Liu Ming, a feng shui teacher in Oakland, California, lives in a loft inside a warehouse in Oakland, California. But he spends much of his time – working, sleeping, meditating – inside a steel and plywood cube that sits on wheels in the middle of his loft. Why? Because, he says, it’s good feng shui.
Liu liked his loft but found it lacking a certain cosiness. The cube, designed with an architect who happens to be one of his feng shui students, serves as a perfect space for any number of activities. Liu explained to the NY Times:
In feng shui, we talk about the harmony in the place that you live in. The cube evolved out of wanting cozy with the option of keeping a big, open space at the same time. And we added wheels for feng shui purposes. Now that it is portable, I can spin it on an axis, I can point my head and point my desk in different compass directions for different projects. If I am writing something and feel blocked, I can get up and move the room.
The room within a room cost $US20,000 in all to build – $US12,000 of that going to its steel frame – but the entire thing can be disassembled into 1m parts that can fit out of a standard door; wherever Liu might move, the cube will go with him. The takeaway, for all of us slaving away in stifling cubicles in the office parks of this great nation? At least they’re cosy. [NYT]