Urban Feng Shui: Design Guidelines for Multifamily Residential in Honolulu

Abstract

Urban Feng Shui: Design Guidelines for Multifamily Residential in Honolulu provides a framework for the designer to consider the principles of feng shui when designing for a multifamily residential project. Feng shui is a form of practice which aims to manipulate the built environment to benefit the well-being of people. Originally a Chinese belief system from the rural areas of Ancient China, it grew as an oral tradition to be interpreted by individuals in the urban context. Although sometimes it is seen as a superstition and aesthetic, designers should consider feng shui as a cultural and environmental factor when designing for people. As a matter of fact, feng shui can be applied to all stages of design. The focus of this project is to explore the origins of feng shui and its transformation to the urban context, specifically in residential architecture. This will be done by reviewing traditional systems of feng shui and exploring the acceptance of feng shui in the West. Following that will be an interview with a feng shui specialist from Honolulu which will provide a distinct list of multifamily residential feng shui principles to compare with Western architectural feng shui principles. The research process will then inform design guidelines to approach site selection, site analysis, and building design for a multifamily residential project in Honolulu. The results will show that feng shui is a viable system to approach designing for the built environment. It reinforces the importance for designers to think from a macro to micro scale, from the site of the building and eventually on the spaces of the residents.