A company builds with the laws of feng shui, an oriental technique that seeks to harmonize spaces

Something different is perceived when entering. A special energy seems to take over everyone who passes through the front door. It can be the source of water that occupies the entire wall on the right, or the bamboo canes that adorn the one on the left, or the colors: a red that refers to the fire and another gold that approaches the metal.

They are not just decorative elements. Each one is placed in the entrance hall of Cramer 1667, in Belgrano, because it has a meaning, a reason of being. Is that this building was built following the laws of feng shui, technique born more than 5000 years ago in China, which seeks to favor those who live in the house.

Although before it was a methodology that was applied indoors, with the decoration and the arrangement of the furniture, now it is also a technique that is used from the very conception of an architectural project. The idea of ​​building a feng shui building emerged in 2003. Today, all the apartments are sold.

“My wife, who studied feng shui and applied it at home, offered to do it in the buildings we were about to do, as a further detail.” From her idea, it occurred to me that it could be transformed into the integral concept of the project “, said Irishman Jack Murphy of Feng Shui Homes, the developer of the Cramer building.

The success achieved motivated the continuation: today, the company is building three more buildings in Belgrano. “We think of this neighborhood because it is a stable market, not a fad, but also because of the synergy that will be generated between the buildings.” The theme of energy is very important for feng shui, “explains Murphy.

Precisely, as if to give this work positive energy from the beginning, the five fundamental elements are present under the foundations: fire, earth, metal, water and wood. “Chi [beneficial energy] is activated by these elements that are present in nature,” says Ana Cabuli, Murphy’s wife and responsible for applying feng shui in buildings.

Among other details, the paliers have a rainbow painted because it represents balance, according to Cabuli; and on the beams – one of the architectural “accidents” on which the energy collides and falls – there is a bamboo flute to correct and allow a good flow of chi. 

Difficult to reconcile

But according to some specialists, reconciling architecture with feng shui can be difficult, especially when it comes to horizontal property.

“Feng Shui is more individualistic than collective because the good sectors of orientation vary from one person to another,” says the ” architect Marcelo Puente “ of the study “ “ , which specializes in applying these ancient techniques,

Puente also argues that, in general, the design criteria of an architect clashes with that of the oriental technique.” It has happened to me to make designs that are architecturally perfect, but that they are opposed to feng shui laws. ”

Marcelo Viggiano, director of the Hispano-American School of Feng Shui, gives an example of this lack of compatibility:” Normally, in western architecture the kitchen is attached to the bathroom to take advantage of the facilities and save pipeline costs. But this, from the point of view of feng shui, is not valid because the kitchen and the bathroom are opposite environments: one is fire and the other, water. ”

Another thing that is not usually taken into account in conventional architecture are the walls of the bedroom, one of the most important places in the house along with the entrance door and the kitchen.

“In this environment the orientation of the head of the bed is very important, which can be east or west, depending on the group that the person who sleeps there belongs to, in feng shui a wall of each orientation is left free, which it is not taken into account in normal constructions, “explains Viggiano.

In addition, when a house is built following the precepts of feng shui, special attention must be paid to the orientation and zoning where it is located. “It is always good to have a green space nearby and avoid bordering on an industry or a railroad because they generate environmental and sound pollution”, recommends Viggiano.

In short, according to specialists, feng shui tries to respond to certain perceptions that one feels about a house. “There are homes where people feel good and others where they do not, this technique responds to these sensations,” says Viggiano.

That’s why Murphy says the Cramer building is a happy building. Will this Chinese technique serve to end the consortium fights?

By Laura Reina
Of the Writing of the NATION

Note published on Sunday August 20, 2006

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