The feng shui of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in an age of visionary urban transformation

Riyadh is undergoing one of the most ambitious urban transformations of the twenty-first century, moving from an oil-centred capital to a diversified, globally oriented metropolis. From a feng shui perspective, the city presents a striking interplay of extremes, the bright fire of intense sunlight and rapid construction, and the deep yin of desert nights and wadi riverbeds. Wadi Hanifa threads the western flank as Riyadh’s ancestral watercourse, while new green megaprojects, a six-line metro, and cultural restorations at Diriyah recalibrate the city’s qi dynamics at metropolitan scale. This blog offers a comprehensive feng shui reading of Riyadh, integrating the five elements, yin–yang, and a city-scale bagua lens. It maps major landmarks and megaprojects to energetic patterns, then closes with evidence-informed, practical tips for householders and workplaces in the Riyadh context.

Riyadh’s macro-feng-shui setting

Landform and water
Classical feng shui privileges landform and water as the primordial conductors of qi. Riyadh sits on the Najd plateau, with the Tuwaiq escarpment and a network of seasonal valleys, of which Wadi Hanifa is the most formative. As a 120 km north–south spine, the restored wadi acts as a climatic moderator, ecological corridor, and cultural memory trace. Its award-winning rehabilitation has improved hydrology, microclimate, and amenity, and offers an archetypal “water dragon” for the metropolis. In feng shui terms, Wadi Hanifa is Riyadh’s principal water meridian, a slow, grounding yin counterpoint to the city’s swift, fiery yang growth.

Climate as qi
Riyadh’s hot desert climate, with minimal rainfall and very high summer insolation, loads the field with fire element characteristics. This foregrounds strategies of shade, evaporative cooling, tree canopy, night-time ventilation, and careful colour–material choices to deflect glare and heat gain. From a health and environmental psychology perspective, enhancing daylight control and access to restorative nature has measurable benefits for circadian entrainment, mood, and recovery, which aligns with feng shui’s emphasis on balanced light and biophilic cues.

Yin and yang in Riyadh’s urban metabolism

Riyadh’s contemporary blueprint juxtaposes powerful yang investments, tall commercial towers, and mobility infrastructures, with compensating yin moves, wadis, parks, and shaded promenades.

Yang surges include the King Abdullah Financial District with the 385 m PIF Tower, crystalline office spires that broadcast prominence and aspiration. In form language, facets and verticality are fire-metal, which suit a district seeking clarity, visibility, and decisive action, provided the ensemble does not overheat surrounding flows.
Yin correctives include the Wadi Hanifa system, King Salman Park, the 135 km Sports Boulevard, Green Riyadh’s 7.5 million trees, and garden-oasis typologies in the Diplomatic Quarter. These projects cool, moisten, and shelter, infusing wood and water into an otherwise arid, highly yang field.

Balance is not stasis. The art is in dynamic modulation, placing quiet, permeable, shaded, green spaces in dialogue with expressive, luminous, vertical landmarks so that the city breathes.

The five elements across the capital

The five-phase model, wood, fire, earth, metal, water, offers a structured lens for Riyadh’s urban acupuncture.

Water, the carrier of opportunity and flow. The restored Wadi Hanifa and Wadi Namar lakeside park anchor water presence at city scale. In new districts, water appears as cooling rills, retention basins, and fountains, especially in King Salman Park and Diriyah’s landscapes. Water here tempers fire and nourishes wood.
Wood, growth, health, and renewal. The Green Riyadh programme plans 7.5 million trees citywide by 2030, increasing canopy, reducing temperatures, and lifting per-capita green space. The Sports Boulevard extends wooded corridors east–west, promoting active lifestyles. Wood counters dryness and supports family and wellbeing themes.
Fire, visibility, recognition, and transformation. Kingdom Centre with its skybridge, the spear-tipped Al Faisaliah Tower, and the angularity of KAFD express strong fire qualities, signalling status and ambition. In workplace feng shui, such signatures are energising, yet require buffering with wood and water to avoid agitation.
Earth, stability, nourishment, and boundaries. The Najdi vernacular in Diriyah’s At-Turaif mudbrick citadel, the Murabba ensemble, and the broader desert palette are quintessential earth. Earth consolidates identity, preserves memory, and grounds rapid change.
Metal, precision, finance, and order. The PIF Tower and corporate architecture of KAFD are overt metal expressions, associated with clarity, systems, and decision-making. The lattice envelope of the King Fahad National Library and the crystalline honeycomb of KAPSARC are refined metal-air constructs that also integrate environmental performance.

Landmarks and their feng shui signatures

Diriyah and At-Turaif, UNESCO World Heritage. Over Wadi Hanifa, the earthen citadel exemplifies earth and ancestral wood. Night-time lighting reactivates the silhouette without eroding material authenticity. The adjacent Bujairi Terrace mediates heritage and contemporary hospitality, a useful model of yin–yang curation.
Al Masmak Fortress and the King Abdulaziz Historical Centre. Masmak’s thick walls, courtyard logic, and historical role in the 1902 recapture of Riyadh embed foundational earth qi into the old core. The National Museum’s dune-inspired morphology translates earth and wind into contemporary form.
Kingdom Centre and Al Faisaliah. Kingdom Centre’s inverted parabolic notch channels wind and light at height, a fire-metal gesture with an airy void. Al Faisaliah’s spire and glass orb are pure fire symbolism tempered by geometric order. Together they create a landmark pair that aids city legibility.
KAFD with the PIF Tower. At 385 m, the PIF Tower is Riyadh’s tallest building and the crystalline apex of the financial district. Its angular faceting and elevated plazas consolidate metal and fire. As the district fills, careful microclimate management and shaded wadis inside KAFD soften hard edges.
King Fahad National Library. The double-skin lattice, inspired by regional mashrabiya patterns, filters glare and heat while projecting cultural continuity, an elegant metal–earth synthesis that demonstrates climatic intelligence.
KAPSARC, Zaha Hadid Architects. The LEED Platinum campus uses a cellular honeycomb to modulate light, wind, and heat, an exemplar of performance-driven form that harmonises with Riyadh’s plateau climate. Zaha Hadid Architects+1
Tuwaiq Palace, Diplomatic Quarter. A seminal 1985 complex along the Wadi Hanifa escarpment, celebrated with an Aga Khan Award, its curving limestone wall and tensile canopies orchestrate desert–garden contrasts, a masterclass in yin–yang.
King Salman Park, Sports Boulevard, and Green Riyadh. These megaprojects are the city’s primary yin correctives. King Salman Park’s 16 plus square kilometres, the 135 km Sports Boulevard linking Wadi Hanifa to Wadi Al-Sulai, and the Green Riyadh tree canopy significantly shift the city’s element balance toward wood and water, with measurable thermal and wellbeing gains.
New Murabba and the Mukaab. The 400 m cube at the heart of New Murabba projects a bold, modern-Najdi earth–metal statement. Its sheer volume and immersive interior require subtle handling of light, greenery, water, and public realm to maintain human-scale qi and mitigate any oppressive massing.
Riyadh Metro. The six-line, 176 km metro network, with interchange stations such as ZHA’s KAFD station, will re-pattern movement qi, reduce car dependency, and unlock balanced flows between districts once fully open. Rail nodes behave as activated bagua “mouths of qi”, provided entrances are legible, shaded, and supported by tree canopy and water features.

A city-scale bagua reading for Riyadh

Applying the bagua to an entire metropolis is necessarily heuristic. A pragmatic method is to anchor the centre on the historic core between Qasr al-Hukm and Murabba, then align the grid to true north. Reading from this centre:

North, career and water, align with mobility corridors and institutional gateways. The incoming flows from King Khalid International Airport and the emergent metro lines are the city’s professional arteries. Wadi Hanifa, though west, acts as a supplementary water meridian, symbolically feeding north’s career qi. Priorities, clear wayfinding, shade structures, and water-wise landscaping at gateways.
Northeast, knowledge and cultivation. University and research clusters, including KAPSARC, strengthen this sector. Encourage bookable study gardens, daylight-controlled reading rooms, and planting schemes that emphasise vertical wood forms for growth intent. Zaha Hadid Architects
East, family and health. The Sports Boulevard and neighbourhood parks are catalytic here. Planting for shade, walkable blocks, and playgrounds refine the wood element and support family routines.
Southeast, wealth. New mixed-use districts with balanced residential, retail, and shaded promenades support steady prosperity more than isolated trophy forms. Pocket water features, not overdone, stabilise the flow.
South, fame and fire. The skyline pair of Kingdom Centre and Al Faisaliah, and the communicative glow of cultural festivals, feed this sector. To avoid overheating, pair lighting with treescape and evaporative micro-features at ground plane.
Southwest, relationships. Heritage-rich Diriyah with Bujairi Terrace embodies conviviality and memory. Earth tones, textured materials, and intimate seating clusters deepen connection qi.
West, creativity and children. Libraries, maker spaces, and cultural pavilions with filtered daylight, such as the King Fahad National Library, serve this sector. Use playful metal-to-wood transitions and art in shaded courtyards.
Northwest, helpful people and travel. The Diplomatic Quarter and Tuwaiq Palace exemplify gracious hosting. Keep edges porous into Wadi Hanifa, maintain shaded colonnades, and curate multicultural events.

This overlay is interpretative rather than prescriptive. Its value is strategic, helping leaders and communities mix elements coherently across districts so that no sector is starved of complementary support.

Architecture and streetscapes, translating principles into practice

Shade as first principle. In streets and squares, deep canopies, arcades, tensile membranes, and tree allées are non-negotiable. The best precedents in Riyadh, from the DQ to King Salman Park and the library’s double skin, all combine shade with airflow.
Water in the right measure. Wadi rehabilitation, rills, and shaded water bodies cool without excess evaporative loss if correctly sited and maintained. They symbolically invite opportunity while grounding overstimulated fire qi.
Earth for continuity. Use Najdi textures and tones to stabilise fast-changing districts, especially around heritage anchors like Diriyah and Masmak.
Metal for clarity. Deploy crisp geometries, good wayfinding, and reflective but not glaring finishes in business and transport nodes. KAFD’s metal-forward vocabulary should be acoustically and thermally softened at the pedestrian scale with wood and planting.
Fire as highlight, not floodlight. The skyline’s luminescence should be balanced by low-glare pedestrian lighting to protect circadian health and night sky quality. Evidence suggests that managing evening melanopic light supports sleep and wellbeing.

Evidence-informed wellbeing, the environmental psychology bridge

Classical feng shui often converges with empirical findings. Views to nature, daylight exposure by day and lower melanopic exposure by evening, and indoor plants are repeatedly associated with better mood, attention, and recovery. These are not mere aesthetics, they are measurable environmental affordances that reduce stress and improve performance. Designing Riyadh’s homes and offices with green views, glare-controlled daylight, plantings, and quiet refuge spaces therefore advances both feng shui and health psychology aims.

Riyadh’s Core Values: A Cultural Harmony Resonating with the Principles of Feng Shui
In a city shaped by religious devotion, strong family ties, hospitality, deep respect for tradition, conservatism, justice, forgiveness, social generosity, patriotism, and a harmonious embrace of modernity, the values of Riyadh align naturally with feng shui’s emphasis on balanced environments, communal well-being, and the thoughtful integration of heritage and innovation.

Riyadh’s Wellness Revolution and the Role of Feng Shui

Riyadh is demonstrating a serious and timely commitment to wellness as central to its urban and societal development. The recently announced VIBE 2025 platform, co-located with Saudi Arabia’s Global Health Exhibition and powered by the Ministry of Health’s LiveWell initiative, is one key expression of this. VIBE aims to bring holistic health, longevity, and wellness innovation to the fore, with a strong emphasis on preventative care, mental wellness, digital health, and lifestyle transformation.

Similarly, the Employee Wellbeing Conference 2025 (Riyadh, 2-3 September, Crowne Plaza Al Waha) underscores how organisations are now recognising that the health, engagement, resilience, and mental wellbeing of employees are essential not only morally but economically.

Feng shui plays a complementary role in this wellness commitment, especially in spas, wellness centres, and corporate environments. Wellness space design that respects feng shui principles can help to harness and shape environmental energy (“chi”) in ways that support rest, recovery, mental clarity, and harmony. For example, the layout, lighting, materials, water elements, and natural ventilation in a spa or workplace can be arranged to achieve a tranquil flow of energy, balancing yin and yang. According to sources, in wellness tourism and spa design, integrating the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water), avoiding clutter, positioning entrances to welcome positive energy flow, and ensuring that interiors have calming colour palettes and natural lighting are among the core strategies.

Together, such conferences and wellness-platforms combined with intentional design align with a growing public understanding in Riyadh that wellbeing is multi-dimensional: physical, mental, social, environmental, and spatial. By integrating feng shui into built environments — from spas to offices — Riyadh can more fully realise its wellness revolution under Vision 2030, shaping not just healthier people but healthier spaces.

Top feng shui tips for people living and working in Riyadh

Bedrooms – bed placement and recovery – be mindful electronics and geopathic stress. In bedrooms, the most important rooms for your health, wellness, success and wealth – reduce evening blue-rich light, choose warm, low-glare luminaires, and orient the bed to a solid wall with a good headboard. Darkness and acoustic stillness are restorative in a hot, stimulating city.

Reduce bedroom electrosmog where practical by distancing chargers and using aeroplane mode at night, or better still switch off wifi for the night, then check that comfort gains are matched by good ventilation and thermal comfort.
Check for geopathic stress if you’re sleeping in geopathic stress free zones – if not, get Helios3USB Schumann Resonance generator to mitigate geopathic stress and electrosmog.
Temper fire at home. Use a palette of earth neutrals with wood accents, woven textures, and indoor trees or large plants to moderate glare and heat. Place plants where you can see them from work and rest positions, which supports attention and calm. Avoid spiky, overmetallic schemes that amplify harshness.
Prioritise shade and air before cold. Cross-ventilate at night, use external shading and breathable curtains by day, then rely on efficient cooling. This sequencing respects yin–yang rhythms and reduces energy demand.
Curate your “water mouth”. The main door is the mouth of qi. Keep entrances shaded, uncluttered, and well-signed, with a cool colour accent or small water feature where appropriate, always ensuring safety and maintenance.
Work zones, wood and metal in balance. Combine the clarity of metal, tidy shelving, cable management, and task lighting, with the growth of wood, green views, or biophilic art. Avoid seating directly under strong downlights or exposed beams that create pressure.
Micro-oases on balconies. Even small terraces can host shade-tolerant planters, a ceramic water bowl, and a chair in the lee of wind. Think of it as your personal wadi pocket.
Harness the morning. Morning daylight at home or on a shaded walk aligns the body clock, especially critical in extreme heat climates where much life shifts to evenings.
In offices around KAFD or Olaya. Diffuse the high-yang skyline by positioning collaboration areas near windows with views to trees or sky, and provide quieter, earth-toned focus rooms deeper in plan.
Kitchen and hydration. In arid climates, kitchens can be overly fire-dominant. Add bowls of fruit, wood boards, a small herb garden under controlled light, and ensure abundant filtered water as symbolic and practical water support.
Children’s rooms. Use west-facing rooms with care. Provide adjustable blackout and warm evening lighting to avoid overstimulation near bedtime.

Adapting the Feng Shui Principles to Saudi Homes

Modern Saudi homes and apartments, especially in Riyadh, feature grand entrances, spacious family zones, and multifunctional guest areas. Feng shui adaptation involves steps like:

Decluttering before moving to prevent stagnant or negative energy from being carried to a new home.
Cleansing the space—using natural light, open windows, salt water, or even locally familiar scents such as oud – to clear energy residue from previous occupants.
Optimising the entrance (“mouth of Chi”): Ensuring the entry is bright, clean, and open, perhaps accented by green plants (growth) and a welcoming mat.
Thoughtful bedroom placement: Beds should not directly face doors. Favor solid walls behind beds and soothing color palettes common in Saudi interiors.
Balance of the five elements: Wood (plants, furniture), Fire (candles, warm lighting), Earth (pottery, tiles), Metal (appliances, accents), Water (fountains, art). Balance and subtlety matter more than heavy symbolism.

Cultural Sensitivities and Integrations
A critical perspective is that feng shui’s tools and cures, particularly culturally Chinese items, have minimal or irrelevant impact in Middle Eastern contexts. Instead, as a feng shui expert, with over 45 years experience, I recommend practical changes grounded in universal principles rather than imported symbolism. This approach sidesteps misconceptions and better integrates with Saudi values and Riyadh’s core values, which prioritise privacy, modesty, hospitality, religious faith, strong family bonds, and respect for both tradition and modernity – naturally resonate with feng shui’s focus on harmony, balance, and community well-being.

The Art of Sand, the Middle Eastern tradition of geomancy, shares striking parallels with feng shui in its use of symbolic patterns, elemental correspondences, and readings of the natural landscape to guide harmony, fortune, and wellbeing (read more below).

Riyadh’s trajectory, concluding reflections

Riyadh’s megaprojects are not only economic but energetic. The combination of green corridors, shaded public realms, and carefully calibrated landmarks can produce a city that breathes, a metropolis with coherent qi where people thrive. The key is orchestration. Fire must be celebrated without scorching, water must flow without waste, wood must flourish without heat stress, earth must root identity without heaviness, and metal must bring order without sterility. Riyadh’s heritage at Diriyah and Masmak anchors the earth, while KAFD and the Mukaab test the limits of contemporary form. The city’s best future lies in the dialogue between these poles, shaded, planted, walkable, and humane.

Feng shui consultants in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

A quick Google search revealed that there are not many feng shui consultants in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. So if you live in Riyadh or anywhere in Saudi Arabia. and are looking for a feng shui consultant feel free to call/text/Whatsapp me on +44 7956 288574 for a quote for feng shui consultation for your home or workplace. I’d be happy to travel to Saudi Arabia or do a remote feng shui consultation via Zoom, FaceTime or Whatsapp. Email me

Check my blogs about feng shui of cities

Feng shui of Dubai, UAE

References

Arriyadh Development Authority. Tuwaiq Palace. Recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 1998.
Designboom. KAFD Metro Station by Zaha Hadid Architects; Riyadh Metro overview and planned opening.
Diriyah Gate Development Authority. At-Turaif District and Bujairi Terrace visitor information.
Gerber Architekten. King Fahad National Library. Project descriptions and technical dossier.
HOK and Omrania. Public Investment Fund Tower. Architectural descriptions and height data.
Kaplan, S. 1995. The restorative benefits of nature, toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology.
Kaplan, R., & Kaplan, S. 1989. The experience of nature. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
King Salman Park Foundation and Royal Commission for Riyadh City. King Salman Park, vision and metrics.
Mak, M. Y., & So, A. T. P. 2015. Scientific feng shui for the built environment, theories and applications. Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong Press.
RCRC. Green Riyadh, programme aims including 7.5 million trees and per-capita green space.
RCRC. Sports Boulevard, 135 km linear park linking Wadi Hanifa to Wadi Al-Sulai.
Saudi Ministry of Culture and heritage sources. Al Masmak Fortress and the Battle of Riyadh, 1902.
Snøhetta and partners. Qasr Al Hokm and Metro station design references.
Ulrich, R. S. 1984. View through a window may influence recovery from surgery. Science.
Zaha Hadid Architects. KAPSARC, LEED Platinum campus in Riyadh.

The Art of Sand: Middle Eastern Geomancy and Its Parallels with Feng Shui
The art of sand, or ilm al-raml, is a centuries-old Arabic tradition of divination which transforms the seemingly random patterns drawn in sand into structured diagrams that reflect the deeper rhythms of nature and fate. Much like the way feng shui interprets the environment’s invisible energies to seek harmony, the geomancer reads signs and relationships in the shifting earth, blending intuition with a system of binary figures. This process is not only a form of divination, but also a philosophical act that links the individual with the elemental qualities of earth, balance, and cyclic change.

In the broader context of feng shui, ilm al-raml stands as a regional counterpart – rooted in the Middle Eastern landscape, aligning the seeker with both immediate surroundings and greater cosmic orders. While feng shui analyses flow and placement, sand divination reflects how simple physical interaction with the land – a movement of the hand, the drawing of a line – can reveal invisible patterns that shape wellbeing and destiny. Both arts recognise that the environment is a living system, and in their practice, the wisdom of reading the earth transcends cultural boundaries, echoing the universal human desire to live in harmony with the world. More on: the Art of Sand – divination