Living With Buildings: Health and Architecture
Interesting exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at how architecture can affect
and benefit health.
The show focused
on housing and health buildings and in each case looked at the history of each
type of building and at new developments in the field to design with an eye to
improving physical and mental health. I would have liked to see other types of
buildings covered such as offices and factories.
I liked the
history sections best. It was great to see the Booth maps of 19th century
housing which identified the link between health and poor housing shown with
pictures of the slums described in Oliver Twist and the preface of the first
edition where Dickens reacted to the idea that he had made up the slum. In the
health section I loved the wonderful model of an ideal 19th century hospital
which was like a big dolls house. Also the watercolours by Frank Collins of an
overflow smallpox hospital.
The more modern
section on housing used the Grenfell fire to examine current issues in housing
and highlighted some examples of good modern designs. The health section looked
at the Maggie’s cancer centres with interiors designed around a kitchen table
and the sanatorium in Paimio, Finland which incorporated the ideal conditions
for recuperating from the disease.
Closed on 3 March
2019
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