Youngbae Ahn's Wellbeing Feng Shui] Seoul Lotte World Tower, a famous place that attracts people... Architecture requires harmony between artistry and feng shui.
Lotte World Tower in Jamsil, Seoul and the Opera House on the beach in Sydney, Australia are landmarks representing the two regions. The two buildings, which are also attracting attention as famous fireworks displays to welcome the New Year every year, are widely known overseas. Lotte World Tower, which was visited by a total of 55 million people last year alone, is Korea's tallest skyscraper with 123 floors above ground and a height of 555 meters, and forms an important axis of Seoul's tourism and leisure industry. According to tourism industry estimates, an average of 5 million overseas tourists visit Lotte World Tower every year. The Opera House, which represents Sydney, is also an attraction visited by over 4 million overseas tourists every year and plays a key role in Sydney's tourism industry.
The two buildings are raising the value of surrounding real estate just because of their views. When trading real estate in Gangnam, Seoul, the view of Lotte World Tower is an important variable. Real estate brokers say that apartments and offices that have a ‘Lotte World Tower view’ have different market prices and preferences than those that do not have a view. There are quite a few real estate brokerages that openly use ‘tower view’ as an advertising phrase. The same goes for the Sydney Opera House. Local real estate agents say that houses and offices with a view of the Opera House are being sold at a huge premium.
Opera house located in Turtle's famous place
The two buildings are worth noting in terms of feng shui. The fact that the two buildings attract people from overseas suggests that they are more famous places than anything else. A famous place has the power to attract people like a magnet. This is because people have a strong tendency to move instinctively when they are intoxicated by the energy radiating from a famous place. In a place where people flock to a temple like this, wealth is naturally accumulated through trade, or power is accumulated through the power of the group. So, it can be said that the first condition of a good home (house or building) is that it is a place where energy (energy) that naturally attracts people is formed.
First, let's look at the Sydney Opera House, which was completed in 1973. The Opera House, a must-visit destination for tourists in Sydney, is located on Bennelong Point (promontory) in Sydney Harbour. This building, located on a stretch of land that sticks out toward the sea, is famous for its unique appearance. The building's roof and exterior walls, reminiscent of seashells or yacht sails, boast elegant and beautiful curves and are considered masterpieces of modern architecture. It is a structure made of 4,253 prefabricated V-shaped concrete panels with over 1 million tiles decorated with geometric patterns. The white and off-white tiles make the building look different depending on the sunlight and viewing angle, and are in harmony with Sydney's blue sky. Tourists from all over the world admire this building, which was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007.
In this way, the Opera House played a key role in transforming Sydney, a port city considered one of the world's three most beautiful ports, into a city of culture and art. However, if the Opera House had been built using the same construction method in a location other than its current location, would it have received the love and attention from people around the world as it does today?
From a Feng Shui perspective, you can see that the Opera House has a majestic architectural beauty and an unusual location. Let's apply the theory of feng shui, which is a view of the geography of East Asia in the northern hemisphere, to the southern hemisphere, where the sun is in the northern sky rather than the southern sky during the day, which seems to have nothing to do with feng shui.
Sydney Harbor, where the Opera House is located, faces the Pacific Ocean on the east, and along the coastline, capes of different sizes have jagged shapes on the left and right. It is also said that the terrain looks like the crossed teeth of a crocodile with its mouth open. However, this is also a word used in feng shui to express the blue dragon on the left and the white tiger on the right. When looking at the eastern Pacific Ocean from the Opera House and Harbor Bridge, the center of Sydney, the cape corresponding to the Blue Dragon on the left and the White Tiger on the right appear to surround it as if guarding it. Because the capes on either side block the rough waves and winds of the Pacific Ocean, the waters of Sydney's Inner Harbor are as calm as a lake. There is no fishy, salty smell characteristic of the beach. It appears that the reason the British first established a settlement here when pioneering Australia was because they took these locational conditions into consideration.
It could be said to be the pinnacle of Sydney's dragons. The Opera House is so powerful that it can be said to be the epitome of Sydney's famous attractions. From a Feng Shui perspective, it can be said that the spiritual turtle is a permanent entrant into the sea. Tourists flock to the Opera House, which is like a turtle's head, as if drawn to a magnet.
Lotte World Tower, symbolizing Munpilbong and fireworks
What's interesting is that Sydney's famous attractions are lined up like grapes on the hillside leading to the Opera House. About 300 meters away in a straight line from the Opera House is the New South Wales Governor's Office (Governor's Residence during the British colonial era), and further up, past the New South Wales Government Building and library, is St. Mary's Cathedral. This huge cathedral, built in Gothic style (1868-2000), is a popular attraction with its magnificent dome and splendid stained glass. It is surprising that these buildings are all located in a straight line on the site of a famous site. This shows that there is no difference between the East and the West in that famous places are built on good grounds.
Lotte World Tower, a landmark in Jamsil, Seoul, is famous as a tourist attraction where you can enjoy a 360-degree view of Seoul's landscape and night view from the upper floor of the tower at 500 meters above ground. It is the last building built by Lotte founder and chairman Shin Kyuk-ho during his lifetime. He is evaluated as a person who practiced corporate patriotism by building a skyscraper that symbolized the national prestige of the Republic of Korea and the ‘Miracle of the Han River.’ Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who used feng shui in his real estate business, saw Lotte World Tower during his visit to Korea and praised its design, calling it a “great tower.”
Lotte World Tower, designed to be remembered as a ‘modern cultural heritage,’ has a building exterior that resembles a brush used for calligraphy. It has an overall round shape with a pointed end, taking advantage of the traditional Korean curves. You can feel the dignity of a scholar who loves learning.
However, if you look closely at the top of Lotte World Tower, you will see that the end is split into two strands. It is shaped like a flame with two strands, and in Feng Shui terms, it takes the shape of a fire. So, depending on the direction and angle from which this building is viewed, it looks like a brush or like a flame.
Considering the energy of wood in the Yin-Yang Five Elements, the brush symbolizes learning, education, and growth. So this shape is called Munpilbong. On the other hand, flames symbolize art, religion, space, proliferation, division, etc. due to the energy of fire. In Feng Shui, interpretation varies depending on how the object appears. If Lotte World Tower looks like Munpilbong, it is visually said to be receiving the energy of wood, and if it looks like a flame, it should be interpreted as receiving the energy of anger.
The problem is that the two-stranded flame shape also gives the feeling that the energy is dispersing. The fire itself symbolizes division, and the feng shui view is that the two spires of the same height and size standing in competition suggest discord and strife within the organization or members. This also appears at the Sydney Opera House. The opera house, which has a roof shaped like a seashell, looks like several strands of flame. Since this also corresponds to the energy of fire, it can be said to be a building suitable for artistic activities. However, the shape of the roof that protrudes out of nowhere can mean division rather than unity, and locals say that there is a lot of noise within the opera house, including conflicts with art programs and artists.
The flame shape may symbolize division.
If you place too much emphasis on artistry in architecture, as in the case of the two buildings, you may end up with forms that are not interpreted as good feng shui aspects. This means that since architecture is a space where people live, it needs to be in harmony with artistry and feng shui.
In the basement of Lotte World Mall, an annex to Lotte World Tower, there is an aquarium that displays all kinds of fish species. This aquarium is always crowded with visitors as it is home to belugas, a beluga whale that lives in the Arctic Ocean. However, when the aquarium opened in 2014, two of the three belugas brought in from Russia had already died, and currently only one beluga named ‘Bella’ remains. Accordingly, some civic groups are urging Lotte to release the remaining belugas, claiming that the belugas died from stress while living in cramped aquariums. Aquariums that are not suitable for belugas to live in may be the cause of beluga death, but the cause can also be found in sites located according to feng shui. The Korea Electric Power Corporation Seokchon substation is located on the 3rd to 5th underground floors below the aquarium. The Feng Shui perspective is that high-voltage currents have a negative effect not only on humans but also on all living things. We hope that Lotte World Tower will overcome the abnormalities that occurred at the site and be reborn as a true landmark representing Seoul.
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