Vastu for Apartments in Dubai, Singapore and London

Yes. Direction is absolute, and the principles that follow from it — where fire belongs, where water belongs, where you sleep, what the centre should hold — do not vary by country. A compass in Dubai Marina reads the same North as a compass in Andheri.

What varies is the building. An apartment is shaped by local construction, climate and regulation, and those differ enormously between a fifty-storey Gulf tower, a Singapore condominium and a converted Victorian house in London.

So the analysis is identical in method and different in application. The zones are mapped the same way; the remedies are chosen for what that particular building will allow.

Tower living, extreme heat and a great deal of glass. Several of the questions that come up are peculiar to this combination.

Plans are often irregular — curved facades, angled corners and wedge-shaped units mean the compass grid does not sit neatly on the floor plan, and establishing where each zone actually falls takes more care than in a rectangular flat.

Heat and sealed air-conditioning mean windows stay shut for much of the year, so ventilation has to be arranged deliberately. Balconies are frequently glazed in, changing what was designed as open space. And kitchens in many towers are closed galley units with no choice of hob position, which pushes the work towards the direction you face, plus colour, light and placement around the cooking area.

Efficient layouts, fixed services and rules about what you may alter. Both HDB flats and private condominiums are built to tight, repeatable plans.

The kitchen is usually where the developer put it, with plumbing and gas fixed. Bathrooms cannot be relocated. Many buildings restrict what can be changed inside as well as outside, and approvals are required for alterations of any significance.

This is where non-structural remedies stop being a preference and become the only workable route. The levers that remain are substantial: bed placement and sleeping direction, where the study desk sits, which way you face while cooking, colour, lighting, plants, and keeping the ब्रह्मस्थान (Brahmasthan, the centre) of the flat open and uncluttered. Humidity also makes ventilation and mould a real concern, and damp corners matter for wellbeing as much as for the building.

Age, conversion and light. A great many London flats are carved out of houses built long before flats existed, and the resulting plans can be genuinely odd.

Rooms end up in shapes nobody designed — a kitchen in what was a scullery, a bathroom inserted into a landing, a bedroom under a slope. Windows are often small, ceilings sometimes low, and daylight is scarce for months of the year, which makes lighting one of the most useful remedies available.

Listed buildings and conservation areas restrict what can be altered even for owners, and much of the city rents. Damp in older buildings is a practical matter as well as an energetic one — a persistently damp North-East corner should be dealt with by a builder first and by placement second.

The core recommendations are unchanged, and they are where most of the benefit lies anyway.

Living on the thirty-second floor does not remove you from Vastu. Direction works the same at height, and the zones of your flat are mapped exactly as they would be at ground level.

Two things do need attention in towers. A lift shaft or staircase sharing a wall with your flat brings constant movement and noise against that wall, and where it adjoins a bedroom, moving the bed away from the shared wall is a sensible first step. Large expanses of glass also change the balance of a room — good for light, demanding for privacy, heat and a settled feeling — and curtains, colour and furniture placement do more here than any object.

For a fuller treatment of apartment-specific questions, see residential Vastu, which covers rooms one by one.

Almost all of it, because the remedies used here are non-structural by design — no demolition, no builder, no permission required.

Placement, sleeping direction, which way you face while working and cooking, decluttering by zone, lighting dark corners, colour in soft furnishings rather than paint, plants, and portable items such as crystals and activated pyramids all travel with you and leave no trace.

This matters in cities where people move every two or three years. A remedy plan that assumes you will own the flat for twenty years is no use in Dubai, Singapore or London, and is not what is recommended.

Dr. Kimaya Parikh-Ambekar consults on apartments outside India remotely, working from your floor plan, compass readings you take at the entrance, and photographs of each room, followed by a discussion and a written report of remedies.

In-person visits are made across Mumbai and Thane, with other Indian cities on request, from the office at A-1304, Naman Premier, Marol Military Road, Andheri East, Mumbai 400059. For an apartment abroad, the remote route is the practical one and is used regularly.

Write to stayblessed@vastukimaya.com or message +91 70391 07512 with your city and time zone. The first consultation call is free, and sessions are held in English, Hindi, Marathi or Gujarati. Where a remedy plan includes stones, crystal therapy guidance is given for you to source locally.