The feng shui art of Space Clearing - by Karen Kingston

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Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui, revised edition 2008

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edition, 2008

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2000 - 2010

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More Singapore airport feng shui

Written by Karen Kingston Tuesday, 03 November 2009 15:38

Singapore airport sunflower garden Here's another cool feature at Singapore's international airport - a sunflower garden.

Located in Terminal 2 on Level 3, you step through a glass door, leave the air-conditioned airport interior, and suddenly you're in the warmth of the open air and a different world. Against a backdrop of planes taxiing along the runway and taking off, you find yourself in a garden filled with hundreds of sunflowers that you can walk among and enjoy while waiting for your flight. More photos

One of the most debilitating aspects of air travel is spending so much time in air-conditioned spaces. It's energetically reviving to simply be able to step out of that environment for a few minutes into such a space, especially when transiting on a long haul flight. Kudos to Singapore Changi Airport for thinking of this in the first place and going to the expense of creating and maintaining it.

Sunflowers, with their universally loved cheerful yellow colour and amazing ability to turn their faces towards the sun as it journeys from east to west each day across the sky, are the perfect choice for this garden. Plus, of course, you feel like you can really have a relationship with a plant that stands as tall as a man and looks you in the face!

Singapore airport feng shui

Written by Karen Kingston Tuesday, 03 November 2009 14:55

Singapore airport Voted among the top three airports of the world every year since 2001, Singapore Changi International Airport gets my all-time best airport in the world vote in terms of facilities, ambience, architecture and just about everything else I can think of.

The photo to the right shows the baggage carousel area of Terminal Three and yes, those are real trees in the backround. The architect has created a magnificent five-storey high vertical garden known as The Green Wall, spanning 300 meters of the arrival and departure areas, complete with trees, climbing plants and four huge stone water features. Larger photos

In so many airports of the world, baggage carousels are in gloomy, low ceilinged claustrophobic spaces in the bowels of the building. The Woodhead Wilson team who created this design in Singapore realized it didn't have to be that way. The space is well-lit, welcoming and energetically uplifting. The baggage passing by on the conveyor belt seems almost irrelevant. It's very impressive.

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Airport carpets

Written by Karen Kingston Monday, 01 September 2008 08:48

I started this theme a while ago with my blog about the feng shui of airport carpets in Sydney and Singapore. I've been travelling less than usual this year and completely forgot to photograph New York or Tokyo but here, for what it is worth, is Frankfurt airport. No carpet as you can see - just cold, hard, grey tiles and uncomfortable metallic chairs. Immaculately clean, which the Germans no doubt love, and very easy to maintain.

The energetic effect of cold, hard grey tiles is very inhospitable. This is not an airport that endears itself to anyone. It's functional and efficient with no extra trimmings. Not a plant or anything natural anywhere in sight (that goes for the food on sale too).

Airport carpet feng shui

Written by Karen Kingston Monday, 25 February 2008 02:56

Sydney airport carpet Of all the aiports I've visited in my life (and there have been many), Sydney gets my all-time greatest accolade for its carpet. Cleverly designed using four shades of blue, it has the appearance and feel of walking on a gentle ocean and always looks fresh, clean and welcoming. The small flecks of yellow and red add just the right amount of warmth and interest without making it feel too busy. Arriving in Sydney and walking on this carpet always lifts my spirits and makes me feel glad to be in Australia.

I remember Bill Bryson observing in one of his books that a person's first impressions of a city are hugely influenced by the approach road taken to get there. In a similar vein, I've noticed that the design and ambience of an airport has a massive impact on how a person feels about a place when they first arrive, and the first steps taken on terra firma after flying are especially highlighted. Depending on how far you have flown and how well you handle being airborne, there is a whole energetic adjustment that takes place when you land, and airport carpet can either help or hinder that process.

Singapore airport carpet Sadly, most airport designers have shocking taste in carpet. Heathrow's endless grey is one of the worst examples (so bad I couldn't bring myself to even take a photo of it when I was there recently).

Singapore is a wonderful airport, but sometime in the year since I was last there someone has ripped up the acres of soothing, unobtrusive carpet in Terminal 2 and replaced it with a design that can only have been created by a psychotic having a very bad day. It's not just depressing, it's downright disturbing. You look down and feel deranged. You look ahead (see image on right) and you feel so disoriented you hesitate to move. It's a carpet that inspires a plethora of adjectives beginning with 'D'. What can they have been thinking?

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