With the opening up of China to the west, principally first from
Hong Kong and Macau, Feng Shui became increasingly known and also
practiced by western "hongs" or trading companies to satisfy
local business communities, and also to encourage luck in business.
Feng Shui masters have always influenced the great buildings in
Hong Kong — both for good and bad ends: the famous Bank of China
Tower on Hong Kong Island, with its blade-like design, was said
to be a deliberate curse upon the Government House and its British
administration. Still, western scholars and new-age spiritualists
rediscovered Feng Shui and led to a dramatic and often erratic revival
of the practice on the North American west coast California and
British Columbia from the early 1990s.
Architects and landscape designers are sometimes called upon to
take Feng Shui principles into account, particularly in regions
and cities where there are large Chinese populations. This has increased
in recent years, and can be seen as part of the wider trend towards
"humanising" what is seen as the "inhuman" spaces
of Modernism.
Feng Shui vernacular includes: fountains, the use of curves rather
than hard straight lines, alignment of entrances with the best views,
natural materials, and is best seen in such buildings as the Getty
Center in Los Angeles by Richard Meier which stands as the best
articulation of 1990s style feng shui influence and theory on the
American west coast.
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