Architects And Feng Shui

Architects and Feng Shui



After graduating from Harvard College and Yale Law School, Vincent M. Smith came to feng shui through the theater. He practiced law, specializing in real estate, as a day job for 25 years, while he also pursued his first love at night, acting, directing, and set designing for plays. When he begin to think about it, he realized that on the set, he was creating a "home" for his actors. He began to toy with the idea of creating a space that would create positive energy for the actors or, when the play warranted, creating a stage that enhanced the negative energies of anger and tension. The very idea that the space on stage could affect the performance is how Smith came to publish his book, "Feng Shui: A Practical Guide for Architects and Designers."

It is indeed interesting that Smith decided to direct his book to architects, who have traditionally debunked the idea of feng shui as superstitious nonsense. The language of feng shui can seem very new age with its talk of the five elements and energy flow. However, in his book, Smith tries to de-Easternize the ideas of feng shui and show it as a way to create a home environment that is harmonious and can effect the way people think and feel. Smith says that feng shui is just a form of psychology for the physical environment. "It's about how space reflects who we are and how it's constantly affecting us."



Modern architects need to take note. It's clear that there is a connection between feng shui and comfort in a house, which is what feng shui is trying to achieve. Architects are taught to design their buildings with a sense of orderliness, balance, and fluidity. Terms used in feng shui like "chi," or life energy and "yin and yang" are directly related to balance fluidity and orderliness. Smith writes about porches in his book as a useful transition between the outside and the inside, because "the transition from the energy of open sky to the closed-in space of the home is dramatic."



Another example that Smith talks about in his book is when people enter the foyer of a home and are immediately confronted by a wall no more than six feet away. Smith says that this wall is an energy blocker and stresses people entering the home by requiring them to decide, at once, which way they want to go. A solution for this problem would be to hang a mirror to create a feeling of depth in the space. Another example is a staircase that is presented in the home at the entryway, which pulls the guest's energy upstairs to the private spaces. Smith says this type of greeting to guests is a mistake. All these ideas seem to be in keeping with the principals that good architects follow.



However, there are a few tenets of feng shui that are sure to lose some architects. One such idea is that rails should be built on both sides of a stairway to create a feeling of support to the person climbing the stairs. Another such idea from feng shui says that the risers on stairs should be closed so that the energy does not "leak through," an idea at which most modern architects would scoff.



Smith is adamant in his book to point out that his ideas concerning feng shui and architecture should be played with, reinterpreted, and adapted by modern architects. Smith goes on to say that at first, architects tend to think that he is trying to design buildings for them, using feng shui. This is not the case. Smith merely wants architects to consider these ideas when designing. He goes on to say that most architects are "like sponges" and they "want to absorb all of this because it makes sense."