After five decades of its presence in the Western European space, the architectural profession, regardless of the popularity of feng shui, has never systematically declared itself about this phenomenon. This is a professional problem. It is equally absurd to dismiss feng shui as a bunch of superstitious nonsense without properly scientifically researching it, as well as its detailed study following all Western science standards, without asking, at least once, whether the fengshui recommendations have the effect they promise, and if so, which and why. To answer this question an in-depth analyses of scientific articles on feng shui was performed. Evaluation studies found were divided into three groups: comparative studies where the effectiveness of fengshui's recommendations is not directly verified by field research, but compared with findings in other areas of science; field experimental studies that examine the actual effectiveness of selected feng shui recommendations, through a real or virtual environment, engaging participants and sometimes a control protocol and studies of living quality evaluation systems with feng shui recommendations. Based on the results of the studies analysed it can be concluded, that between the feng shui school of form, environmental psychology and sustainable design principles there are certain similarities, which some researchers confirm with a higher or a lower degree of correlation and statistical significance. On the other side, one of the fundamental concepts of feng shui, namely the concept of life energy qi, remains poorly researched. The conclusion is, that the greatest potential of feng shui for contemporary architecture is not so much in the practical application of its techniques and recommendations, as much of this is already included in everyday design practise, but in its philosophical and conceptual foundations. They can encourage architects to re-think spatial concepts and, if necessary, to change established spatial paradigms.

Feng shui is a traditional Chinese art of creating a supportive living environment. Despite many research contributions on feng shui, very few verify (comparatively or experimentally) the actual effectiveness of feng shui recommendations. Even the architectural profession has never clearly denied its opinion on feng shui. This comparative analysis seeks to determine whether 118 selected feng shui school of form recommendations are consistent with the recommendations of Alexander et al.’s pattern language and with selected findings in environmental psychology. The results support this, showing that 34% of the recommendations (or forty recommendations out of 118 in total) are consistent with pattern language and that 45% (or fifty-three recommendations) are fully or partially consistent with the findings of environmental psychology. Altogether, more than half of the recommendations (57%, or sixty-seven recommendations) are consistent (indirectly confirmed) by one or the other knowledge system, which means that it is very likely that these recommendations will actually have the promised impact on users of physical space. Twenty-seven feng shui recommendations (or 23% out of the 118) are doubly consistent, of which most are related to the five-animals feng shui model, the importance of the presence of water and natural light in the living environment, and the importance of the main entrance. The bulk of the recommendations, which remain unaddressed, relate to the Chinese concept of living energy, or qi.

„We shape our buildings and afterwards, our buildings shape us,” is a quote by W. Churchill that illustrates the importance of the person – environment – well being relationship. Although there is no environmental determinism, our surrounding is an important factor in the way we feel and perform in build spaces. Environmental psychology developed numerous tools for analysing and evaluating these influences. Not all of these findings come to the attention of architects or designers or people in charge of public buildings (schools, health institutions, etc). The paper exposes some of the environmental psychology recommendations (importance of light, presence of nature) that can influence our behaviour and that we are usually not aware of. Apart from contemporary research there are some traditional arts that bring the spiritual dimension to the design of the built environment. The paper presents Chinese feng shui, as an example of design approach, which uses the manipulation of life force qi for a more supportive living environment. Finally the project of the Vital house is shown as an example of successful combination of contemporary and traditional approaches

Feng šui je tradicionalna kitajska umetnost oblikovanja podpornega bivalnega okolja. Kljub številnim fengšuiskim znanstvenim prispevkom se jih zelo malo ukvarja s (primerjalnim ali eksperimentalnim) preverjanjem dejanske ucinkovitosti fengšuiskih priporocil. Tudi arhitekturna stroka se do pojava nikoli ni jasno opredelila. Izvedena primerjalna analiza poskuša zato odgovoriti na raziskovalno vprašanje, ali je izbranih118 priporocil fengšuiske šole oblike usklajenih s priporocili jezika vzorcev Alexandra in sodelavcev ter izbranimi spoznanji okoljske psihologije. Rezultati pritrjujejo raziskovalnemu vprašanju in kažejo, da je 34% (40 priporocil od118) priporocil usklajenih z jezikom vzorcev in da je 45% (53) v celoti ali delno usklajenih s spoznanji okoljske psihologije. Skupaj je v okviru enega ali drugega sistema znanja skladna (posredno potrjena) dobra polovica (natancneje 57% ali 67) priporocil, kar pomeni, da obstaja velika verjetnost, da ta priporocila dejansko imajo na uporabnike prostora vpliv, kot ga obljubljajo. Dvojno skladnih je 27 priporocil (23%), pri cemer se jih najvec povezuje s fengšuisko shemo petih živali, pomenom prisotnosti vode in naravne svetlobe v bivalnem okolju ter pomenom glavnega vhoda. Najvecji del priporocil, ki ostane neprekritih, se povezuje s kitajskim konceptom življenjske energije qi (izg.ci).