Every house has a facing and house direction.

The facing direction is the orientation of the facing of the house measured in degree. The sitting direction is always magnetically opposite the facing. So if a house is facing 5 deg then the sitting is 185 deg.

Why is it important to identify the house sitting and house facing correctly? Most Feng Shui system make use of either the sitting or facing direction (plus other factors) to determine the qi distribution in a house. If you make a wrong assessment of the house facing or house sitting, then the subsequent recommendation will be incorrect.

In most houses the facing and sitting are easy to identify. In some cases however, it can be quite tricky but when you are in doubt, you can use the following guidelines to determine the house sitting and house facing.

• The main entrance is usually the facing.
• The street address usually corresponds to the facing.
• Traffic is usually heavier at the facing.
• The larger windows are usually at the facing.
• The living room is usually at the facing side of the house.
• The back-lane is usually correspond to the sitting.
• The backyard is usually the sitting.

Please refer to the diagram on the right. This is an example of a south facing house (or north sitting house). In this example the main door is also facing South.

The orientation of the main door can be different from the facing of the house (more on this in the next article). Please note that in systems like the Eight Mansion and Flying Star, the sitting or facing of the house is used to determine the qi distribution of the chart, not the orientation of the main door. A lot of people are confused about this!

The diagram uses the Chinese mapping standard where South instead or North is on the top of the page.