South facing house Vastu plan
South facing is the facing people worry about most, and the worry is overdone. Vastu does not reject a south facing plot — it is specific about where the door goes. Get the entrance pada right and the rest of the plan follows the same rules as any other facing.
What counts as south facing
Facing is decided by the direction you look when you walk out of the main door. If you step out and face north, it is a north facing house — regardless of which way the plot is longer.
The road is to the south and the main door is in the south wall. The favourable stretch is the south-east end of that wall — towards the east, away from the south-west corner. In the classical 32-pada scheme this is the position associated with gain rather than loss, which is the whole basis for the "south facing is bad" reputation: a door in the wrong pada, not the facing itself.
Room placement for a south facing house
| Room | Best zone | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Main entrance | South, towards the south-east | The favourable pada on a south wall |
| Living / hall | North, north-east, or east of the entry | Push the public rooms away from the south-west |
| Kitchen | South-east | Close to the entry side on this facing |
| Master bedroom | South-west | |
| Children bedroom | West or north-west | |
| Pooja room | North-east | |
| Dining | West or centre | |
| Toilets | North-west or west | Keep them off the south-west corner |
| Staircase | South-west or south | |
| Open space / setback | More on the north and east than the south |
Corrections for a south facing plot
- Keep the south-west corner of the house solid, tall and heavy. No entrance, no toilet, no cut-out, no open space there.
- Give the north and east more setback than the south — the opposite of instinct when the road is south.
- Put the underground sump in the north-east and the overhead tank in the south-west.
- Do not cut or depress the south-east corner. An "extended" south-east is worse than a square one.
- Shade the south wall. On a south facing plot the entrance itself is the hottest surface of the house for most of the year.
Check your own plan against this
Open the plan editor, set your plot size and the facing, and the Vastu checker marks each zone on the sheet — green where the room matches the convention, amber where it is borderline, red where it is wrong — with the reason written out next to it. Move the wall, and the check updates as you drag.
A note on how to use this
Vastu Shastra is a traditional Indian system of directional planning, not a building code. Plenty of its rules line up neatly with good tropical design — a south-east kitchen gets morning sun and keeps afternoon heat away from the living room, a north-east opening brings in soft light, heavy mass on the south-west shades the house through the hottest hours. Others are purely traditional.
Treat the checker in the editor the same way a structural engineer treats a rule of thumb: it tells you what the convention says, quickly, so you can decide what to follow and what to trade away. It will never stop you drawing the plan you want.
Frequently asked questions
Is a south facing house really bad?
No. Vastu texts do not reject south facing plots; they are specific about the door position within the south wall. A south facing house with the entrance in the south-east portion, a solid south-west corner and an open north-east is considered perfectly sound.
Where should the main door be in a south facing house?
In the south wall, towards its south-east end. The south-west end of the south wall is the position to avoid.
Should I buy a south facing plot?
If the price is better and the plan can put the door in the south-east portion, a south facing plot is a good buy. What matters far more than facing is plot shape, road width, and whether the north-east can be kept open.