diCesare Peccarisi
Those who live in a large house can more easily benefit from natural light while still maintaining privacy, since they have plenty of space available, without worrying about heating and cooling costs
Tall, tanned, graying hair: this is how everyone remembers the lawyer Gianni Agnelli. According to two articles recently published in the American newspapers The New York Times and The Root, the “healthy” image conveyed by Agnelli perfectly suits the prototype of wealthy young New Yorkers aged between 24 and 45 who would be easily identifiable from the windows of their homes, always with curtains and shutters open.
«Sunning behaviour»
They would have the so-called “sunning behavior”, that is, “sunlight behavior”, which according to a study by the University of Oslo just published in Mental Health Prevention is correlated to the prevention of eye (myopia), bone (thanks to vitamin D) diseases , mood (serotonin) and insomnia (circadian light/dark cycles). Not to mention the many studies that have also attested to its effectiveness in the prevention of multiple sclerosis, so much so that this disease is much less frequent in countries in the South of the world.
A real drug
In another study, published in Biochemical Pharmacology, a group of researchers from the Universities of Basel (Switzerland), Surrey (England) and Wellington (New Zealand), led by Anna Wirz-Justice, defined sunlight as a real drug capable of acting strongly on mood, cognition, vigilance, daytime performance and sleep (see figure). The authors underlined that, from a health point of view, sunlight is much better than electric light and that urban and architectural design should be more inspired by the creation of living spaces more suited to the exploitation of its potential, rather than by aesthetic criteria and commercial. Keeping windows without curtains and shutters brings natural light, increases the sense of well-being and offers a continuous view of the outside world, reducing the sense of isolation that the lockdown of the recent pandemic, for example, has exacerbated in all age groups. age.
Privacy and temperature
The disadvantages of wide open windows are that they “show off” one’s domestic reality and do not protect oneself from the heat of solar radiation, especially in summer. For many, the desire to maintain privacy and the fear of spending too much on air conditioning outweigh the physical and mental health benefits. But for those who belong to higher income groups, things are different: those who live in a large house can more easily benefit from natural light while still maintaining privacy, having plenty of space available, without worrying about heating and cooling costs.
Status symbol
According to a study by the United States Department of Energy, Americans who earn more than $150,000 a year are almost twice as likely to leave their windows open as those who earn $20,000 to $29,000. Slowly “open” windows, or as the New York Times says “flung open” (i.e. wide open), are becoming a “status symbol” in the USA and not only in Brooklyn Heights, the “good” neighborhood of New York. Will they also become so in our latitudes? Cesare Peccarisi
February 22, 2024 (modified February 22, 2024 | 09:46)
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