Design Energetics: The Ancient Pulse of Feng Shui in the Modern World
By Michael Warden
Meridian, £35

Michael Warden teaches and practices holistic environmental design and is a Feng Shui consultant and instructor. He uses more than 350 beautifully illustrated pages to elaborate on the idea that everything is connected to everything else and essentially that buildings and environment influence individuals and society – or, as Winston Churchill put it more felicitously: “We shape our buildings – thereafter, they shape us.”

Broadly discursive, the book ropes into its cause a diversity of scientific, neo-scientific and mathematical theories, historical and archaeological findings and allusions to a startlingly wide range of writers. Chaos theory, Mandelbrot sets, the structure of DNA and zero point fields of quantum physics jostle with Goethe, Jung, James Lovelock and Rupert Sheldrake to bolster the early heaven ba gua, the I Ching, magic squares and flying stars.

In effect, Warden is saying: “Hey look, there are lots of resonances between ancient systems – like Feng Shui – younger philosophical observations and contemporary physics.” That alone is not enough. A more disciplined approach would unpack these parallels in detail – hinted at in the extensive notes at the end, which merit incorporation in the main text (where subdivision using paragraphs would make for easier reading). But that, perhaps, is the task of Warden’s next book.