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Feng Shui (pronounced “fung shui”) means literally wind and water and is a type of geomancy or divination from nature. It originated in China, and relates to nature and the position of man and of buildings within it. Many hotels and restaurants in the Asia‐Pacific region have been specifically designed using feng shui principles, and recently Hilton International hotels used this as the focus of their advertising campaign. Discusses the origins of feng shui, and its impact on the location, design, layout, fixture and fittings and marketing of hotels and restaurants.

There have recently been an increasing number of scientific studies exploring the effectiveness of practising Chinese geomancy or feng shui in the built environment. However, these are rather generic studies focusing mainly on urban planning, architecture and interior design. The impetus for this present research stems from the lack of understanding relating to the practice of feng shui in Facilities Management (FM). Bridging these two disciplines, this study examines the relevance of and relationship between feng shui and FM principles.

A questionnaire survey was conducted, the results of which affirm the validity of the assimilated relationships between the two disciplines. Interviews with three groups of experts – the feng shui practitioners, facilities managers and feng shui practitioners who are also building professionals – were also conducted to verify the assimilation of the two disciplines with a view to draw new perspectives for better understanding.

The principles of feng shui and FM were studied, and the validity of the relationships between 15 feng shui principles and three FM activities were examined. The latter relates specifically to building fabric cleaning, routine external site/lot cleaning and road and pavement cleaning. It was found that specific feng shui principles and scenarios appear to influence the three FM activities. The statistical analysis shows that the means of specific feng shui scenarios in relation to FM activities were consistently higher than those of the feng shui principles. The one-sample t-test indicates that all the feng shui principles were significant in affecting the three FM activities.

This study provides a better understanding of the relevance of feng shui principles influencing FM principles. It also revealed the challenges and limitations in bridging the relationships between these two disciplines.

This study is the first investigation to examine the relevance and relationship between feng shui and FM practice. This serves to encourage further research to determine how feng shui design implementation will affect the ease of conducting FM activities. If the relationship is established, as is the case from this study, then the implementation of feng shui principles in building design can be encouraged to positively influence the ease of conducting FM activities downstream in the occupancy stage. This can serve to contribute to the improvement of sustainable building design. It can also contribute to the scientific investigation of feng shui, which has so far been largely overlooked in built environment studies. Such studies can help to demystify and provide logical and scientific interpretations of how feng shui principles actually work.

This exploratory study aims to determine whether a relationship is likely to exist between good feng shui and success.

The feng shui of eight hotel foyers and entrances were evaluated against 20 criteria, and managers asked to comment on the success of their hotels. Results were examined for possible relationships between feng shui and their descriptions of success.

Similarities between the reported success of hotel and feng shui evaluations were found in six out of the eight hotels in the study.

Responses on success were subjective and based on five criteria, which were insufficient to determine the existence of a firm relationship between actual success and feng shui. However, this was an exploratory study, and the relationships were sufficiently strong to warrant further research.

Findings suggest that feng shui offers useful design principles, and hotels with good feng shui are described as being more successful than those with poor feng shui. Good feng shui appears to have a positive effect on feelings of success.

This is the first study that attempts to test the relationship between good feng shui and success.

This study aims to investigate Feng Shui elements that can influence housing selection and property pricing in the Malaysian housing market.

A structured questionnaire encompassing 26 Feng Shui elements, which were shortlisted based on relevant previous studies, was distributed to prospective homebuyers in the Klang Valley region. The elements were inferred and ranked according to frequency, significance and importance scores. Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA tests were used to assess the ratings provided by the different respondent groups, while Spearman's rank correlation tests were utilised to measure the degree of agreement or disagreement among each pair of the ethnic group.

The results obtained indicate the following as the five most influential elements: orientation, main entrance, street location, house number and living room. Despite a multiethnic and multicultural society in Malaysia, Spearman's rank correlation tests showed that there are no differences in the prioritisation of Feng Shui elements between three distinct ethnic groups (Malay, Chinese and Indian). However, the distribution scores are statistically different between the groups. Comparing income level with Feng Shui inclinations, the three most frequently considered elements across the three income groups consistently include orientation, main entrance and street location.

The findings of this study are expected to provide guidance to property stakeholders (developers, real estate agencies, architects, local authorities) in their future development projects. For homebuyers, this study serves as a property Feng Shui checklist for home selection and investment.

This study explored the association of Feng Shui principles to housing selection and property pricing based on cultural and income factors. These findings provide useful insights for designing and positioning of residential properties in both primary and secondary housing markets in Malaysia and beyond.

Bedroom Feng Shui practices have been criticized as myth over the years but in fact having its scientific origin that is not purely superstitious. This paper aims to examine whether the architects' design practice for bedroom interior arrangement is concurring with the recommended bedroom Feng Shui practices. The study has successfully interviewed 16 architects from diverse backgrounds to avoid bias, seeking their design perspectives in bedroom interior configuration. Subsequently, the interviewees submitted sketches of ideal bedroom layout based on their expertise, with pre-set requirements. Data from semi-structured interviews were analyzed using mixed method approach. In agreement with our expectations, majority of the interviewees have matching thoughts that “bed arrangement” is the primary consideration in bedroom interior configuration. Most of the design outputs were highly attached to favorable Feng Shui conditions. The overall findings implied that bedroom Feng Shui is not merely superstitious but most components are practical design references for architects from diverse backgrounds.

To determine if the ancient Chinese tradition of Feng Shui affects residential property prices in a Western setting (“Western” and “the West” refers to the cultures and peoples of the mainlands Europe, the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand.)

Two approaches were adopted to measure the impact of Feng Shui design principles on property prices. First, a case study approach using a paired sales analysis was adopted to compare sales transaction prices of Feng Shui designed condominiums with sales prices of condominiums that were built without this design feature. Second, sales transaction data were analysed using multiple regression analysis in a hedonic pricing framework.

The results were mixed but provide preliminary evidence that Feng Shui impacts positively on property prices in the West.

Firstly, the units were sold as “designer ready”. Prices for these units exclude floor coverings, painting, kitchen and bathroom fittings, appliances, counter tops and plumbing fixtures. A more precise adjustment was not able to be made as the actual build‐out cost for each unit was not available. However, it was felt that the average rate was a reasonable proxy for the cost of a build‐out. Secondly, the case study includes sales of Feng Shui designed units in only one building. A more reliable result would have been achieved had the data set included several buildings constructed using the principles of Feng Shui.

With the rise in popularity of the use of Feng Shui design in Western homes, understanding the effects of this on property values is important to both property valuers and investors of such property.

Research on the impact of cultural beliefs on residential property values in the West is limited. This paper provides a contribution to understanding the value affects of such beliefs, specifically those relating to Feng Shui.

Cosmology is of essence for the life of traditional man not only to live in a meaningful universe, but to bound himself with the universe to achieve well-being as well. Architecture is a way of creating spaces through generic forms and symbols to attain this unity of man and the universe. This article interprets the courtyard house which is a well known archetype of spiritual and celestial qualities and has symbolic generic forms through the perspective of theory and practice of feng shui which is an ancient Chinese philosophy, based on the understanding of physical configuration of geographical settings and application of its principles to the built environment. The courtyard houses represented for this article are chosen on a linear axis starting from Cyprus, passing through Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and ending at China. In this article, principles of feng shui are selected and formulated to create an evaluation model showing entrance-courtyard relation, building shape, water element, room arrangement, and door alignment and circulation. Based on this evaluation model, the essential aspects of well-being have been revealed through the elements of architecture. In that sense, this article presents the opportunities and possibilies of an ideal plan layout by bringing an awareness to the cosmology and feng shui to achieve well-being.

Taoist thought is not easily penetrable for Westerners, though it has growing importance with the globalisation of Chinese commerce. The purpose of this paper is to explore some aspects of Chinese and Taoist thought, and how they can be expressed in cybernetic terms, using a knowledge cybernetics (KC) schema.

KC operates through metaphor the role of which is considered with respect to its application to the specific area of urban landscaping.

A new methodological approach is indicated that is capable of linking Western landscape theory with Taoist feng shui. The traditional approach to critical planning has been in principle enhanced through the idea of landscape canonical harmony that comes from Taoist feng shui. It is also shown that the activity phases in urban landscape design are ontologically different, and use distinct types of energy measures.

The research uses KC as a vehicle for the development of a landscaping methodology that draws on both traditional Western and Chinese Taoist approaches. It requires application to real situations to draw out its practical capacities.

This is apparently the first time that a synergy between Western and Chinese approaches to landscape design and development has been attempted that results in the proposal of a complete methodology.

The successful use of this methodology could demonstrate that Western and Chinese approaches to landscape design are relatable.

Architecture influences people and the environment from the past, present and the future. Nevertheless architecture and design quality is viewed as subjective, and benchmarks to achieve consensus are necessary for design or evaluation of buildings. This paper establishes architectural design criteria for design quality of multi-storey housing buildings. A set of the criteria was established with literature review, an operational definition and survey on qualified persons or architects in the professional practice of architecture. The literature reviews identified seven concepts for architecture and design quality, and the operational definition translated this architectural design quality to measurable and observable cases and variables. The survey collected these variable data from a purposive sample of 95 respondents, and these data were examined by statistical analysis. The results of the descriptive statistics, inferential t-tests (p ≤ 0.05) and positive hypothesis testing verified that respondents in general agreed to these seven design concepts as architectural design criteria for design quality. These results established the first ever set of seven architectural design criteria which were ranked in descending order of significance as function, socio-culture, site context, cost, aesthetic of art, sustainability, and Feng Shui. These architectural design criteria can be applied to the design or evaluation of multi-storey housing buildings for the good of people and the environment.