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Feng Shui aka architecture woo

tinribmancer

Hasbarian NWO Templar Cattle
tinribmancer
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Thought I'd bring this forward:

Feng shui (風水 or 风水, pronounced "feng shway") is the ancient Chinese art of arranging buildings and their interiors in order to promote a favorable balance of qi.

Historically, Feng Shui was enormously important in oriental architecture, spreading from China to surrounding countries such as Korea and Japan. As an example, temples, castles and cities were almost invariably built with their south gate being the main entrance, this being believed to be the most fortuitous direction for favourable qi.

In recent years, Feng Shui has been repurposed to create jobs for New Agers and former psychologists, to sell vacuous coffee table books, and as a way for people with more money than intelligence to correct that imbalance.
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https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Feng_shui

Has this **** flown over to western countries aswell?
 
Yeah, some new-agey designers claim to use it in the States, too, but I never heard it associated with qi. I always heard south was traditionally lucky because Hell or whatever was symbolically in the north. Had an Asian couple once that actually had us turn a house around (while still in planning stages) with this as the reason. We also couldn't have a straight sidewalk leading to the front door for some reason, it had to be serpentine.

The designers I've worked with focus on good feeling from the layout, such as natural light and views, and not being cramped.
 
Indeed, qi aside, I find that good architecture (especially for resideces) is one that just organically feels comfortable and right. Flow, I would think, has something to do with that. Not the flow of some magical energy, but the visual and functional flow. If feng shui accidentally gets that right, I don't have a problem with it.

Has it come to the West? Yes, but as Thermal notes it seems to be secularized as much as possible. I have many books on architecture in my private library, and only one addresses feng shui in the classical sense of diagramming the supposed flow of qi (in its older transliteration, "chi"). It's specifically for office design. The rest just mention it mostly as a vernacular architectural philosophy.
 
Penn & Teller did an episode on this ("********!", not "Fool Us"); took three 'experts' in Feng Shui, had the same person give them the same room to design and got (surprise - not) three completely different designs.
 
I've twice walked away from new clients when they started talking about feng shui. It is absolutely impossible to deal with the sheer nonsense that this fashion brings to the party. I say it all the time........buildings are easy. Dead easy. It's the clients that make this job difficult, and chucking tosh like feng shui into the mix guarantees trouble.
 
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The Lucky Dragon Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas was designed with Feng Shui in mind. The resort hasn't been doing to well. Not saying Feng Shui caused the problems, but it certainly didn't help.
 
desmirelle said:
Penn & Teller did an episode on this ("********!", not "Fool Us"); took three 'experts' in Feng Shui, had the same person give them the same room to design and got (surprise - not) three completely different designs.
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I wouldn't fault them for that. When I am asked to design a kitchen or something, I usually give three or so general layouts and see which one the owners gravitate towards and, more importantly, why. You can have wildly differing kinds of excellent design and a thousand kinds of beautiful.

One thing I have noticed with the hippy-dippy types, is that they say vague things like 'its energy doesn't feel right' or something similar to justify changes. Those changes tend to work towards their financial advantage, by coincidence I'm sure.
 
Thermal said:
I wouldn't fault them for that. When I am asked to design a kitchen or something, I usually give three or so general layouts and see which one the owners gravitate towards and, more importantly, why. You can have wildly differing kinds of excellent design and a thousand kinds of beautiful.

One thing I have noticed with the hippy-dippy types, is that they say vague things like 'its energy doesn't feel right' or something similar to justify changes. Those changes tend to work towards their financial advantage, by coincidence I'm sure.
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The loose way some people talk about "energy" is annoying to an engineer. I would ask the hippy-dippy type "how many joules or calories of energy are we talking about here?

This stuff sounds a bit like the following:

Vastu for a Positive Home

For a house to become a home, it needs to radiate the right kind of energy. According to a number of traditional beliefs, each home comes with its own energy type. A person dwelling in a house comes under the influence of a specific energy field, which in turn influences him in one way or the other.
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Same tosh different name.
 
It’s also a big deal in cemeteries. If a particular portion (garden) of a cemetery is blessed by a “feng Shui master” it becomes quite popular with folks who believe in it. What they don’t realize is that any garden can be blessed after trying enough “masters”. There are no hard and fast rules so many of the frauds masters make it up as they go.
 
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It’s nothing new.... There was a fad for Feng Shui 10-12 years ago, or more. I remember thinking at the time what an attractive business an online Feng Shui consulting firm would be.
Just send me a picture of your room or office, I’ll make a few suggestions.. Send me a check.
As I recall, Arthur C. Clark promoted a brand-new technology center in his adopted Sri Lanka.... But he had to have both local priests and a Feng Shui expert come in and examine the site and the plans.
 
I had a professor who was a very straight forward logical guy. When I went to his house the first thing he mentioned was that his wife had insisted on having a feng shui master look over the design before it was finished. The one suggestion was to reverse a stair case that went down to the parking area under the house. The master said money would flow out of the house if it was not changed. The change cost something like $2000 but he made the change. After the change was made he realized that his wife's car would not have fit in her parking space if they had stuck with the original design. He didn't believe in feng shui, but he felt like he got his money's worth all the same. And his wife was happy.
 
I've never studied in depth, but I've heard a few "principles" that made sense to me aesthetically. There are certain things that can make you feel uncomfortable in a space without your really noticing what specifically it is that gives you that feeling. But the vast majority of feng shui is pure bunkum. Your money corner??? WTF?
 
I used to date a woman that I dumped right before the financial crisis of 2008. She had a Feng Shui inspired trinket over her toilet that was supposed to be symbolic of money not being flushed down the toilet. She also had a several hundred dollars of homeopathic medicines so I pointed out it couldn't possibly be working.


I got tired of her right before the 2008 financial crisis when she was spouting some conspiracy like theory about how hard it was to buy a house these days. I looked in to her facts, found out she was completely factually wrong and decided it was the straw that should end the relationship. In the course of investigating her theory though I noticed that it had been too easy to buy a house recently and that housing and credit markets didn't have much upward room. So I restructured and avoided the worst of the downtown. So, ironically, she did me a huge favor by being very wrong at the right time.
 
RecoveringYuppy said:
I used to date a woman that I dumped right before the financial crisis of 2008. She had a Feng Shui inspired trinket over her toilet that was supposed to be symbolic of money not being flushed down the toilet. She also had a several hundred dollars of homeopathic medicines so I pointed out it couldn't possibly be working.


I got tired of her right before the 2008 financial crisis when she was spouting some conspiracy like theory about how hard it was to buy a house these days. I looked in to her facts, found out she was completely factually wrong and decided it was the straw that should end the relationship. In the course of investigating her theory though I noticed that it had been too easy to buy a house recently and that housing and credit markets didn't have much upward room. So I restructured and avoided the worst of the downtown. So, ironically, she did me a huge favor by being very wrong at the right time.
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Yes, beware of the downtown properties. So overpriced.
 
LongFuzzy said:
The Lucky Dragon Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas was designed with Feng Shui in mind. The resort hasn't been doing to well. Not saying Feng Shui caused the problems, but it certainly didn't help.
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They should have focussed the qi to promote financial wellness for the casino and not the patrons.
 
RecoveringYuppy said:
I used to date a woman that I dumped right before the financial crisis of 2008. She had a Feng Shui inspired trinket over her toilet that was supposed to be symbolic of money not being flushed down the toilet. She also had a several hundred dollars of homeopathic medicines so I pointed out it couldn't possibly be working.


I got tired of her right before the 2008 financial crisis when she was spouting some conspiracy like theory about how hard it was to buy a house these days. I looked in to her facts, found out she was completely factually wrong and decided it was the straw that should end the relationship. In the course of investigating her theory though I noticed that it had been too easy to buy a house recently and that housing and credit markets didn't have much upward room. So I restructured and avoided the worst of the downtown. So, ironically, she did me a huge favor by being very wrong at the right time.
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See, feng shui works! In mysterious ways, though.:)
 
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