Feng Shui in an Apartment Building: Flat Numbers, Lift and Corridors

Reading the building before the flat

When people ask about feng shui in a flat, they usually want to know about their own front door. But in a multi-unit building, the flow of qi is determined well before your door: by the way the site is entered, the shape of the footprint, the position of the main entrance relative to the rest of the block, and the internal circulation.

Some of this is genuinely practical. A building with a single main entrance on the main road has one mouth; a building with a main entrance plus a rear service door and a side passage has three, and the flow is shared rather than focused. Blocks with a courtyard, a dropped service core or an underground car park each have a different relationship with the ground, and the whole structure reads differently depending on where the qi enters.

The shape of the block

Some classical building rules apply at estate scale. A straight L-shaped or T-shaped block is described as a shape that shoots qi along one arm and into the ground beyond the far end. A U-shaped or horseshoe block is generally better, because the flow is directed into the courtyard and retained there. Curved and irregular footprints are usually favourable, which is part of why older estates feel different from post-war ones.

And the ground beneath

A block with a basement car park is sitting on a cavity, and the Chinese tradition is sensitive to the treatment of the earth under a building. Where the ground is genuinely problematic — a steep slope, a site where a stream once ran — the position is described as having had its qi disturbed.

The lift lobby and the corridor

The shared spaces

These are the shared spaces that determine the qi that reaches your front door, and they are worth looking at closely on your first viewing.

The lift lobby. Where you come out of the lift is the point at which your qi enters your personal space. A lobby that is dim, windowless and directly opposite a fire escape is a poor position: the fire escape is a release point that draws qi out strongly, and a flat facing it is described as facing a 煞 arrow. A lobby with a window, good lighting and a view out is far better, and so is a flat reached by a walk with natural light in it.

The corridor. This is the artery of the building and it carries the qi of everyone who uses it. In the traditional building rules, a corridor that runs straight from the lift lobby to a dead end creates a channel that draws qi along it and dissipates it at the end. The remedies are the classical ones: a bend in the corridor, a window at the far end, a plant, a picture, a mirror placed to redirect rather than reflect straight back.

Your position in the corridor. A flat in the middle of a run, with neighbours on both sides, receives a more balanced flow than one at the end, where the corridor's movement either rushes at your door or dissipates past it. A flat at the very end of a corridor, behind the last turning, is the most awkward position in most blocks, because it is where the flow of the entire shared space collects and then has nowhere to go.

Floor, aspect and the view

Floor level. The lowest residential floors are closest to the ground, which means more of the earth's energy, more noise from the street and the yard, and in older buildings more damp. The top floor has the most light and the best view and the most exposure to wind, and it is where the roof takes the strain. Middle floors are the compromise and are usually the practical answer. There is also a specific consideration for the floor immediately below the roof, where the temperature swings and where the top of the building's qi is most concentrated and least moderated.

Aspect. A south-facing flat in Britain gets the most light and the most warmth, and south is the fire position — strong, bright, active. A north-facing flat is cool and even, and in the classical system north is the water position, associated with career and with the water element; in a building, north-facing flats are also quieter and cooler in summer. East and west are the transitional positions, with east getting the morning light and west the long afternoon sun that overheats in summer and is the position most likely to suffer from solar gain.

The balcony guide covers the outdoor space, which is where the view is actually experienced on a high floor, and the television guide covers the screen many flats point at that view.

The view itself

Views are read more seriously than in ordinary house hunting. An open view over water, parkland or a wide space is generally favourable, because it gives the eye somewhere to travel and the qi somewhere to go.

Flat numbers and floor numbers

Now the part everybody asks about, and the part that matters least.

Flat numbers. The number 4 is avoided in many Chinese and other East Asian contexts, largely because of an association with death through phonetic similarity in some dialects and with the fourfold badness of certain dates. Eight is widely regarded as the most auspicious number, and it is used on phone numbers, car registrations and addresses throughout East Asia. Three is also regarded as favourable in many contexts, and six as smooth. None of this is intrinsic to feng shui; it comes from numerology and cultural convention.

Two things are worth saying. First, in Britain this has very little force, and a buyer in most UK markets will not care what your flat is called. Second, if you are selling to an East Asian buyer — which is increasingly common in London and in university cities — then a flat number of eight or three may measurably help, and one containing a four may measurably hurt, and that is a market fact rather than a metaphysical one.

Personal numbers

Where numerology does connect to feng shui properly is through the personal kua number, derived from the year of birth, and through the eight mansions method of matching a number to a direction. The lucky number calculator will give you the numbers that support you, and the eight mansions calculator explains the method. Note the honest framing: this is a system of auspicious and inauspicious values, and its force in a modern flat is mostly about how you feel about your own front door.

Buying with a feng shui eye: what to look at on the viewing

Most people viewing a flat are looking at the wrong things for feng shui purposes, and it is worth knowing what to look at instead. The photographs will not show you any of it, so it has to be done in person.

Walk the approach. Stand at the building’s main entrance and look at it properly, then look away and back. You are assessing how the building presents itself to the street and where its qi is directed. A building with a recessed, angled or screened entrance is working harder than one with a flat glazed frontage, and the difference is visible in the car park and the walkway as much as in the lobby.

Look at the fire escape and the bin store. Two of the most telling details on any viewing. A fire escape on the front of the building is a release point pointing at the flats opposite it, and a bin store with an open door and visible waste at ground level is the least pleasant element on the estate, positioned exactly where the shared flow arrives.

Check the lift lobby. Look at the ceiling, the corners and the walls behind the letterboxes. Look for a window. Listen for the machinery. A lobby that is bright, ventilated and reasonably quiet is delivering a better flow to every flat on the floor than a dark one with an extract fan running.

And the last check

Stand in the corridor outside the flat you are considering, with the door open, and look back the way you came. If the corridor runs straight to a dead end, you will see it.

Compensating for a difficult position

What you can actually change

Most flats are in a position nobody chose. The good news is that the position of the flat is the part you can least change, and the parts you can change are the ones that have the most effect on how the place feels day to day.

At the front door. The threshold treatment is the most powerful adjustment available: a mat, a screen, a plant, a bright light and a clear sightline into the flat rather than into a corridor wall. A front door that opens onto a dark corner with a bin store opposite is the case where this work is worth doing. The guide to entrances covers the treatment.

In the corridor. You usually cannot change a shared corridor, but you can contribute: a good doormat, a plant outside your door if the building allows it, and clean, well-lit shared space through the residents' association or management.

At the balcony. A balcony is your own outdoor buffer and it can be made to work hard — plants, light and a clear threshold. The balcony guide covers this in detail, and it is worth noting that in a high-rise the balcony is also where you get the view, and the view is one of the biggest contributors to how a flat feels.

Inside. Where the building is a poor position, the internal arrangement carries more weight. A well-arranged flat in a weak position on the building's perimeter is generally a better home than a badly arranged flat in a strong one, because you live inside it every day and you only pass through the corridor twice a day.