Published in La Libre Belgique, Belgium
Real Estate Section
Thursday, May 20, 1999

The Yin and Yang of Buildings
by Charlotte Mikolajczak

Its name only sounds Chinese: Feng Shui. If it makes some people smile, it is not in Hong Kong, nor in San Francisco, nor even in London where it became the pass for numerous real estate developers.

Constructing a building is one thing. Filling it is another one. Vital. Hence a growing interest of real estate developers in the occupants' well-being.

The fact isn't only verified in the residential area. Just the opposite. Thus, in large metropolis, queens of offices, princesses of retail, everyone speaks about “Feng Shui,” a Chinese science based — to make it clear and simple, at the risk of too much over-simplification — on the Yin and Yang.

American developer Donald Trump is one of the enthusiast adept and wouldn't start anything without his expert's opinion. Tony Blair and Price Charles of England don't remain insensitive to it. The largest European Shopping Center, the “Bluewater” (320 shops), in the London suburb was built according to its precepts. Likewise were the chain of Body Shop stores as well as branches of British Airways and Virgin airline companies. Finally, in Hong Kong, the era of lawsuits between Feng Shui masters also started,

AN ANCIENT ART ...

For more than 20 years, Serge Polakoff was initiated to this psychology of building. Today he organizes seminars, workshops and lectures on this topic. As a civil engineer, he started his real estate experience with one of the Etrimo tower, followed by land development in Brussels as well as Braine-l'Aleud.

A few years later, real estate development brings him to the River Tagus where he builds “Miratejo” a new city of 4,000 units in the suburb of Lisbon. From there he moves to Florida where in Orlando he develops, among other things, “Club Esprit” a 300-apartment complex.

This is where psychology caught him. He is convinced that the intangible part of a building (the energy inside and outside the walls as well as the psyche of the occupants) is also important, if not more, than the tangible part. This would lead him to gain, in California, a master degree in psychology where he would become sensitive to Jung's work and Chinese philosophy. From both of them, he would draw certain teachings that he would correlate into his own method: the psychological Feng Shui.

Here, no tricks nor gimmicks (the bed's head in the North — or is it to the East? —, the mirror facing the entrance door, the wind chimes here and there, ...), but a sharp analysis, using an array of tests, about the occupants and the building (existing or to be built) as well as their final combination to create harmonious solutions each time personalized.

Among other analytical tools, Serge Polakoff uses the 5 elements (earth, fire, water, metal and wood), the 8 energetic directions (cardinal and inter-cardinal) and the 64 life codes of the I-Ching (based on the Yin and Yang). He also requests that the different players (owner, architects, occupants ...) get truly involved, define their objectives ( consultation for a residential project can take between 5 and 40 hours), ...

AND THE BUILDING'S HARMONY

The method, very systematically, looks at the past and the present of the occupants, the building and its environment. The result takes the shape of a &#-147;design” or “sould” where the ones and the others are overlaid in a context that locate the states of prosperity, health, harmony, peace (and their opposites), as well as objectives in the fields of fame, love, wealth, communications, knowledge, etc... (see design below). The importance being, of course, to maximize the positive elements and minimize the negative ones and, among other things, to position correctly the different functions in the building.

But how does not distinguish a Feng Shui building? One adept to its precepts would say very simply, “to its occupants' smile.” More down to earth, an expert would distinguish its location (backing, rather than facing a neighbor), its shape (sober, without overwhelming accessories), its materials (natural, warm and flexible, rather than cold and hard), its coloring (pastel), its internal organization (here the marketing and public relations, there the production, ...), its layout (the desks facing the doors, giving their users a feeling of existence, of importance). But also to certain details: such as an entrance door off its axis, expected to be in cheap metal and that is in bronze, such as a sculpture in the foyer, green plants, fountains, ...

C.M.