Wind/Water/Architecture: Fengshui as an Architectural Theory
Lehtinen, Sampsa (2019)
Lehtinen, Sampsa
2019
Arkkitehdin tutkinto-ohjelma - Master's Degree Programme in Architecture
Rakennetun ympäristön tiedekunta - Faculty of Built Environment
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2019-11-27
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201910294192
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201910294192
Tiivistelmä
Fengshui, literally “wind-water,” is an ancient Chinese philosophy and art of placement – an act of finding and creating auspicious places for harmonious living with the earth. Wind/Water/Architecture utilizes this pre-historic knowledge of classical fengshui, and applies it for finding inherent human preferences regarding the built environment. Western societies have been dissatisfied with their surroundings for a large part of modern history, and this thesis argues that the fault starts with overlooking these primary preferences of human beings.
Fengshui manuals are among the oldest available writings for pleasant and proper dwellings, and therefore they also offer the possibility to question our current building habits. Due to being rooted back to thousands of years in history, classical fengshui does have the potential to reveal a part of humans’ primary needs of architecture. These original fengshui principles are therefore compared with works of western literates and architects, to reason them out by examining the intersection of these two different thought systems.
The beginning of this thesis consists of an introduction to the basic knowledge required for a comprehensive understanding of the topic; Fengshui’s definition, history, and its elementary ideology, as well as the Western architectural theories, and their similar worldview with fengshui. In the second section, three major theories of ancient Chinese metaphysics are described and compared briefly with various Western philosophical and architectural writings. Understanding these elements is necessary to comprehend the last section’s principles. This part undergoes the practical features of fengshui, and evaluates them on creating a universally pleasant architecture.
The findings show certain features of the built environment that have either lost or ignored due to the ideological changes of modern times. They are largely based on the masculinity and dismissive attitude towards the nature in contemporary thought systems, which inevitably have led to monotonous and uncomfortable built environments. Therefore, architects need to re-evaluate their approach of their works towards something that fengshui advocates.
Fengshui manuals are among the oldest available writings for pleasant and proper dwellings, and therefore they also offer the possibility to question our current building habits. Due to being rooted back to thousands of years in history, classical fengshui does have the potential to reveal a part of humans’ primary needs of architecture. These original fengshui principles are therefore compared with works of western literates and architects, to reason them out by examining the intersection of these two different thought systems.
The beginning of this thesis consists of an introduction to the basic knowledge required for a comprehensive understanding of the topic; Fengshui’s definition, history, and its elementary ideology, as well as the Western architectural theories, and their similar worldview with fengshui. In the second section, three major theories of ancient Chinese metaphysics are described and compared briefly with various Western philosophical and architectural writings. Understanding these elements is necessary to comprehend the last section’s principles. This part undergoes the practical features of fengshui, and evaluates them on creating a universally pleasant architecture.
The findings show certain features of the built environment that have either lost or ignored due to the ideological changes of modern times. They are largely based on the masculinity and dismissive attitude towards the nature in contemporary thought systems, which inevitably have led to monotonous and uncomfortable built environments. Therefore, architects need to re-evaluate their approach of their works towards something that fengshui advocates.