TYCOONS SPEND pounds 5m ON FENG SHUI-ING OFFICES

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Aug 29, 1999 | by JOIA SHILLINGFORD

THE City is spending pounds 5 million a year on re-designing offices based on the ancient Chinese principles of Feng Shui.

Top institutions, including the Bank of England, are using pounds 200,000-a- year experts in the Oriental art of positioning furniture and walls.

Companies are being urged to base their most important activities higher up a building to be as far away as possible from surrounding "negative forces".

Offices are also being painted in silver, gold and white - the colours the Chinese associate with money.

"Hardly any buildings are put up in the City now without Feng Shui advice," according to consultant Christian Kyriacou, who has advised on the interiors of 30 UK airports and is working on a house and recording studio for singer Des'ree in Camberwell, South London.

City property firms believe that a building designed in accordance with the principles of Feng Shui will be easier to let or sell because of the growing number of Far Eastern banks in the City.

ABN Amro's new building at Bishopsgate in the City - opening in October - has a silver and white colour scheme with gold colours on desktops.

Feng Shui consultant Chris Pope, who worked on the ABN building, said: "Hundreds, probably thousands, of City firms are making use of Feng Shui, but many are shy of talking about it." Feng Shui was applied at mobile phone company Orange's new headquarters after its chief executive Hans Snook worked in the Far East

ABN executive vice- president Ingo Van Waesberghe also became interested in Feng Shui after working in the East.

Feng Shui designs often include reflective devices. In Chinese restaurants there is often a mirror by the till - the idea being that the money will be mirrored and, hopefully, one day doubled.

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