Formulating a hierarchical structure of Feng Shui Knowledge

Abstract

Feng Shui is traditional Chinese wisdom which aimed at creating a harmonious built environment for people to live in. With a desire to improve the relationship between human and the environment, there is an increasing interest for architects, building services engineers and other construction practitioners to apply the concepts of Feng Shui in construction design. While Feng Shui has been practiced in China for more than three thousand years, little has been done to capture the Feng Shui knowledge in a systematic manner. Not just a lot of valuable knowledge and experience of Feng Shui is lost, but the lack of a structured Feng Shui framework could also give rise to superstition and mistakes. This paper investigates the potential of utilizing the concept hierarchy to establish a Feng Shui knowledge structure. From the principles and practice of Feng Shui, four fundamental concepts are derived which provide a broad understanding of the Feng Shui knowledge. A hierarchical structure of Feng Shui knowledge is presented which would form a useful basis for design evaluation.