Developing an Objective Assessment Tool for Determining Site Compatibility with Feng Shui Principles: A Comparative Analytical Study on Residential Buildings

Feng Shui is among the ancient practices that continue to gain increasing attention in contemporary architectural design fields. Despite feng shui's widespread use in global architecture, there is a lack of objective tools to assess building compliance with site selection principles of feng shui. This research aims to bridge this scientific gap by providing a tool that assists in evaluating the compatibility of design and site selection according to feng shui fundamentals. The study used a mixed approach combining qualitative and quantitative methods. The measurement tool includes five main categories, each containing a set of criteria derived from feng shui literature, with relative weights assigned to each criterion according to its point ratio to the total overall points. This model was applied to three groups comprising six contemporary residential buildings, where each group contains two buildings, one designed according to feng shui principles and the other using traditional design methodology, with both the country and the architect held constant in each group to ensure objectivity of comparison and comprehensiveness of results. The comparative analysis results showed that buildings designed according to feng shui achieved the highest ratings across all categories compared to their traditional counterparts. This research presents a practical and objective model that can be adopted for site evaluation, whether in existing or new projects, opening the field for integrating the psychological dimension within architectural design considerations. This study paves the way for future research on integrating feng shui principles with architectural design levels.