Determining the facing and sitting direction of a house is one of the most important steps to getting feng shui right.
This is because it is the starting point in many ways for an amateur or professional feng shui audit.
The sitting and facing direction of a home is a critical element in the practice of feng shui because it is required for the competent application of flying star feng shui where a few degrees off can make a huge difference.
In ancient times, houses are built in square or rectangular shapes with the door at the facing. This made the determination of a home’s facing so simple.
But in modern times, with the flourishing of fanciful apartment buildings, identifying the facing of an apartment unit takes some skills.
Or sometimes, luck.
Sometimes regular homeowners get it wrong and suffer bad luck. But sometimes, these errors have no damning consequences.
By sheer luck, many homeowners might even make feng shui enhancements base on a natal chart but inadvertently enhance good sectors of the real actual natal chart.
Here are some common mistakes with determining an apartment’s facing direction you don’t want to make.
Before we go on, it must be said that the following mistakes can sometimes (depending on circumstances) be the right method to take a facing direction.
It is the assumption that they apply to all apartment homes that is the real mistake.
1) Facing of main door
This is one of the most common mistakes in the practice of flying star feng shui.
I can understand when people try to invoke the potency of flying star feng shui due to it’s prowess. But applying flying star feng shui based on the main door direction is totally wrong.
There has been enough efforts written about this error by famous feng shui practitioners. Yet regular homeowners who do DIY feng shui still often get this wrong.
While the main door is one of the most critical areas of a house, it is not the default facing of the home as a whole.
The front door’s facing direction can determine the nature of energy entering the home from it, but using it as the reference point to plot the birth chart of the house is a calamity waiting to happen.
Main doors of apartment units more often than not, faces a different direction to the true facing of apartment homes.
2) Balcony as the facing
Since the balcony is an area that welcomes energy into the house most of the time, it is understandable that a lot of people assume that this is the facing of the house.
As the building layout for individual units can vary vastly, the location of the balcony can take up the sitting of the apartment as much as the facing.
Moreover, even if the balcony faces the real facing of the apartment, there is no guarantee that it will have the same measurement on the compass when the reading is taken on the correct spot.
3) Facing of the building
The reasoning behind the facing of a building being the facing for all apartments in it has merit.
The argument is that the building is one and that apartment contained within it are like the rooms to the house (building).
On this basis, the facade of the building would be the facing of the apartment as explained in the concept big and small taichi.
For me, that is like saying everyone born in February in the year 2000 would enjoy the same luck for this year… which is ridiculous. It does not take into account that each unit is a house by itself.
If a right angled building has a clear building facing on one side, does it mean that the other units orientated differently have the same facing direction?
The answer can only be no.
Those who are FOR this “same facing” argument will contend that the facings of the different apartments would have different facings if they are separate buildings which can either be defined with a gap between them or different roofs.
However, how can different apartments have the same facing when they are in the same building but becomes different when there is a 1cm gap (for example) between them?
Because by that definition, a 1cm gap would clearly identify them as different buildings. And thus, technically different facing directions.
For example, does all the units of a right-angled row of terrace houses have the same facing? Because if we subscribe to the “same building same facing” ideas, then all units would have the same facing. I believe that most, if not all, independent thinkers would consider different units of a row of terrace houses have their own facings. And that two different dwellings of a semi-detached property have different facings when they are built back-to-back.
Imagine that you live in a home with a seaview that is obviously the facing direction, but because the building is facing sideways, the apartment’s facing ends up being an empty wall in the house. Does that make sense?
If a house is joined to another house but with a different facing direction than the other, then they both have different facing and sitting directions. It should be as simple as that.
I can see why some feng shui practitioners continue to vigorously insist that all units in a building have the same facing. It’s probably because when they conduct feng shui for a building, this line of thought mean that they only have to work with one natal chart instead of many charts from the various units with different facings. While applying the small taichi methodology to all apartment units in a building has a basis, you probably don’t need anyone to explain to you that you are facing a different direction compared to someone else when sharing a L-shaped sofa. And just because you are in a bus does not mean that you are seated in the same facing as the bus no matter how the seats are orientated.
Then there are those who contradict themselves by saying different apartments in the same building have a different facing when they have a different roof orientation… even when they are in the same building. This is even though they subscribe to the “rule” that all units in a building share the same facing.
I kid you not.
Having said that, there is a significant consensus of practitioners who use the facing of the building to generate natal charts for all apartment units up to a certain level. Anything above that level would be treated as having it’s own facing as if they are detached from the building.
This “level” limit that practitioners work with varies from master to master. The numbers 8, 9 and 10 are the most common that are thrown about.
4) Facing the widest view
The side of a house with the widest view to the outside environment would undoubtedly be the biggest entry point for external energy.
However that is not always the facing of the home.
That is like saying a convertible with the top down means that the vehicle’s head is at it’s rear end because that is the side with the largest view.
More often than not, developers design the facing of homes to coincide with the widest view. But this is not always the case.
The face of the apartment can very well be on another side with a smaller view.
5) The most yang energy is the facing
When I first came cross this reasoning, I almost fell off my chair.
For example, the side of the house which faces the busy road is can be deemed as the side with the strongest yang energy.
So by default that side of the house would be the facing.
To make it clear, another car metaphor might be useful.
No, let’s use aeroplanes this time.
If an airplane has taken off from the runway, just because the airport (with the most yang energy) is on the left side of the plane does not mean that the plane is facing that direction.
Elaboration of this point is probably unnecessary as one can easily comprehend this.
6) Building entrance is the facing
With rectangular buildings, it might be an easy task to conclude that the facing of the main entrance to the building is the facing of the apartments.
But as we all know, buildings have taken various forms, shapes and sizes these days.
Which is why we are now discussing this facing predicament in the first place.
Just like point #1, the entrance to the lobby of a building is never the default facing of the building itself. Let alone the individual apartments.
How to determine apartment facing
I’m sorry to say that there is no definitive answer to this question.
A lot depends on judgment, observation and experience.
However, what can be certain is that if you blindly follow the assumption mistakes listed above, the odds of getting it wrong is overwhelmingly higher than getting it right.
Saying that, you might just luck out by getting the correct compass measurement while undertaking one of them.