In our Blog we had already talked about it some time ago, but it seems that Feng Shui is one of the most loved topic by our readers, so we decided to deal with it again, but this time with greater complicity, thanks to the large number of projects we made according to this ancient Taoist geomantic art of China.
Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal: there are five vital elements of Feng Shui. For the uninitiated, Feng Shui literally means “Wind” and “Water”, the two natural elements with no form: water expands and takes the shape of the box that contains it, like the wind that spreads and covers every space. This practice is based on the concept of continuous change and on letting energy flow in the environments in which we live, repairing or eliminating what is broken, without attaching ourselves to things to overcome the fear of losing them. Feng Shui involves the search for balance in life, favoring simplicity and fluidity and embodying the concept of the effect that the environment has on human beings.
In Feng Shui the water sources are an important symbol of wealth, this is because in ancient times the cities were built along the edges of the rivers to facilitate the transport of goods and the resulting trade was a source of wealth for the populations. For this reason, the northern area is still associated with water and the north symbolizes career and prosperity.
Water is the strongest Yin energy of the five elements and symbolizes both death and rebirth. Blue and black colors, aquariums, large windows, paintings and photographs of ponds are also linked to it. So that, its presence leads to another important evaluation in the practice of Feng Shui: being an element linked to abundance, wealth and money, the fountains and ponds are therefore considered propitious, because they reflect the light of the sun, enhance their beneficial presence, ionizing the air and offering a regenerating background sound.
By now this practice has spread well both in the world and in the Italian territory, where numerous professionals stand out offering consultancy aimed at making restaurants, hotels, bars, residences and offices perfectly in harmony and balance following the principles of Feng Shui. They can be found also numerous examples of Feng Shui-friendly architecture, such as Palais Namaskar in Marrakech, Myhotel in Brighton, Hilton in Los Angeles Airport, Hotel La Residenza in Milan. This is because the end-user is no longer looking for just a nice hotel room, a cozy bar or a restaurant with original courses, but he is directed towards the discovery of something new, refined, unusual that makes him feel good and put the senses at stake to amplify the feeling of well-being. Leaving the house and being catapulted into a place that goes beyond time and space: the consumer seeks a service that goes far beyond the product offered, which translates into a new situation, an adventure, a moment never lived. So a floating restaurant room on a large mirrored fountain, with tables enclosed by nests or on stilts connected together by a Tobi-Ishi stone path becomes the leitmotiv of this new all you can eat experience in a Japanese key.
In the last two years we have consolidated the collaboration with architect Nicola Bottoni of LENDstudio, a creative consortium of architecture and engineering based in Lodi, which boasts the collaboration of professionals operating in various sectors: architecture, restoration and conservation of Cultural Heritage, recovery and renovation of widespread buildings, urban and landscape planning , interior and object design, graphics, editing and research. With architect Bottoni we have created custom fountains for six Japanese restaurants and three more are ready to be finished. Each of these restaurants sees the creation of a large central mirrored fountain, where a few centimeters of water cover a large surface that houses the tables and reflect the surrounding architecture, created according to a careful balance between various elements, such as metal, wood, the stone and the plants. In support you can find high walls of water at the entrance that invite guests to enter and already make them perceive the welcoming internal atmosphere from the outside, in the bathrooms to replace the common tiled walls, or a waterfall in the main room to enrich the aquatic theme design, with water flowing on transparent plexiglass panels or natural stone slabs. Otherwise, in the main pool you can find artistic fountains made with tailor-made Aisi316 stainless steel canes from the end of which a slight curl of water comes out and falls on Murano glass elements that recall the ears of Typha latifolia, handmade by Masterglass Nicola Moretti.
In each of these units, the design was created with custom-made elements and with different types of seats and tables, to obtain in this way the maximum flexibility to welcome customers and to allow them to have always different settings and views towards the room and the elements that compose it every time they return to the room. Instead, we experts are sure that facing new tailor-made creations from time to time is also a way to free and release energy and creativity: just as water adapts to the shape of the box that contains it, the planning is shaped on the client’s wishes, on the specifics of the place and on the peculiarities of the concept. So we will continue to turn our gaze to the art of Feng Shui to offer our customers beauty and well-being through our fountains and all the forms of water present in them.
