Wellcome Collection - This January: The Sun and Us, Books as Bodies and Walking with Ghosts

Wellcome's free museum and library for the incurably curious

Walking with Ghosts THU 24 JAN, 19.00–20.30 FREE EVENT | BOOK ONLINE 4 JAN We shape ourselves, and are shaped in return, by the walls that contain us. In his new book ‘Living with Buildings’, Iain Sinclair takes us from stacked tower blocks to humming hospitals and from the blackened hull of a Spitalfields church to the floating mass of Le Corbusier’s radiant city. Come and listen as Observer architecture critic Rowan Moore facilitates this session about Iain Sinclair's series of expeditions to explore the relationship between sickness and structure, and the detours he took along the way.

RawMinds: Made well UNTIL 22 APR FREE EXHIBITION | DROP IN As part of our major exhibition ‘Living with Buildings’, explore how 3D flat-pack technology can help meet the needs of refugees. In response to the mission of the Global Clinic, an innovative mobile clinic designed for ‘Living with Buildings’, a group of young people were challenged to design products that would support refugees’ health and wellbeing. See their sketches, scale drawings, models and prototypes and listen to an interview with Ellen Waters from Doctors of the World about what it’s like to live and work in a refugee camp.

Chasing the Sun NEW BOOK | OUT 10 JAN Our biology is set up to work in partnership with the sun. From our sleep cycles to our immune systems and our mental health, access to sunlight is crucial for living a happy and fulfilling life. Bursting with cutting-edge science and eye-opening advice, ‘Chasing the Sun’ explores the extraordinary significance of sunlight – including ancient solstice celebrations, modern sleep labs, and what the Amish know about sleep that the rest of us don't.      Published by Wellcome Collection.

The Sun and Us THU 31 JAN, 19.00–20.30 FREE EVENT | BOOK ONLINE 4 JAN As more of us move into light-polluted cities, spending our days in dim offices and our evenings watching brightly lit screens, we are in danger of losing something vital: our connection to the star that gave us life. It’s a loss that could have far-reaching consequences that we're only just beginning to grasp. Join science journalist Linda Geddes in conversation about her new book ‘Chasing the Sun’ to rethink the significance of sunlight in all our lives.

Library Insights: Books as bodies THU 24 JAN, 18.00-19.00 FREE EVENT | BOOK ONLINE 4 JAN In this specially created performance-presentation, artist and lecturer Amanda Couch compares bodily processes such as digestion with the way we ‘consume’ books. A thought-provoking talk that considers spines, skin and the ‘body of the text’.

Saturday Studio: Intuitive architecture SAT 19 JAN, 14.00–15.30 AND 16.00–17.30 FREE | DROP IN Saturday Studio is our free series of workshops for ages 14-19, where you can learn from experts in a range of creative fields. This month, use your creativity and construction skills to build scale models mixing fantasy, form and function. Join artist Andrew Kerr to experiment with a range of materials and create a shared alternative world.

BEYOND WELLCOME

Home Futures UNTIL 24 MAR EXHIBITION | THE DESIGN MUSEUM Are we living in the way that pioneering architects and designers throughout the 20th century predicted, or has our idea of home proved resistant to real change?