Vastu Shastra

Our India pied a terre is situated to take advantage of key principles of vastu shastra, which is believed to affect the health and fortune of occupants of a home or workplace. It’s an ancient Indian science of architecture.

• Kitchen is in the southeast corner, because this is the direction of fire.
• The Tuscan hooded stove will face east so the cook will face east, and gas will be in the southeast.
• Air mostly enters from the north and east, with two sets of big French doors, windows and two balconies.
• The two balconies are in the northeast and east.
• The open space of the apartment is in the northeast.
• Master bedroom is in the southwest.
• Although it wasn’t possible to place a main door in the north, our door is in the south.
• The area north of the building has some open space, so prosperity is not blocked. Prosperity is important — Lakshmi is my favorite goddess!
• It’s a rectangular space.

Here’s a cheatsheet graph for placement of rooms and important house elements:

Via Vastupath

The purpose is to balance natural energies: the sun’s solar energy, the moon’s lunar energy, wind energy, the earth’s magnetic effects, and the heat energy of fire. When these are balanced, there is harmony for humans. When they’re not balanced, you need remedies to maintain well-being.

There will be a few challenges in our place. According to vastu shastra, one should not sleep with their head pointing north. (This is how our master bedroom is set up in our Chicago home! I haven’t studied vastu shastra in a long time — have we had a pass for not knowing? Must we change that now that we do know?) In the Chennai apartment guest room, not having the head pointing north  while sleeping would place guests’ heads next to the bedroom’s door. That doesn’t seem right either. Hmmm. We’ll have to deal.