It’s often said that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, and this can certainly be the case with feng shui.

I wrote a blog a while ago about the problem with oddly shaped houses, and a man called Mark responded by saying, ‘I’ll take this article as a challenge for me and my architect friends. Some of us enjoy designing very unique, modern spaces, but I see that it would be foolish to neglect the wisdom of the ages. I’m now wondering what types of buildings can work good with dynamic shapes; perhaps places with more temporary uses.’

So for Mark, other architects, and anyone living in an asymmetrical home, here’s some more information I didn’t include first time round that you definitely need to know.

The article I wrote was something of a rant about missing areas, but it doesn’t mean that all buildings in the world must ideally be symmetrical. This is because not all missing areas create missing areas. Let me explain…

If a missing area measures less than 50% of the side of the building it is located on, then that part of the bagua is missing and it creates a missing area. In the example shown above, the far back right hand corner of the building is missing, which is the Relationships area. This can cause all kinds of difficulties in finding or maintaining a primary relationship, and I’ve seen this unfortunate situation more times than I like to remember.

However, if the missing area measures more than 50% of the side of the building it’s located on, then most feng shui teachers agree that what you have is not a missing area at all, but a projection of the area that sticks out. This accentuates the energy of that area of the bagua and gives it more emphasis in your life. In the example I’ve given here, the projection is in the far back left hand corner of the building, which is where the Wealth area is.

You may also like to know that my personal experience is that it works best when a projection only occupies up to 33% of the wall it projects out from (A to B in the diagram), and only extends the length of the building by a maximum of 33% too (A to C). And for most people, the more symmetrical their home, the more balanced and productive their life will be.

Missing areas and projections can be in any area of the bagua. In the house I built for myself in Bali many years ago, I was in a phase of my life when my career was an important focus, so I deliberately added a projection in the Career area (the centre front). My Balinese friends used to joke that the house had a long nose like I did (although I must add in my defence that they see all western noses as long because theirs are mostly quite small and flat).

This design worked wonderfully well for me, but if ever I retire (possible, but unlikely), a different house shape would be preferable. And if I decide at some point to take a complete break (an extended meditation retreat, for example), I might even choose to live in a place with no Career area at all. My point is that feng shui is worth studying because it allows us to make conscious choices that support us in our journey rather than unconscious choices that can hinder our progress in ways we may never realize.

So I hope this opens a more creative playing field for you, Mark and friends. I’m very interested to see what develops architecturally from here.

Copyright © Karen Kingston, 2012

Here’s a message for all the architects of the world: Stop designing buildings with missing areas. Just stop it. Okay?

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us,” said Winston Churchill, who knew nothing about feng shui but summed up its essence very succinctly in these eight words. Unfortunately the opposite is equally true: We mis-shape our buildings, and thereafter they mis-shape us too.

There is a world of difference, for example, between living in an L-shaped house or one that is rectangular, but most people don’t realize it. In fact, living in any building that is not a perfect square, rectangle, octagon or circle can be problematic, and my personal experience has certainly borne this out.

The reason for this is revealed by the feng shui bagua, which can be laid over the plans of any building to discover where the different aspects of the occupants’ lives are located in the space. If any of those areas are missing, it can be very difficult for the corresponding aspects of their lives to flourish during the time they live there.

In an L-shaped building, four or five areas of the bagua can be completely absent. There are only nine areas of the bagua in total, so that’s half your life gone missing!

In other homes, irregularities of shape can mean one or more areas are not represented. The most common of these are a missing Relationships area (the far back right-hand corner when standing at the front door facing towards the house) or a missing Prosperity area (the far back left-hand corner).

This is not based in Chinese superstition, as admittedly some aspects of feng shui are, but in energetic principles that have been tried and tested over thousands of years and can be applied to any building anywhere in the world.

Architects who do not have this knowledge unknowingly create financial, relationship or other kinds of challenges in the lives of the people who live in the buildings they design. As one of my students said to me last week after months of hunting for a new home that didn’t have missing areas, “You have GOT to tell more people about this!”

While living in Bali, I had the wonderful experience of designing and building my own house, incorporating all the feng shui knowledge I had. So of course I built myself a home with no missing areas at all. I even bought a rectangular plot of land to put it on, to reinforce this even more.

But finding a house to buy now I’m back in England is proving tricky, to say the least. Sure, there are feng shui cures you can use to compensate for missing areas, but it’s never as good as having a home that doesn’t need them in the first place.

I’m not saying that all architects need to become feng shui experts. But it really would make a huge difference to our lives if they could just take this one little fact into account in their designs. There is too much to explain in this short blog, but the principles of the bagua are explained in just about every feng shui book there is. If you’d like a recommendation, one of my all-time favourites is William Spear’s book, Feng Shui Made Easy.

More information about the feng shui bagua
How the shape of your home can affect your life

Copyright © Karen Kingston, 2011

Do you know that most adults sharing a double bed have 25% less space than if they were each to sleep in a single bed alone? How crazy is that?

The UK, Australia and New Zealand have the tightest fits. A standard double bed in these countries measures 4 feet 6 inches (137 cm), which gives each partner a mere 27 inches (68 cm) of personal space. In a single bed, each person would have 36 inches (91 cm) to themselves, which is 9 inches (23 cm) or 25% more.

Europe and South America are about the same. A standard double European bed ranges from 135 cm to 140 cm wide, which gives each partner 65-70 cm (26-27 inches), compared to 90 cm (35 inches) in a single bed.

A standard double bed in the USA (called a full bed) is roughly the same size, but compared to single bed sizes, ranging there from 39-48 inches (99-122 cm) wide, each person gets 28% less personal space. Not surprisingly, the full bed size isn’t such a common choice for couples. Americans generally prefer bigger beds.

The next size up in the US is the queen bed (5 feet wide), which is equivalent to the king bed in most of the rest of the world (150-160 cm). Here it starts to get difficult to make comparisons because there are so many variations in sizes, but even so, these beds still give less space per partner than sleeping alone in a single bed.

The maths really only starts to work when you get to king beds (known as super king beds outside the US), which measure 6 feet 4 inches feet wide (193 cm). Now each partner is finally sleeping in a space that is equivalent to a single bed.

And if you really want to go for it, there are some bed manufacturers who offer 7 foot (213 cm) wide emperor beds, 8 foot wide Caesar beds, and of course, bespoke beds made to any size at all.

There’s no feng shui rule that says the bigger the bed, the better. In fact, I’ve seen marital situations where too big a bed has resulted in a loss of intimacy in the relationship.

But too small a bed can definitely have negative consequences. Most people spend a third of their life horizontal, and spending so much time feeling physically restricted and energetically compressed can result in feeling similarly constrained in other aspects of life. It can also affect the quality of your sleep in ways you may not realize.

So what do I recommend? Well, it’s very much a matter of personal preference. Some people need more space than others.

If you or your partner find you love the nights when the other person’s away because you get to sleep spread-eagle in the middle of the bed, then it would be wise to invest in the biggest one you can afford that your bedroom can comfortably accommodate. But if you both love the closeness and intimacy that a smaller bed can bring, that’s perfectly fine too. The important thing is to make a conscious choice about it rather than putting up for years with sleeping cramped, as so many people do.

Copyright © Karen Kingston, 2011