ARCHITECTURE Architecton: news from universities" No. 38 - Appendix July 2012
FUTURISTIC CONCEPTS OF THE PAST IN THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE PRESENT
The article examines the phenomenon of “futurism” in architecture using the example of the transfer of futuristic concepts of the past into the architecture of the present by rethinking the original idea or through direct quotation. Based on the examples considered, a hypothesis was developed about the cyclical nature of the idea of architectural futurism, which formed the basis for further research.
Keywords: futurism, architectural futurism, avant-garde, forecasting, cyclical model, sociocultural context
In the rapidly developing modern world, the future becomes closer with every new discovery or invention. Changing spatiotemporal contexts have significantly influenced architecture's relationship to the future. Thus, the predictive function of the architect, originally inherent in the profession, has been significantly enhanced by the current sociocultural context. The architect began to actively fantasize about the future, to look much further than his profession formally assumed. This was the reason for the emergence of such a phenomenon as architectural futurism and its formation as an independent phenomenon.
Identifying the origins of modern architecture in the ideas of futurist architects of the past allows us to make assumptions about the trends in the development of architecture in the future. This predictive aspect of the study emphasizes the relevance of the study of architectural futurism, and is also a clear illustration of the interaction of space and time.
The history of the term “futurism” goes back to the name of the European avant-garde movement in literature and fine arts of the early 20th century, characterized by sharp radicalism and anti-historicism (Fig. 1).
Rice. 1. Italian futurism. U. Boccioni “The street enters the house”; A. Sant'Elia, “Project of an airport and railway station with cable cars and elevators on three street levels”
In the modern sense, futurism is an open approach to art, architecture, science; a cult of the future, an attempt to break away from the past and present. The common features that can be identified for the futuristic direction are speed, rapid and reckless movement forward and a pronounced tendency to search for the maximum expression of the new and newfangled. But these are rather philosophical than artistic categories. Assigning itself the role of a prototype of the art of the future, futurism put forward the idea of destruction as its main program cultural stereotypes and assumed instead the idea of technology and urbanism as the main signs of the present and the future.
The basic principles of futurism went beyond the purely visual arts and literature and had a huge influence on other creative directions, including architecture. These creative concepts marked the beginning of an independent life of architectural futurism.
Architectural futurism experienced its moment of greatest activity, of course, on the border of two XIX centuries and XX centuries. The idea of technical progress was enthusiastically received by the architectural avant-garde. The political changes of this time provided a unique chance for architects to express their most fantastic ideas. In the 1920s, the architectural avant-garde, awakened by the wave of revolution that unfolded under the slogans of social utopias, managed to give a bright impetus to the rationalistic and functionalist trends in architecture [1]. And this impulse cannot be underestimated on the scale of the formation of the entire world architecture. But nevertheless, it began to emerge much earlier; its origins go back to the 18th century, to the work of the so-called revolutionary architects [2]. We are talking about the French architects Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Etienne-Louis Boullé and others, whose work on the eve of the French Revolution largely influenced the movement of Futurist architects that later developed at the beginning of the 20th century (Fig. 2).
Rice. 2. Architectural fantasies. E.-L. Bulle, "Newton's Cenotaph in Paris"; K.-N. LeDoux, "Project for the caretaker's house"
The beginning of the last century was not only the most romantic time for futurism, but also the most fruitful and most defining for it as an architectural movement. This era is truly a treasure trove of futuristic ideas. All avant-garde masters were futurists, regardless of whether they were engaged in real or conceptual design. Each of the buildings and structures they created was absolutely futuristic, a product of a radically new era.
But the most interesting thing is that whether it is a revolutionary avant-garde or a socialist utopia, to one degree or another all these projects have found real embodiment. That part of the projects that, for one reason or another, was not implemented immediately, found a rebirth later - in new projects by rethinking the original concept in specific conditions or by directly quoting an avant-garde idea. And recently, in the context of the formation of new stylistic trends, the role of the “unrealized heritage” of the avant-garde has begun to increase even more.
Every significant avant-garde architect has produced many iconic futuristic projects for us: these include architects K.S. Malevich, and urban planning projects of L.M. Lisitsky and G.T. Krutikov, and competition projects of I.I. Leonidov, and the architectural fantasies of Ya.G. Chernikhova, and many others. Each project from this list had a huge impact on the development of world architecture (Fig. 3).
Rice. 3. Russian avant-garde. L. Lisitsky, “Prouns”; I. Leonidov, “House of Narkomtyazhprom”; Y. Chernikhov, “Architectural fantasies”
Modern architecture does not welcome the radical anti-historicism of avant-garde movements. On the contrary, even taking into account the diversity of directions, architecture in all its manifestations refers to history. But this does not at all mean propaganda of historicism. Turning to the origins, rather, provides a new incentive for the development of modern architectural ideas. Unrealized projects have enormous potential. The futuristic concepts of the past represent the main foundation of this potential. And modern architects do not forget about this. They are open about their sources of inspiration and unashamedly talk about the influence of architectural futurism on their work. But this process is not always conscious. In the process of studying the history of architecture, various concepts of the past settle in the heads of architects, and then, acquiring new details and details, are reborn into completely new ideas.
One way or another, by direct quotation or reinterpreted futuristic concepts of the past live in our modern architecture. The time allotted for implementation is always different. If skyscrapers with spiers reaching into the sky were realized in the States almost immediately, just a few decades after they were drawn by futurist architects, then projects of megabuildings and megastructures have been waiting for their chance for more than half a century.
After its birth, a futuristic idea practically begins to live its own life. Its fate is unpredictable: through oblivion, a creative concept experiences rebirth in new projects or is implemented practically unchanged in the future.
The fate of the concept of horizontal skyscrapers by L.M. Lissitzky is very indicative in this sense (Fig. 4). It illustrates the entire path of the futurist idea: the birth of a theoretical basis for the concept from pure geometry (Lissitzky’s prouns), the actual design of the skyscrapers themselves on the Boulevard Ring, the partial implementation of the project in the 1930s and, finally, the modern incarnations of this idea.
Rice. 4. The process of implementing a futuristic concept using the example of horizontal skyscrapers by L. Lissitzky
The complete concept of horizontal skyscrapers, as designed by L.M. Lisitsky, it was not possible to implement it. The short period of constructivism did not allow such large-scale ideas to be realized. However, the urban planning concept with landmark buildings was adopted by other architects and, a few decades later, was implemented, albeit in a slightly modified quality. Stalin's high-rise buildings, in fact, represent the same network of urban landmarks as horizontal skyscrapers.
Despite the fact that almost a century has passed since the birth of this futuristic concept, it continues to inspire and modern architects. The idea of horizontal skyscrapers is now more relevant than ever. Maximum use of usable space with a minimum building area is the goal of any developer. L.M. Lisitsky in his project already then managed to combine this economic indicator and a new functional model - a public function in two-three-story buildings with a central corridor and vertical communications in the supports. Many modern public buildings are designed according to this principle. Kranhaus in the business district of Cologne are an almost literal implementation of horizontal skyscrapers in space-planning terms. A striking architectural and spatial solution, invented a century ago by L.M. Lissitzky, and now makes cranhouses a calling card not only of the business district, but of the whole of Cologne.
Such examples as the concept of L.M. Lissitzky, many more could be cited. The projects of I.I. shared the same fate. Leonidova. The Parisian La Défense district can be called the quintessence of the creativity of avant-garde masters (Fig. 5).
Rice. 5. Parisian La Défense district
The study of modern futuristic ideas, in turn, will help predict the further development of architecture as a whole. Their formation began with the death of modernism. As already noted, the change in the global paradigm has turned people’s ideas about the future of architecture upside down, and semantic accents have been placed in a completely different way. If earlier the cult of futurist architects was technology and total urbanism, now attention has begun to focus on man himself and his place in wildlife and the mechanized world.
But, despite the shift in priorities, all modern futuristic ideas go back to their predecessors - to the futuristic ideas of the past. Those concepts that did not have time to receive real embodiment in the past have been reborn into new futuristic ideas by rethinking them in modern economic and sociocultural contexts, taking into account new living conditions.
Over the past few decades, the problem of harmonious coexistence of megacities and the environment has become increasingly acute. Specialists from a variety of industries develop and use the latest technologies, which largely help minimize the negative impact on environment. By the second half of the twentieth century, their efforts, together with the efforts of architects, formed a new direction called arcology. Its followers strive to achieve a balance between the technicality of the structure and its environmental friendliness (Fig. 6).
Rice. 6. Futuristic concepts
The American architect of Italian origin, Paolo Soleri, is considered to be the ideological father of arcology. Before him, attempts had been made to derive the principles of symbiosis between urban buildings and the environment, but for the first time he systematized the available data, formulating the main postulates in the book “Arcology: A City in the Image and Likeness of Man.” Soleri offers not only new architectural and urban planning solutions, but also a completely new way of life. Only in this way, in his opinion, will it be possible to achieve a balance between man-made and natural environments. Paolo Soleri believes that horizontal urbanization is the reason for the detrimental effect of current architecture on the environment. Arcology proposes to create structures with a completely self-sufficient infrastructure - hyperstructures (or megabuildings). The vertical orientation of such hyperstructures will solve the problem of overpopulation and the inevitable urbanization of the future. Soleri’s ideas have found many followers and are already being embodied in the architectural solutions of modern practicing architects [3].
Futuristic concepts of the past invariably influence the architecture of the future. Just as the work of futurist architects of the past influenced the formation of modern architecture, so today’s futuristic ideas will be embodied in the future in real design or degenerated into new futuristic concepts. One way or another, the connection and continuity of architectural ideas allows us to draw conclusions about the cyclical structure of the phenomenon of “architectural futurism”. This hypothesis can form the basis for further research into architectural futurism.
As a result of this research, a model of architectural futurism will be built, in which it will be presented as a cyclical phenomenon. This will become the main illustration of the predictive function of architectural futurism (Fig. 7).
Rice. 7. Vertical section of the model of the phenomenon “architectural futurism”
The development of this model will be based on methods from various interdisciplinary studies, which represent a set of characteristics and methods for studying the evolution of an idea, cyclical phenomena, and complex self-organizing systems. Thus, this model will use universal means to represent the entire life cycle of the idea of architectural futurism and how it changes under the influence of various external factors.
Bibliography
Ikonnikov A.V. Architecture of the 20th century: utopia and reality. In 2 vols. T 1. / A.V. Ikonnikov. – M.: Progress-Tradition, 2001. – P.656.
Schultz B. Past future / B. Schultz // Speech: for the future, 05.2010.
Shulga S. Megabuildings - the future today [Electronic resource] / Architecture and architects // Architects. - Access mode: http://www.archandarch.ru/2011/05/27/ mega-buildings-future-already-today
Futuristic architecture is a style of architecture that originated in Italy at the beginning of the twentieth century. His characteristic features became anti-historicism, strong chromaticism, movement, lyricism, long dynamic lines.
This direction in architecture is part of Futurism, an artistic movement created by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.
It is worth noting that futurism is not so much architectural style, as much as an approach to architecture, a way of behavior and thinking. Today, this direction in architecture for most people is associated with strange architectural forms. Such famous buildings as the Space Needle (Seattle), Dean (Florida) and the Transamerica Pyramid (San Francisco) were built in a futuristic style. Also a striking example futuristic architecture is the Tumorrowland project (Disneyland, Anaheim).
The later group of Futurist architects included the Italian Antonio Sant'Elia, who was able to transfer Futurist ideas into the framework of urban construction. Since 1912, this architect began to create a series of his famous design drawings " New town” (“Citta Nuova”), in which he showed what, in his opinion, urban planning should look like in the new “technical” century. The most famous sketches of Antonio Sant'Elia were a sketch of a station for trains and airplanes (1914), and a drawing of an automobile plant in Lingotto (1928).
- Futuristic architecture is a form of architecture that appeared at the beginning of the 20th century in Italy. It was characterized by anti-historicism, strong chromaticism, long dynamic lines suggesting speed, movement, urgency and lyricism.
Futurist architecture is part of Futurism, an artistic movement founded by the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, who wrote the first Futurist manifesto in 1909. The movement also attracted a number of architects. Futurist themes included the cult of the machine age and the glorification of war and violence.
The later group of Futurist architects included Antonio Sant'Elia, who translated the Futurist vision into urban forms. Between 1912 and 1914, he began a series of famous design drawings "New City" (Italian: Città Nuova), in which he created a unique, outstanding image of ideas about new technical age. The famous “Manifesto of Futurist Architecture” (Italian: Manifesto dell'architettura futurista) was published by the architect in August 1914.
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Modern architecture is based on the known laws of physics. Some of these laws are being refuted, in other cases new conceptual design solutions are being found that can already help visualize the architecture of the future. But in any case, futurism in architecture is science fiction, and a very scientific one at that.
The ideal place to embody the ideas of futurists is a space where earthly physical and ethical laws do not apply. The place where the quality of consciousness is changed and the priorities between the life of a person and a machine cannot be clearly set. The best visualization of these projects were science fiction films, “ Star Wars» - typical example futurism architecture.
Man has always dreamed of the future and tried to imagine it, but we owe the birth of futurism precisely to the 20th century, when the machine was able to seriously declare its rights and stand next to its creator. Never before has man created so many machines for life, and never before has a machine brought so much death. The dynamics of life changed and artists were the first to react to it.
Futurism(from Latin futurum - future) - Avant-garde movement in European art of the 1910-20s. XX century Formed in Italy. In the creative practice of Italian painters U. Boccioni, G. Severini and others, there was a tendency to make dynamism as such an object of art.
Negation traditional culture, her artistic values, the cult of technology, industrial cities (urbanism) acquired an anti-humanistic character among the Italian futurists: according to the Italian writer F. T. Marinetti(leader and theorist of futurism, author of “ Manifesto of Italian Futurism" 1909-19), the life of the engine worries more than the smile or tears of a woman. In the paintings of the Futurists, which represented chaotic combinations of planes and lines, disharmony of color and shape, a person is often interpreted as a kind of machine. The denial of harmony as a principle of art is also inherent in futuristic sculpture. The requirement to “open the figure like a window”, the desire to convey light transmission and interpenetration of volumes led to modernist deformation. The poetry of the futurists is abstruse, aimed at the destruction of living language; this is an example of violence against vocabulary and syntax. The futuristic absolutization of dynamics and force, the creative arbitrariness of the artist in the socio-ideological plane revealed various trends. In Italian futurism, it turned into glorification of war as “the only hygiene of the world,” glorification of aggression and violence, and poeticization of imperialism. Combined with ardent nationalism, all this led the Italian Futurists to an alliance with the fascist regime of Mussolini. In other Western countries, futurism was represented by a few groups. The “Cubo-Futurism” that has developed in Russia only in terms of terminology and some formal features echoes Italian Futurism, differing from it in its social-class basis and specific aesthetic content. Russian futurists were characterized by features of petty-bourgeois anarchist rebellion, leftist radicalism in relation to cultural heritage, extremes of formalistic experimentation. After the October Revolution, Russian futurists declared their desire to create a socialist culture, the art of the future, and to revolutionize everyday life. In many ways, the aesthetic extremes of the futurists, grouped around the magazine "Lef" (editor - Vladimir Mayakovsky), were a peculiar reaction to the one-sidedness of Rapp's criticism. By the end of the 1920s. In the process of developing socialist artistic consciousness and the organizational unification of various artistic groups, futurism ceased to exist in Russia.
Manifesto of Futurism
1. We intend to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness.
2. Courage, bravery and rebellion will be the main features of our poetry.
3. Until now, literature has praised pensive stillness, ecstasy and sleep. We intend to celebrate aggressive action, feverish insomnia, the racer's run, the death jump, the punch and the slap.
4. We affirm that the splendor of the world has been enriched new beauty- the beauty of speed. A racing car, the hood of which, like fire-breathing snakes, is decorated with large pipes; a roaring machine, the engine of which runs like big buckshot - it is more beautiful than the statue of the Nike of Samothrace.
5. We want to glorify the man at the helm of the car, who throws the spear of his spirit over the Earth, in its orbit.
6. The poet must spend himself without reserve, with brilliance and generosity, in order to fill the enthusiastic passion of the primitive elements.
7. Beauty can only be in struggle. No work that lacks an aggressive character can be a masterpiece. Poetry must be seen as a fierce attack against unknown forces in order to subdue them and force them to bow before man.
8. We stand at the last turn of the century!.. Why look back if we want to crush the mysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed.
9. We will praise war - the only hygiene in the world, militarism, patriotism, the destructive actions of liberators, wonderful ideas for which it is not a pity to die, and contempt for women.
10. We will destroy museums, libraries, educational establishments of all types, we will fight against moralism, feminism, against all opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice.
11. We will sing the praises of great crowds excited by work, pleasure and rebellion; we will sing of the multicolored, polyphonic tides of revolution in modern capitals; we will sing of the trembling and night heat of arsenals and shipyards illuminated by electric moons; greedy railway stations swallowing snakes dressed in smoke feathers; factories suspended from the clouds by crooked streams of smoke; bridges, like giant gymnasts, straddling rivers and sparkling in the sun with the shine of knives; inquisitive steamships trying to penetrate the horizon; tireless steam locomotives, whose wheels pound on the rails like the shoes of huge steel horses bridled with pipes; and a slender line of airplanes, whose propellers, like banners, rustle in the wind and, like enthusiastic spectators, express their approval with noise.
Filippo MARINETTI
During the winter, people experience hypersomnia, depressed mood, and a pervasive feeling of hopelessness. Even the risk of premature death is significantly higher in winter. Our biological clock is not in sync with our waking and working hours. Shouldn't we adjust our office hours to help improve our mood?
As a rule, people tend to see the world in gloomy colors when daylight hours become shorter and cold weather sets in. But changing our work hours to suit the seasons can help lift our spirits.
For many of us, winter, with its cold days and long nights, creates a general feeling of malaise. It becomes increasingly difficult to tear ourselves away from bed in the semi-darkness, and hunched over our desks at work, we feel our productivity draining along with the remnants of the midday sun.
For the small portion of the population experiencing full-blown seasonal affective disorder (SAD), it's even worse - the winter melancholy mutates into something much more debilitating. Patients experience hypersomnia, depressed mood, and a pervasive sense of hopelessness during the darkest months. Regardless of SAD, depression is reported more frequently in the winter, suicide rates increase, and work productivity drops in January and February.
While it's easy to chalk this all up to some nebulous idea of winter gloom, there may be a scientific basis for this despondency. If our body clocks are out of sync with our waking and working hours, shouldn't we adjust our office hours to help improve our mood?
“If our body clock says it wants us to wake up at 9:00 because it’s dark outside winter morning“But we get up at 7:00 and we miss a whole stage of sleep,” says Greg Murray, professor of psychology at Swinburne University, Australia. Research in chronobiology—the science of how our bodies regulate sleep and wakefulness—supports the idea that sleep needs and preferences change in winter, and sleep restrictions modern life may be particularly inappropriate during these months.
What do we mean when we talk about biological time? Circadian rhythms are a concept that scientists use to measure our internal sense of time. It's a 24-hour timer that determines how we want to space out the various events of the day - and, crucially, when we want to get up and when we want to go to sleep. "The body likes to do this in sync with the biological clock, which is the master regulator of how our bodies and behavior relate to the sun," explains Murray.
Exists great amount hormones and other chemical substances involved in regulating our biological clock, as well as many external factors. Particularly important is the sun and its location in the sky. Photoreceptors located in the retina, known as ipRGCs, are particularly sensitive to blue light and are therefore ideal for regulating the circadian rhythm. There is evidence that these cells play an important role in regulating sleep.
The evolutionary value of this biological mechanism was to facilitate changes in our physiology, biochemistry and behavior depending on the time of day. “This is precisely the predictive function of the circadian clock,” says Anna Wirtz-Justice, professor of chronobiology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. “And all living things have it.” Given the changing daylight levels throughout the year, it also prepares organisms for seasonal behavioral changes such as reproduction or hibernation.
While there hasn't been enough research into whether we would respond well to more sleep and different wake-up times in the winter, there is evidence that this may be the case. "From a theoretical perspective, the reduction in natural light in the morning in winter should contribute to what we call phase lag," says Murray. “And from a biological perspective, there is good reason to believe that this probably does happen to some extent. Delayed sleep phase means our circadian clock wakes us up later in the winter, which explains why it becomes increasingly difficult to fight the urge to set the alarm.”
At first glance, sleep phase delay might seem to indicate that we'll want to go to bed later in the winter, but Murray suggests that this trend is likely to be counteracted by an overall increased desire to sleep. Research shows that people need (or at least want) more sleep in winter. A study conducted in three pre-industrial societies - where there are no alarm clocks, smartphones and working hours from 09:00 to 17:00 - in South America and Africa showed that these communities collectively slept an hour longer during the winter. Given that these communities are located in equatorial regions, this effect may be even more pronounced in the northern hemisphere, where winters are colder and darker.
This sleepy winter pattern is at least partially mediated by one of the major players in our chronobiology, melatonin. This endogenous hormone is controlled by and in turn influences circadian cycles. This is a sleeping pill, which means its production will increase until we fall into bed. “People have a much broader melatonin profile in winter than in summer,” says chronobiologist Till Rönneberg. “These are the biochemical reasons why circadian cycles can respond to two different seasons.”
But what does it mean if our internal clocks don't match the times our schools and work schedules require? “The discrepancy between what your body clock wants and what yours wants.” social watch, we call social jetlag,” says Rønneberg. “Social jetlag is worse in winter than in summer.” Social jetlag is similar to what we are already familiar with, but instead of flying around the world, we are thrown off track by the time of our social demands - getting up for work or school.
Social jetlag is a well-documented phenomenon and can have serious consequences for health, well-being and how well we can function in life. Everyday life. If it's true that winter produces a form of social jetlag, to understand what its effects might be, we can turn our attention to the people who are most susceptible to the phenomenon.
The first group of people for potential analysis includes people living at the western edges of time zones. Because time zones can cover large areas, people living in eastern outskirts time zones, feel the sunrise about an hour and a half earlier than those who live on the western outskirts. Despite this, the entire population must adhere to the same working hours, meaning many will be forced to get up before sunrise. Essentially, this means that one part of the time zone is constantly out of sync with the circadian rhythm. And although this may not seem like such a big deal, it is associated with a number of devastating consequences. People living in the western suburbs were more susceptible to breast cancer, obesity, diabetes and heart disease - diseases the researchers determined were primarily caused by chronic disruption of circadian rhythms, which occurs due to the need to wake up in the dark.
Another shining example Social jetlag is observed in Spain, which lives on Central European Time, despite its geographical correspondence with the UK. This means that the country's time is set forward one hour and that the population must follow a social schedule that does not correspond to their biological clock. As a result, the entire country suffers from sleep deprivation - getting on average an hour less than the rest of Europe. This degree of sleep loss was associated with increased absenteeism, industrial injuries, and with increasing stress and school failure in the country.
Another population that may exhibit symptoms similar to those of winter sufferers is the group that has a natural tendency to stay awake at night throughout the year. The average teenager's circadian rhythm is naturally shifted four hours ahead of that of adults, which means teenage biology is causing them to go to bed and wake up later. Despite this, for many years they have to fight with themselves to get up at 7 am and get to school on time.
And although these are exaggerated examples, could the exhausting consequences of an inappropriate work schedule all winter contribute to similar, but less significant influence? This idea is supported in part by theories about what causes SAD. While there are still a number of hypotheses about the exact biochemical basis of this condition, a significant portion of researchers believe that it may be caused by a particularly severe response to the body clock becoming out of sync with natural daylight and the sleep-wake cycle - known as delayed sleep phase syndrome.
Scientists now tend to think of SAD as a spectrum of characteristics rather than a condition that you either have or don't, and in Sweden and other countries in the northern hemisphere, up to 20 percent of the population is estimated to suffer from the milder winter melancholy. In theory, mild SAD could be experienced by the entire population to some degree, and only some would find it debilitating. "Some people don't react too emotionally to desynchronization," notes Murray.
At present, the idea of reducing working hours or moving the start of the working day to a later time during the winter period has not been tested. Even countries located in the darkest parts of the northern hemisphere - Sweden, Finland and Iceland - work in near-night conditions all winter. But chances are, if work hours more closely match our chronobiology, we'll work and feel better.
After all, US schools that moved the start of the day to later times to accommodate teens' circadian rhythms successfully showed an increase in the amount of sleep students received and a corresponding increase in energy. A school in England that delayed its start school day from 8:50 to 10:00 found that after this there was a sharp reduction in the number of absences due to illness and improved student performance.
There is evidence that winter is associated with a large number lateness to work and school, with an increase in absenteeism. Interestingly, a study published in the Journal of Biological Rhythms found that such absenteeism is more closely related to photoperiods—the number of hours of daylight—than to other factors like weather. Simply allowing people to arrive later can help counteract this influence.
A better understanding of how our circadian cycles influence our seasonal cycles is something we could all benefit from. "Bosses need to say, 'I don't care when you come to work, come when your body clock thinks you've had enough sleep, because in this situation we both win,'" says Rønneberg. “Your results will be better. You will be more productive at work because you will feel how effective you are. And the number of sick days will decrease.” Since January and February are already our least productive months of the year, do we really have anything to lose?