Feng Shui, Meeting the Master

 With a new project underway I had this week the opportunity to meet Honsen, a feng shui Master, a great privelege.
Initially  I  was very sceptical, I thought I knew enough about Feng Shui door and window locations, orientation and site planning, however, real Feng Shui is not as simplistic as  what the books say and the internent is full if generalist rubbish.
Feng shui largely relates to the energy of the resident, the birth year, (I struggle with that concept) and the power of the resident and their job or status, specifically in relation to future happiness and success.
So the meeting progresses, and Im open to new insights and The Master, Hosen, proceeds to talk about good and bad energy as it relates to the owners and the location. We luckily can achieve a good entry and good living spaces.

Where western design sense and cultural values are centred on views, the Feng shui energy dictates a different bedroom configuration, where I suggested that master suites share the view, this is not the case, and that master suites ought to separated by the length of the entire house.

Thinking about that afterwards makes perfect sense, a master suite with harbour views and a master suite with garden views. The Master made reference to adult children having access to an equal sized room so they would feel welcome in the house.

One if the most interesting Feng Shui concerns was the fire element of the kitchen and how this is best located towards a water element, in this case a spectacular view of Sydney Harbour. I had located the kitchen adjacent to an open plan dining space and then the view. Honsen reversed that and having studied the plan, it works, actually quite a modern twist on things.

One note to aspiring Feng shui devotees, the stereotypical idea  of not being able to look through from one end of a house to the other is wrong. It is apparently more about what you bring into the house from outside than passing through it. So the good news is don't cut off a great view from back to front, open it up, bring in the good spirit. Conversely, I suppose that means that if you have a view of a six lane highway you close it off...

The upshot of meeting with the Feng Shui Master was I think a great collaborative design solution. While  Feng Shui seems to be borne of practicality, it has  provided  a greater clarity to the design stages of this development.

Homsen is due back once the foundations and footings are underway, and I look forward to the next installment.

Julian Brenchley
Architect