48

2
0
1
4


A
N

E
X
C
I
T
I
N
G

C
I
T
Y

I
N

T
H
E

M
A
K
I
N
G
T
A
L
K
I
N
G

P
O
I
N
T
High-rise
by Joey Yap
Chief Consultant of Joey Yap Consulting Group and
founder of the Mastery Academy of Chinese Metaphysics.
!"#$ &'()

H
I
G
H
-
R
I
S
E

F
E
N
G

S
H
U
I
Jce, `a is he eacir er hoi, LaZi arc ace eacir
consultant in Asia. He is an international speaker, bestselling
author of over 100 books and master trainer in Chinese
eah,sics. e is asc he Chie Ccrsoar c Jce, `a
Consulting Group and founder of the Mastery Academy of
Chinese Metaphysics.
In recent years, apartment and condominium
have become increasingly popular in Johor
and Iskandar Malaysia. Dealing with Feng
Shui for apartments, condos and high rise
buildings is quite diferent from landed
property. The broad principles of Feng Shui
on Qi collection are of course the same, but
the application is diferent. For example,
when it comes to apartments, how do you
determine the Facing of the building in order
to obtain the Qi map of the property, using
either Eight Mansions Feng Shui or Flying
Stars Feng Shui?
Condo Challenges
First, let me assure readers who own or are living in
apartments or condos that it is entirely possible to apply Feng
Shui to apartments and condos. There are special techniques
for handling small spaces, drawn from Xuan Kong and Xuan
Kong Da Gua, which have a range of techniques for
application in small-sized properties. However, there are also a
lot of challenging limitations that apartments pose - you can't
renovate extensively, there is less space in which to make
changes such as using diferent rooms.
Hence, when it comes to apartments, screening and selection
is extremely important. With houses, greater space in the
rooms afords increased exibility, even for something as
simple as changing the bed direction. With apartments, you
have a limited number of rooms to use, and a limited amount
of space within those rooms to make adjustments. Landed
properties usually have a small garden, which facilitates the
use of Water features to help collect Qi. By contrast, in an
apartment or condo, you have no control over where the
swimming pool is located or where the landscaped ponds go.
Finally, it's harder to gure out the Facing Direction. A
well-known mistake (caused by incorrect information) many
people make is to y the Flying Star chart based on the facing
of the Unit if it is located above the 9th oor instead of the
building's orientation. Now, if you think about it, that means
that 100 units in the same block, under the same roof, can
have diferent period Flying Star charts (even though the
building shares the same roof!). Naturally, that is illogical and
is not how the Flying Star chart for an apartment unit is
derived.
In practice, the facing orientation of the entire block is used to
derive the Flying Star chart. Now, this would mean that every
unit in the apartment block has the SAME Flying Star chart,
but it does not mean that the Feng Shui of every unit is the
same. The Flying Star chart of each unit is inuenced by the
oor it is located on, the environmental factors outside the
block, the unique location of each unit's main door, the
residents and the forms within vicinity of the unit and inside.
Hence, when it comes to apartments and condos, you really
do need to do a lot more checking and screening before
buying because once you buy, your ability to make changes,
or even work the Feng Shui yourself, is a little restricted, as
compared to a house.
Selecting the Property
Before I start on the important Feng Shui considerations when
it comes to apartments and condos, let me rst talk about
what is NOT important. The unit number is not important. The
colour of the door, or the paint colour in the living room of the
unit, is of no signicance. Living on the 4th oor is not taboo -
who knows, the apartment building that you are considering
may well have fantastic Feng Shui on the 4th oor!
The environment always comes rst. Whenever you are
contemplating purchasing or renting an apartment or condo,
look at the area and check the forms. Forget about the
apartment or condo unit for now - when you're shopping for
an apartment or condo with good Feng Shui, you need to look
at whether or not the apartment block or building is located in
an area with good Qi. Find the Qi mouth of the area, assess the
mountains and water in the macro area to get a snapshot of
the Qi quality in the area.
Once you are sure it is a good environment with good forms,
then you look into the building itself. Check the Xuan Kong
,ir ar char cr LaZhai (Lih arsicrs) char c he
building. The last thing you should look at is the internal unit
itself. If the building faces an unfavourable direction, and the
Qi in the area is stagnant or negative, you can chose the unit
with the best direction and it will still be all for nothing. If you
want to nd out how to get your houses Qi map, you can plot
your house charts here:
http://www.masteryacademy.com/Resources/onlinetools/yingstarcalculator.asp
Picking the Unit
After the environment has passed muster, and the building's facing has been
checked out, assuming all is well, how do you know which unit to select? First, you
need to determine which is the best oor to buy or rent on. Now, the upper oors or
the penthouse may be the most expensive or have the best view, but that does not
mean they have the best Feng Shui. Of course, the penthouse unit usually comes
with a little garden, which can double up as a Bright Hall to collect Qi so the
penthouse oor has its benets but again, that does not mean it has the best Feng Shui.
Diferent oors are assessed diferently, based on the environmental features in the
vicinity and its inuence on that oor, the shape of the apartment building as a whole
and the Qi relationship between the environment and the particular unit. Each oor
also has an elemental value, drawn from the He Tu Five Elements. The suitability of
the oor's elemental value has to be partnered with either the occupants personal
Xoar cr Coa cr a `ir.
After the best oor is determined, it's time to view the unit and check out the forms
around and in the unit itself. Again, it's the forms that impact on the unit door that
concern us. The door of the unit should not open in an area with negative forms and
should be located in a good sector and open to a good direction. Avoid selecting a
unit with a door that is opposite the staircase. Qi will leak out of your unit. In
apartment and condo Feng Shui, it is preferred for the unit's door to open up where
there is a spacious foyer and broad area so Qi can collect. Now, some units in
apartments have doors that face a small garbage chute. This is not necessarily
negative Feng Shui - your luck is not being tossed down the garbage bin so to speak.
While this is a bit of a challenge, not all apartment or condo units open on enclosed
corridor. Some open up to the central courtyard for example. This is preferable to a
unit door that opens up to a tight corridor. Also, when it comes to unit selection, a
Classical Feng Shui practitioner will also consider personal birth data. Fine tuning can
be administered by taking into consideration (1) the main door of the unit, (2) the
bed location and (3) the stove location.
Another important aspect of assessing apartment and condo units is internal. Avoid
choosing apartments or condos units with extremely odd shapes. This may look
funky on the oor plan but results in very 'un-funky', unstable Qi and will give you a
lot of problems with sharp corners. The unit's Main Balcony also needs to be
examined. This needs to tap into the positive environmental features surrounding the
apartment or condo block to be really good. If there are any electrical pylons in the
area, you should not select a unit where the pylons are visible from the Main Balcony.
Ideally, you want to see certain forms - a good table mountain and preferably,
returning Water formation in the Southwest, Southeast, North and East directions,
coming towards the property. Finally, the unit door and the location of the balcony
door need to be placed according to classical Feng Shui formulas in Xuan Kong Da
Coa, La Zhai arc ei Xir ha are aicaLe c aarners arc ccrccs. r Xoar
Kong Da Gua, a unit, regardless of its size, can be demarcated into 64 segments.
Once the Qi reference is identied, a practitioner can facilitate the ow of Qi in
certain key points within the unit, based on its structural limitations.
The challenge that achieving good Feng Shui poses, when it comes to apartments
and condos, is one of the reasons why apartment and condo owners sometimes opt
for New Age Feng Shui. It is human nature to hope for the best and certainly, it's
easier to believe that the Qi of your apartment can be xed with an item or an object
than to accept that your unit has certain limitations when it comes to Feng Shui. No
matter what people say, no one likes to be told that the place they are living in is
'so-so' or 'limited'. The conventional reaction is always "can't you just x it to make it
better?"
Unfortunately, Feng Shui is not a Band-Aid or plastic surgery ala Nip/Tuck. At the
most minimal, Feng Shui requires either a directional or locational change, and
improving a situation often requires altering the Qi path by moving things around. So
in an extremely small apartment or condo unit, this can be quite challenging and
requires a lot of commitment to change on the part of the owner. Ultimately, the best
way to make Feng Shui work for you, when it comes to an apartment or condo, is to
be judicious with your choice. Find a good area rst, and select an apartment or
condo in the area with favourable forms around it, and you've taken the rst step
towards achieving positive Feng Shui for your apartment or condo unit.
50
2
0
1
4


A
N

E
X
C
I
T
I
N
G

C
I
T
Y

I
N

T
H
E

M
A
K
I
N
G
T
A
L
K
I
N
G

P
O
I
N
T
Every year, we are presented with a unique Feng Shui outlook which serves to be a make-or-break situation for many. Let
Jce, `a shcv ,co hrcoh his er hoi 8 /srcc, (/) 2O- senirar ha rc naer vha errair he ,ear is, ,cor cvr
individual path to success and happiness is possible if you make the rst move. The FSA is a not-to-be-missed event as you
will get to meet with Joey himself and have all your questions about Feng Shui or Chinese Metaphysics answered.
Log on to Joeys website at www.joeyyap.com to nd out more about this event.