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The redevelopment of the Central Government Offices in Central has been criticised on a host of grounds linked to the environment, preservation and unnecessary waste. 
The latest reason put forward by concern groups? Poor fung shui.  
Qualified architect and fung shui disciple Michael Chiang Hong-man  said that water - which represents money - comes in from the north. The chief executive's house behind the offices represents the 'brain of the dragon', which is Hong Kong. So to place a large office block in front of Government House would be to block the flow of money into Hong Kong.
'Right now the government has obvious problems even with so much money,' Chiang said. 'What are they going to do if they have no money?'
But Abraham Razack,  the lawmaker representing the real estate and construction industry, said although there were good reasons to preserve the site, fung shui was not one of them.
'Whether it's built or not should not be based on fung shui,' he said, chuckling. 'But we live in a society that's superstitious.'
The government plans to pull down  the 52-year-old West Wing of the current Central Government Offices after staff relocate to the Tamar  site. In its place will be a 32-storey commercial block with 23,000 square metres of floor space and an underground mall, owned privately.
The Government Hill Concern Group, a collection of 20 advocacy associations, says the buildings are structurally sound and part of Hong Kong's history. 
Last month, the group submitted a petition with 2,000 signatures to the Town Planning Board in protest, and in February submitted an alternative proposal to the  board. The group includes the Professional Commons, an independent lobby organisation, as well as some retired government officials and veteran architects.
Yesterday, they arranged for Chiang to give his analysis on how the government could balance its chi.
'At the moment no architect can predict  whether  once you build a beautiful house and live there you'll be prosperous and happy forever,' he said. But according to Chiang, fung shui has been developed over hundreds of years and is an 'environmental science'.
Chiang is a member of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects and Royal Institute of British Architects,  a class-one registered architect in China and an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Hong Kong. 
Chiang also said the 32-storey block replacing the West Wing combined with the 10-storey East Wing block would create an imbalance. In fung shui, they represent a protective 'green dragon' and 'white tiger' respectively and in practical terms they create a buffer from typhoons.
Architect Lee Yuet, who is not a fung shui expert, agreed. 'You are immediately making an imbalanced thing,' he said. 'From simple common sense, it's no good.'
But setting up an office building might not be all bad vibes. The design of the building would open up more space in between the current East and West Wings, said Professor Patrick Lau Sau-shing,  who represents the architectural  sector in the Legislative Council. In fung shui terms that would mean opening up Government House to the north, leading to better chi.
However, Lau said that it all depended on the person living in Government House - Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen.  Whether the fung shui was good or bad depended on the natural levels of iron in an individual's blood and the way they combined with magnetic fields.  
'But I'm not an expert,' he added.



Blocking Government House a fung shui no-no