Finding your spot

The importance of Wind and Water applies not only to the location of large centers of human habitation. Your home and your office are habitations also and you find yourself naturally concerned about the environments in which you spend so much of your lifetime. When you choose a house or apartment you worry about the price you will pay, the cost of living in the area, and the convenience of the location. But you also want to know about the neighbourhood. You are concerned about the atmosphere of the locality: you want to know how quiet it is, whether it is safe, whether the air is oppressive. You want to know what effect living there will have on you.
In order to answer this question, the Feng Shui practitioner takes many aspects into account. It is not just a question of whether you like the house or apartment. The various Feng Shui principles are used. What is the balance of Yin and Yang? How deos the alignment of the home fit with the sequence of trigrams in the I Ching? Is it an appropriate location in view of the magnetic and other forces and the relevant cycles of time? Does the overall configuration of the home and neighbouring buildings correspond to the map of The Five Animals?
No location is permanently good or bad. To say that would violate the fundamental fact of change in the universe. All the converging -  and changing forces have to be taken into account. What is an appropriate location for a family home for one cycle of 20 years may be most unsuitable in the next. An auspicious location for one family may be singularly catastrophic for anothe. Feng Shui, like any science, explores all aspects of the situation, develops general laws, and then examines how to apply these in specific circumstances.
Moving to the countryside

You want to move to the countryside. You find a charming little house with wide open fields stretching in all directions to the rear. However, the house has on open area of its own in front: the main road runs right by the front door. You hesitate about buying it possible the traffic will be noisy at night. You are also reacting intuitively to the fact that the location of the house violates Feng Shui principles. It is completely unprotected at the rear and has no open space in front. Unconsciously perhaps, you feel there is something vulnerable about the location.
Effects of a high-rise tower

If someone seeks planning permission to build a high-rise tower across the street from your house, you naturally object. It will block your view, cut off your access to sunlight and air, and lower the value of your home. From the Feng Shui point of view, putting the tower in front of your home would be the equivalent of blocking off the entrance of your cave and turning it around to face inward to the mountain. Your natural sense of order is turned topsy turvy and you feel you are about to be suffocated, because your biological need for air (Wind) as you face forward will be obstructed.