Feng Shui Architecture.

From the Tao

Feng Shui Architecture.

The words Feng – Shui literally mean Wind- Water.
Feng Shui originated from China 4,000 years ago. China ushered in therir new year on February 14th ,2010[Valentines Day]. This year is the year of the Tiger. 2010 is Year 4707 in the Chinese Calendar.
Feng Shui aims to assist in locating buildings in the most perfect condition so as to release positive energy known as Qi[chi]. A building that merges well with nature and the environment also produces good Qi.
Coincidentally, Frank Lloyd Wright-June 1857-April 1959, the great American Architect who designed the Falling Waters House used the concept of merging his buildings with the environment. His works became so unique and famous due to this. Maybe he has long seen the benefits of Feng Shui Architecture by then.

Yi Yang.

Feng Shui is made up of 5 elements-Water, Wood, Fire, Earth/Soil and Metal under the concept of Yin –Yang..
Water has more Yin than Wood for example.
Feng Shui aims at balancing the forces of Yin and Yang within a building.

Practical Examples.

A practical example of good Feng shui is whereby the architects avoid to run beams across the living rooms or bedrooms. This creates negative energy in Feng Shui terms. Any decent architect will advice his client that such a beam defines space vertically hence if it’s a large room for example a sitting room that is supposed to be used as one room, the overhead beam that cuts across it makes the occupants feel as if there is something that is dividing the space into 2 parts. This feeling will affect the occupants negatively, reducing the occupant’s optimum performance. This is what the Feng Shui practitioners will call negative Qi.

Qi.

The flow of Qi is the same as the universal order of the Tao. Tao is Chinese meaning ‘way’. It is the flow of the universe, the force that keeps the universe in a natural order. If you have watched the movie ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne, you will definitely get the drift.
According to Feng Shui practitioners, Qi enters the house through the front door. A good architect is trained to articulate the main entrance through use of columns, expensive and attractive wall and floor finishes so as to make the entrance area unique. This is a sub-conscious attempt to bring in positive energy to the house.
Decisions such as putting up a decorated main door will also attract good Qi to the house. Grande Hand-curved Swahili doors are a good example to this even though the Swahili have never heard of Feng Shui. Each and every organized community has its own localized form of Feng Shui.

African Architecture.

Traditional African houses were made of natural material-Earth walls and thatch roof. In Feng Shui terms, these materials give the most positive energy to the occupants.
The planning arrangement of an African traditional homestead was also to a specific order such as the position of the mans house, 1st wifes house, cow pen, granary, sons house e.t.c.
This shows that these houses were designed to unlock positive Qi to the occupants though they had never heard of Feng Shui.

Currently, in the modern world, the natural construction materials are more expensive than the artificial materials.
A floor finish like hard-wood parquet or blocks is very expensive compared to an imitation such as the HDF wood laminate floors. Another example is a solid hardwood door compared to an MDF door. The solid hardwood door is more expensive than the MDF door. MDF glue also contains carcinogens. In roofing, the stone-coated roofing tiles that imitate thatch are the most expensive roofing materials that we have at the moment. A thatch roof will give much more positive energy than the expensive stone coated roof at any given time.
This shows that you get more positive energy when you use more natural materials.

Conclusion.

A well designed house that has been designed to the occupant’s satisfaction will definitely assist in giving him the positive energy required for optimum performance.
Design aspects such as colour of the rooms, orientation of the house, position of doors and windows, finishes and the overall shape of the building should all be considered for each individual by their architect so as to come up with a house that gives the most Qi.

Frank Gichuhi
+254 721 410684
www.a4architect.com