glasgow from around the world and believes a major attraction would add to that appeal. In the paper it states that decisive national action “will be read globally” as a measure of how seriously Scotland and the UK take their heritage.

The Society stresses that it shares much with the GSA, including the ambition to reconstruct the building and a view of the site as an anchor for a wider creative “supercluster” stretching from the city centre to Queen’s Cross.

It also backs the School’s first phase of work: stabilising the structure and removing the scaffolding that currently holds it in place. That phase would allow later stages of reconstruction to proceed and let the public see what remains.

Society director Matthew Williams said: “As an independent critical friend to the Art School, we believe that following that first phase an external body should take on the building and get the project finished in the coming years.”

The GSA said earlier this year that it cannot restore the building without extra financial support, putting the total cost at £265 million. It said “financial clarity” from an insurance settlement over the 2018 fire showed it could not take forward a faithful reinstatement alone. The School has also said the building is no longer vital to its functioning as an art school and has suggested it could anchor a “creative and cultural production innovation district”.

The Society’s paper comes eight years after the second fire and days after Labour MP Torcuil Crichton urged the UK and Scottish governments to “come together” in support of the restoration. Some voices have argued a faithful replication is impossible, but the Society’s proposal is built on the opposite premise.

Society chair Michael Dale said an independent body is the best way to carry the project forward, and that the Society has been heartened by the positive political response at both Holyrood and Westminster. He urged ministers to work together to secure the building’s future.

Supporters already include the 20th Century Society, which campaigns to save outstanding buildings across the UK; Glasgow’s Building Preservation and Heritage Trusts; and the Klimt Foundation in Vienna, where Mackintosh was perhaps most celebrated during his lifetime. Williams expects more organisations from the worlds of art, architecture and design to join in the coming weeks.

Dale also pointed to the wider benefits: a chance to boost the city, create jobs and invest in heritage skills at risk in Scotland, while putting the building back at the heart of Glasgow. Once complete, the paper suggests, the Mack could be handed to the nation as a visitor attraction and creative space.

Members of the public can back the campaign by joining the Society, which will provide regular in-depth updates and presentations over the coming months.