Heptadian

Definition

Heptadian names Perec's coinage (by analogy to "circadian") for the weekly-rhythm division of space: "It is hardly any more transgressive to conceive of a division based, no longer on circadian, but on heptadian rhythms. This would give us apartments of seven rooms, known respectively as the Mondayery, Tuesdayery, Wednesdayery, Thursdayery, Fridayery, Saturdayery, and Sundayery" (Perec, pp. 262–263). Where the nycthemeral apartment slices the day into rooms, the heptadian apartment slices the week — each day of the week mapped onto a dedicated room, the plan scaled to the cycle of Sundays rather than the cycle of waking.

Perec's development of the concept has four movements. (1) The historical heptadian practice: "The Mondayery could ideally be a laundry-room (our country forebears did their washing on Mondays) and the Tuesdayery a drawing-room (our urban forebears were happy to receive visitors on Tuesdays). This, obviously, would hardly be a departure from the functional" (p. 263) — the weekly round (wash-Monday, receive-Tuesday) was already functional division; the heptadian proposal only makes the week architectural. (2) The existing heptadian rooms as property: "These two last rooms [the Saturdayery and Sundayery], it should be observed, already exist in abundance, commercialized under the name of 'second' or 'weekend homes'. It's no more foolish to conceive of a room exclusively devoted to Mondays than to build villas that are only used for sixty days in the year" (p. 263) — the market has already built the week's end at house scale; the room-scale Mondayery is no more absurd. (3) The proportional absurdity made exact: the sixty-day villa and the Monday-room are the same spending logic at different scales — the comparison measures the weekend home by the heptadian concept rather than the reverse. (4) The circa-annual extension: footnote 2 generalizes the rhythm beyond the week — "A habitat based on a circa-annual rhythm exists among a few of the 'happy few' who are sufficiently well endowed with residences to be able to attempt to reconcile their sense of values, their liking for travel, climatic conditions and cultural imperatives. They are to be found, for example, in Mexico in January, in Switzerland in February, in Venice in March, in Marrakesh in April, in Paris in May, in Cyprus in June, in Bayreuth in July, in the Dordogne in August, in Scotland in September, in Rome in October, on the Côte d'Azur in November, and in London in December" (p. 263). The rhythm-principle scales from room to week to season to year — and each scale-up increases its price: the Mondayery is unbuilt, the weekend home is "commercialized… in abundance," the circa-annual habitat exists "among a few of the 'happy few'."

The heptadian is thus doubly diagnostic. As design proposal it is the mildest of Perec's alternative layouts ("hardly any more transgressive" than the given); as social analysis it exposes the work-week as the hidden organizer of domestic space — the weekend home is the week's leisure days built as property, the Mondayery its unbuilt negative.

Key Thinkers

• Georges Perec — the concept's author (1974/2006): the circadian/heptadian opposition, the seven-room apartment, the weekend-home identification, the Monday-laundry/Tuesday-visiting historical practice, and the circa-annual "happy few" footnote.

Related Concepts

• Nycthemeral — the concept's foil and sibling: the day-cycle division against the week-cycle division; both are rhythm-based alternatives to thematic arrangement, and the heptadian is "hardly any more transgressive" than the nycthemeral given.
• Thematic Arrangement — the layout Perec offers when rhythm itself is abandoned: "This, obviously, would hardly be a departure from the functional. It would be better, while we're at it, to imagine a thematic arrangement…" — the heptadian's own trajectory leads to the themed room.
• Repetition — the heptadian as the everyday's weekly repetition made spatial: Başeren's "doing certain things on certain days of the week" as floor plan; Heller's cyclical time at week scale.
• Voluntary Constraints — the generative principle: the heptadian layout is produced by imposing a seven-part constraint on the plan, in the family of Perec's constraint-procedures (functional relations, senses, rhythms, themes) that Carley's reading of Life systematizes.
• Time-Geography — the constraint frame: the week as coupling structure (wash-Monday, receive-Tuesday, school-Wednesday) that the heptadian plan literalizes.
• Work/Leisure Distinction — the concept's social axis: the weekend home is the two leisure days built at house scale; the Mondayery is the work-week's first day un-built; the circa-annual habitat is the rhythm of those exempt from the week altogether.
• Everyday Life — the week as the everyday's middle-scale cycle: between the nycthemeral day and the seasonal year.
• Consumerism — the commercialization register: "already exist in abundance, commercialized under the name of 'second' or 'weekend homes'" — the rhythm sold as property.
• Habit — the weekly habit (the forebears' Monday wash, Tuesday calls) as the historical deposit the heptadian plan would formalize.

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss this concept:

• The Apartment (Perec 1974/2006) — the concept's founding text: the circadian/heptadian opposition and the seven-room apartment (pp. 262–263); the Mondayery-as-laundry, Tuesdayery-as-drawing-room historical practice ("hardly… a departure from the functional," p. 263); the weekend-home identification ("already exist in abundance, commercialized," p. 263); the sixty-day-villa comparison; the circa-annual "happy few" footnote (p. 263).

Open Questions

• Is the heptadian a parody of the weekend home or its completion? Perec's tone supports both: the Mondayery is "no more foolish" than the sixty-day villa — which reads as either satire of the villa or a serious proposal the villa already licensed.
• The historical heptadian practice was women's ("our country forebears did their washing on Mondays"): is the weekday-room a memorial of a gendered weekly round — and does naming the Mondayery launder the labour it commemorates (the laundry-room as the week's first room)?
• The rhythm-principle scales from room to season to year, with each scale-up more class-bound: the Mondayery is unbuilt, the weekend home is commodity, the circa-annual habitat is "the happy few." Is rhythmic living structurally a function of leisure-time ownership — and can a heptadian room democratize what only a heptadian fortune has built?
• Perec says a division based on heptadian rhythms is "hardly any more transgressive" than the given; but he then abandons rhythm for theme as the better proposal. Is the heptadian therefore a way-station — the proof that even maximal rhythm-change leaves functionalism intact ("hardly… a departure from the functional") — and is that proof the essay's real target?