Modern interior design and feng shui don’t have to be mutually exclusive
| Text : Elizabeth Kerr | | Photo : www.thinkstockphotos.com |
Feng shui, according to the dictionary, is the Chinese system that studies our relationship to the environment we live, work and play in, with the aim of maximising harmony with the spiritual forces believed to influence all spaces. Broken down like that it doesn’t sound much different from standard interior design. Sure, some design is conceived specifically to have a “Wow” factor, but when it comes to homes, offices, schools, hospitals and any other space we all inhabit, ideal usage of light, exploiting natural ventilation and maximising comfort is the end goal. Throw in the spiritual angle and people start to get squirrelly.
Gina Lazenby isn’t a designer. She’s an educator and the co-founder of the Feng Shui Society and founder of the Feng Shui Network International, and she has devoted the last 15 years to researching and communicating what it takes to create a healthy home. As Lazenby sees it, we are now living in a “remote controlled, instant, fast food, push-button” world that is highly artificial and that exposes us to high levels of toxins and general filth. Sick building syndrome is common, and we’ve created a way of life “grossly out of step with nature and without respect to the consequences our actions will have on the environment.” We’re buying organic foods, spending millions of dollars at spas and largely heeding Al Gore’s warnings. A natural extension of that is the feng shui home.
“By paying attention to your home environment and its layout you are creating a foundation to make your life work better. Your home IS the container for your life,” Lazenby explains, likening expression in the home of one’s hopes, dreams or insights to the way, say, fashion does. “By making the physical environment over which you have most control into a well-ordered space thoughtfully designed to support you, life will be much easier … We are inextricably linked to the places we choose to live, so using feng shui principles to guide does make life much easier,” she states.
Lazenby admits that her own home isn’t “feng shui-ed out” as it were, and emphasises tailoring one’s environment is an ongoing and constant process. It’s similar to any decor changes we may make when a baby or pet is added to the home, there’s a career change or other major life shift.
Of course feng shui has its naysayers, something that Lazenby just lets slide. “As with anything you just to try it out to see if it works for you. I don’t think I was an immediate ‘believer’ until I tried out some changes and then watched for results. It has taken me many years to build up a fluency with feng shui where I am in constant dialogue with my home and can see in what ways it is a barometer for my life.” She theorises that much of the scepticism that can be hurled at the ancient system stems from our modern disconnect from nature. “Just because it is not familiar to us does not make it unreal.”
So how do you bridge the chasm between a designer and a feng shui master? It’s actually not that difficult and there should be no better place to try than Hong Kong. As Lazenby sees it, a good designer will get to know their clients, how best to use a space for that client, what colours and art work best for them and so on. “Often designers will know intuitively what is good for a space and in a sense will create good feng shui, often unintentionally,” she says. “But a feng shui practitioner will always bring an edge even when it is simply a slight adjustment that can make all the difference because they are looking at the energetic impact of all the design choices. A designer and feng shui practitioner will make a dream team in creating a beautiful space of harmony in the home of a client because they have the potential to synergies their different skills.”
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