Feng Shui is something that has come up in each project that I have worked on. Certain aspects such as ‘the stairs should not face the door’ and ‘the front and back doors should not be aligned’ were applied to every single project. These were things that the trades I worked with came to know through experience. Fascinated by this, I decided to take a course on Feng Shui Analysis (an introduction to Feng Shui) to learn more about what it is at its core.
From my initial research online, there were a number of individuals that had written articles on things such as ‘Which Colours are Feng Shui’ or ‘Paint Your Walls Red and Your Problems Will Go Away’. Now that I have completed the course, I can say that this is an extremely simplistic application or even discussion around Feng Shui. The practice of applying Feng Shui to a home is quite complex and detailed - yes colours play a part, but in a much more specific way.
It is a way to balance the flow of energy within your home, and this is said to influence your life and health. When applying it to a home, you have to think about the individuals that live in it and adjust according to their personal attributes. What I love about it is that Feng Shui does not put all the emphasis of your life’s path on how energetically balanced your home is. The emphasis is split into thirds:
This is referred to as the Cosmic Trinity (San Cai) and is split into Heaven Luck, Earth Luck, and Human Luck. The belief is that each of these components has an equal influence on a person's affluence, as luck is seen as an abundance of opportunities (Los, 2019). While Heaven Luck is something you are born with and cannot change, the latter two are aspects that you can change. Earth Luck refers to your surroundings (such as your home) and Human Luck (commonly known as Mankind Luck) is created by your behaviours and attitude towards life. I found this to be important to share as it highlights that while this is a practice rooted in Chinese astrology, the bulk of it has to do with the structures we surround ourselves with and the attitude we choose to carry through life. Having near perfect Heaven Luck is useless if you surround yourself with and emit negativity.
For the project I am currently working on, we do not know who the homeowner will be yet, as we are building a spec home. Usually Feng Shui is optimized according to the individuals in the family, however there are some key principles that apply to every home that I was able to use. These principles are specific to the direction that the home is facing, and the location that it is in. In applying them, we changed the architecture of this New Build several times, flipping the entire main floor at one point, so that the home would comply with Feng Shui principles and provide the best environment for the family that purchases it. An image I posted on our Instagram page shows some notes regarding things that needed to be altered (after several initial alterations) according to Feng Shui. The notes all over the architectural plan were my way of ensuring that I know the energy and needs of each part of the home and to design accordingly.
Feng Shui may still be a foreign and mysterious concept to many, but it is widely used in our market and understood to be a deal-breaker when homes are not aligned according to it. Taking this course provided a better understanding of what this market is looking for in a home: an abundant life.
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