Flatland

Feng Shui of House Design and Layout
The Chinese have used the ancient arts of Feng Shui to help them design and lay out their houses for thousands of years. The words Feng Shui mean "wind, water", and this is the key to using Feng Shui, looking at nature, learning from it - from its shapes and forms - and understanding that you need to work with nature, and not try to artificially "force" against it. The forces of nature, and the balance between the masculine and the feminine, or the yin and the yang, need to be balanced and kept in check. Too much of one will overpower the other and cause illness or suffering.

Different Schools
There are many schools of Feng Shui, some based in ancient Chinese tradition, some on Korean and other neighboring countries. The two main schools are based on either the form school, which relies heavily on observation of nature, and the compass school, which relies on compass settings and complex measurements.

The form school emphasises the layout of the land where you are going to put your house. From a design point of view it is easy to see how the form tradition arose. It would make perfect sense to anybody that to put a house in land that is too low lying or by stagnant water would be a mistake. It is also important to look at shapes inside the house, and also the shape of the house itself. Chinese houses are not usually complex shapes, as they are considered inauspicious or unlucky. They tend to keep to vaguely rectangular shapes in plan. An "L" shaped house is not a good shape either, as tension is created between the two halves. The shape is considered to be like a cleaver, and depending where the bedroom or kitchen is located can bring very bad luck on the occupants - unless you take steps to remedy it. More about remedies later.

The compass school of Feng Shui concentrates on the direction and orienation of the house and its layout, i.e. is the front door west facing, east facing and so on. It also looks at the direction of the "fire mouth" or cooker, in Chinese culture food and eating is at the core of family life and if there is upset in the kitchen it is almost as bad as an upset in the bedroom, sometimes worse! Measurements are also taken to ensure that work surface and desk heights are correct for house occupants. These compass settings and height measurements are calculated using a complex series of tables and correspond to the occupants date and time of birth. It is sometimes difficult to work out how such directional and height recommendations can come from your date of birth, but strangely it does often seem to work.

Remedies
What if you are forced to use a plot of land that may be considered inauspicious because of its shape or location? Or you are living in an "L"-shaped house with a cooker facing the wrong direction? Dont worry, there are a large number of "remedies" that can be applied to ensure that you dont come to harm! I will talk about some of these in a later article! I will also look at some good shapes to look for when buying a plot of land.

posted by Pete Gilbert @ 1:48 pm