Paul Darby: It’s very important that there’s a healthy energy in the building. It’s my job to make sure that the different colours, the different elements in the building combine to make a good cocktail.
Behind me you can see the lights. Lights are always good in Feng Shui (if you can push the light towards the ceiling, if you can push the light upwards instead of downwards) so up-lighters are very good.
(Then there’s) the metal around lights – and if you look you can see metal with the lights and then in curves around the lights. Make sure that the energy is lifting, is ‘zinging’, is moving.
It’s so important that the energy doesn’t go slowly, doesn’t get stagnant, doesn’t get treacly.
Everything that you see behind me is making sure that the energy moves in the main part of the building and is flowing constantly through, giving health to the building – Curves, bends, in stairways, in balconies, in tables, in the edges of bar areas.
(It’s) very, very important so that this natural electromagnetic energy that we call ‘Chi’ energy isn’t coming too quickly.
That it isn’t coming in what the Chinese call ‘poison arrows’. It’s moving gently.
The more it curves around the bend, the more it meanders, in a measured way.
In the theatre area you’ll see the curves. You’ll see the colours – the matt black, which is very earthy, the gold which is raising the energy.
But because of the way the curves are operating in that auditorium, it actually moves the energy but it’s moving a little less quickly than it is in this main area where all the lights are.
So you can settle into the theatre, you can enjoy the show – the ‘razzamatazz’.
The moving energy is going on, on the stage.
The audiences is there to sit, to settle, to enjoy. And that’s the energy that’s there because it’s acting like a bowl and collecting the energy together.
We’re looking at the main entrance here. (It’s) very, very important in Feng Shui. The energy that we’re talking about travels all around the building. But the main important part is the main entrance – the coup, the mouth.
Get the energy in and then slow it down so it becomes welcoming,so that it becomes ambiance, so that it becomes a little bit intimate.
We’ve come up some steps, which is great – stops bad energy. The good energy’s flowing through.
And now we come to a ‘Moon Gate’. It’s a bit like a tunnel. And you’re passing from the outside world – the noisy outside world – into the special world of the casino, the cabaret, the dining. So you’re entering another world through a ‘moon gate’ where the energy actually begins to lower and become very special and very welcoming.
So the art of Feng Shui is making sure that the natural energy travels through the building.
And it’s making sure that energy keeps moving steadily so you get a really good atmosphere.
The big danger point, in any home, in any building: toilets!
Toilets – clear water but we then pollute it by what we do.
Various things turn the clear water into nasty water.
So we need to block that and make sure it doesn’t affect the energy flow pulling it towards the nasty water.
The element that does that is earth; Rich, rich, earthy colours – slate greys, fudge, toffee, bends and curves – so that the energy actually comes in, slows down and then stays.
It doesn’t want replenishing. It doesn’t keep dragging.
So the more earthy colours you have in bathrooms, in toilets, the better. So, (it’s) very, very important, the curvature.
You can see the curve in the walls here. Keep that curve going so that the energy is moving. It comes in here. It settles because of the earthy colours but have curves and bends wherever you can. You can see them here in the wash basins. You can see them in the wall.
Feng Shui is about five… six… seven thousand years old. And it’s to do with the movement of natural energies. The same energies that you talk about in yoga, in martial arts. It’s a ‘Chi’ energy.
It’s a natural electromagnetic energy that Brian Cox talks about in quantum physics. It’s exactly the same moving energy.
And the Chinese, Japanese and the Indian peoples discovered that if you use certain elements – five elements – and use the colours associated with them, then the energy would move in a set way. You get the recipe right and the energy like Goldilocks’ porridge wouldn’t be too hot, it wouldn’t be too cold, it would be just right for a building. So this Chi energy has to flow in a measured and meandering way.
And to do that you use colours.
To raise the energy you can use fiery colours.
To ‘zing’ the energy, to make it spark, so that it doesn’t go stagnant you can use metallic colours.
To stabilise the energy so that you feel comfortable, so that you feel you want to sit and settle, you use earthy energies.
If you really want rapid movement then you use water energies and blues and tuquoise. And wood energy symbolises ambition and growth. So that it really makes make sure that the energy is moving upwards. So around stairs in particular, the stairs are very important to push the energy upward.
Use big plants. Use lights. Rather than the waterfall effect of the energy, with gravity, just dropping down into a stagnant puddle.
All the energies are here. They’re mixed together in a cocktail We’ve got the fire-ising. We’ve got the stabilisation of the earthy energy. We’ve got the zinging of the metals – all the energies moving together to provide the right ambiance, the right atmosphere.
While people will come in, they’ll enjoy, they’ll spend some time here and they’ll go away with a good experience.
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