How About Feng Shui?

As Architecture students we were told to always consider counting the steps of our stairs when designing buildings. We must be particular that no step fell on mata when we checked the stair sequence using the oro, plata, mata formula. We were also reminded to consider superstitious beliefs of folks, like deciding where to face doors and windows and passageways.

Things like this--what others call feng shui considerations--are really the prerogative of the rich few. They are not Pinoy Architecture. As I have discussed in another article here, Pinoy Architecture should be defined more according to what the majority Filipinos--the masses--are apt to do with their houses and environs. Middle class and especially lower middle class Pinoys do not care about the number of steps they have at home, or where their doors and windows face. More so the marginally poor, the segment that dominates Filipino communities. As long as they have stairs to get them to the next higher floor, or doors to enter in and windows to get some air, they're content.

We should study these things more than pay much attention to construction superstitious beliefs that only a few care about. To really serve the greater majority--and formulate a truly Pinoy Architecture that masses of Pinoys really need--we should look for ways how to better improve what home features most Pinoys are limited to. We should conceptualize how to make them better, put some art into it, and offer it at a reasonable cost to them.

Have you been to really congested areas in the country where every nook and cranny is used up for residence purposes? If they have a mere 4X4 meter square area, they'd build a tall, lean tower of 5 to 6 floors on that space just to house all their family members and their furnishings in. Sometimes, they'd crowd in 5 to 6 different families there, with each family having some 5 to 6 members. An authentic Pinoy Architecture (HOUSEpinoy) should find ways to make this living condition better so that people would have more decent and comfy shelters.

How about feng shui considerations in design? Better yet, how about comfy considerations for the greater majority?