FENG SHUI IN SINGAPORE ARCHITECTURE: NGEE ANN CITY

Ngee Ann City is one of the popular shopping malls along Singapore famous Orchard Shopping district. Despite of intense competition from younger or revitalised neighbouring malls, such as ION, Wisma Atria, Paragon, 313@somerset and so on. This mall has managed to remain highly popular with high human traffic flow and its businesses remain viable. Beside good mall operations, we have to also credit its success to using feng shui to its advantage.

Among the common rumours about its feng shui, Ngee Ann City was architecturally designed to look like Chinese tombstone. The building resembles the curved structure of traditional Teochew headstones. Five flagpoles in front of it are like joss sticks, while the fountain represents wine as offering. One possible reason is that it was built on a former cemetery and therefore Ngee Ann City was designed to appease spirits who used to rest there.

Despite of the above common feng shui rumours about it, there are some notable good feng shui features which we can learn from this successful project.

Firstly, the open space with water fountain right in front of the building was designed to receive and cultivate Qi energy (堂气). The good news for businesses at this mall is, the building has been capable of tapping auspicious Qi energy from Northeast direction (八艮气) since feng shui 8th Period (八运) from 2004-2023. This Northeast Qi remains strong as we are moving into 9th Period (九运) from 2024-2043, and businesses here should continue to benefit from this auspicious energy.

Secondly, a pair of lions was placed on the left and right sides of its main entrance, these lions act as guardian to fend off any negative energy from entering the mall.

An internal fountain was built at its basement central area, with stairs and escalators leading to it from its left and right. These are very favourable feng shui design. As mentioned above, external open space is used to gather Qi energy (堂气), and this energy will not benefit its tenants unless it is guided and redirected into the building. The stairs and escalators leading to the basement fountain helps to direct external energy into its internal areas, and benefits businesses within the mall.

Another highlight about its basement central event atrium, where seasonal promotions and sales are often organised, events here help to bring in crowd and human energy (生气) to its central area. This helps to trigger and activate its feng shui centre point (太极点), such that the mall feng shui energy remains lively and vigorous. This in turn will bring in more activities and businesses for the mall.

In summary, despite of rumours that Ngee Ann City mall is shaped like a Chinese tombstone, it has indeed well designed feng shui features which aims for long vitality and provides lively energy for excellent shopping experience.