facing direction | Feng Shui Unzip

A House Facing and Sitting Direction

The sitting or facing direction of a house is also often used to determine the qi distribution or in layman terms to identify the auspicious and inauspicious sectors of the house.

As a rule, practitioners will try to allocate the most auspicious sectors of the house for the main door, bedrooms, kitchen and living area. The less auspicious sectors for the less important areas (Feng Shui wise) such as the toilet/baths and stores.

Some Feng Shui systems like the Eight House or Eight Mansion systems utilizes the sitting direction while others such as the Xuan Kong Flying Star system uses the facing direction of the house. The facing or sitting direction is used by itself but often in conjunction with other factors such as the period to determine the quality of the house.

In addition, the facing direction of the house is also often used in conjunction with destiny and luck systems such as Zi Wei Dou Shu to determine the effect of the house on the occupants of the household.

The facing side of a house is usually the busier side and the side that lets in most of the environment energy into the house. The larger windows are usually at the facing side. It usually (though not necessarily) the side with street access, main door and living area. The sitting side is usually the quieter side. This is usually (though again not necessarily) the side with the kitchen, backyard or back lane. Usually (but not necessarily) there a mountains on the sitting side and flat lower land on the facing side.

In some cases there is a better view at the back of the house. For example houses on a hill slope or overseeing a a lake or the sea. For such houses, the architect would usually reverse the facing to take advantage of the great view.

The rear side of the house now has the larger windows and doors. The living is now move to the rear and more energy comes in from the rear and more activity takes place at the rear.

In doing so, he changes the facing of the house. The facing becomes the sitting and vice versa. The street side of the house now becomes the sitting even though the main entry door and the street access remain unchanged.

So much for the facing and sitting side.

So what then is the facing direction of the house? It is the direction that is perpendicular (angle of 90 degrees) to the facade of the facing side of the house. The sitting direction is the direction that it perpendicular to the facade on the sitting side of the house.

Must the facing direction be exactly the opposite of the sitting direction? It most cases it is but many modern design have a differing facing and sitting direction.

Which to consider will depend on the system that you are using. For example with the Eight Mansions, we use the sitting direction. With Xuan Kong Flying Star it is always the facing direction.

A common questions is they get different readings at different parts of the house. If so, then which is the correct facing direction. I will attempt to answer this in my next article.

Some Feng Shui systems defines a house by its sitting direction. Others like the Xuan Kong Fei Xing system defines (and the energy distribution within) a house by its facing direction.

But what is the house facing direction? Is this the street side? Or is this side where the main door of the house is located? Answer can range from yes, to no to yes but not necessarily so. But why the uncertainty and confusion?

Let us find out why.

In the Fei Xing (or Flying Star) system, the facing side of the house is defined as the side that let’s in more of the environment energy into the house.

For the majority of houses, this is intuitive. It is usually but not necessarily

1. The street side of the house
2. The side where the main door is located
3. The side with more doors and windows
4. The sunnier side
5. The side with the living area
6. The side with the better view
7. The side facing water or downhill
8. The side with most activity

Based on the hints above we can already identify the facing of most houses. I will illustrate with some typical examples.

The diagram below shows a typical link or terrace house.

The house shares a common wall with the neighbours on the right and left. As such environmental energies can only get in from the front and the back of the house.

At the front of the house is the living area, main door and porch. This is followed by the street at a slightly lower level than the house. The kitchen is at the back of the house. Behind that is a small lane followed by another row of houses in a back to back arrangement. Further back is a low hill range. The back door and windows are fewer and much smaller than the door an windows at the front of the house. This effective constricts the amount of energies coming in from the back of the house.

Entry and exit to the house is primary via the main door. The back door is rarely used.

From the description we can immediately say that the facing direction of the house is at the front of the house looking out. This house meets almost all the conditions mentioned above for facing direction.

Most houses are like the above example. However there are exceptions.

Please refer to the diagram below.

Sometimes there is a beautiful view at the back of the house. For example the house is built on a gentle slope that there is a great unobstructed view of the city from the back. Or there is a good view of a golf course or a lake. At the front of the house is the main door, porch and street followed by a low hill.

In such cases, the designer of the house would maximize the view by having the living area at the back. He would also have larger doors and windows at the rear.

In this case, the facing direction of the house is at the back looking out. More energies come into the house from the back than through the front due to the larger doors, windows and unobstructed view. There is also more social activities at the living which is now at the back of the house. Even though access to the house is from the front of the house at the street side, energy is constricted by the smaller doors and windows as well as by the hill across the street.

This techniques to identifying facing side and direction can be extended to other types of houses such as town houses, semi detached house, fully detached houses, shop houses, office buildings and apartments.

Feng Shui Unzip

By Feng Shui Consultant Henry Fong

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