Articles

New Feng Shui Arrives From India
By TATIANA BONCOMPAGNI

The dozens of hanging crystals, small mirrors, and Chinese coins that used to bedeck Christine Kim's brownstone are pretty much gone. Recently, the interior designer discovered vastu shastra, an Indian cousin of the feng shui Ms. Kim used to study. "Vastu just resonates deeper with me," says Ms. Kim, whose Brooklyn, N.Y., home is now a sanctuary of airy space, wood and cotton furnishings.

Banish the bamboo. Just when feng-shui home accessories are hitting Bed, Bath & Beyond, a new contender has entered the spiritual design ring: vastu, the ancient Indian art of architecture and decoration. Both disciplines argue that you can improve the quality of your life -- your income, your love life, your happiness -- by redecorating and redesigning your home in line with certain spiritual principles. But while feng shui has sparked a boom in miniwaterfalls and zen rock gardens, the major elements of vastu are "sunrise" and "sunset" colors, natural fabrics, wood, pottery, flowers and metals such as brass or copper.

Little-known until a spate of design books a couple of years ago popularized it -- "I used to have to beg people to come out to vastu workshops," says Manhattan-based vastu consultant Kathleen Cox -- the Indian discipline now has some mainstream fans. It's "gaining popularity in the U.S.," says Michelle Snyder, spokeswoman for the American Society of Interior Designers, as a new "spiritual-design option." Last year, Fairfield, Iowa-based Maharishi Global Construction, an architectural and development consulting firm that specializes in vastu, advised on the construction of $90 million of residential and commercial properties, up from $13 million in 1999.

While vastu is still a niche discipline, it's getting a boost, say advocates, from the popularity of other Indian imports like yoga. Vastu was first written about in the Vedas, a set of four religious treatises that date to around 6,000 B.C. But it wasn't until a few years ago that it hit the mainstream, thanks in part to the popularity of feng shui. (The two share some similarities, like the use of a geometric map to dissect homes into different quadrants.)

Some vastu designers say that it's the Indian school's lesser reliance on crystals and other "superstitious" icons that has some homeowners converting. Take Peter Stranger, for example. He soured on feng shui when a Chinese guru instructed him to hang a beaded curtain at the bottom of a set of stairs leading to his front entrance, ostensibly to stop the flow of money from his Los Angeles home. "It would have looked ridiculous," laughs the former chief executive. He now has vastu-prescribed copper plates and a water fountain to help balance the energy.