Looking at famous Everyday Structures Around the World through the Vastu lens.
Few London landmarks are as recognisable as Wembley Stadium. Yet almost
in its shadow sits another structure that becomes surprisingly compelling
through a Vastu lens: BOXPARK Wembley.
Opened in 2018, BOXPARK combines street food, communal dining and large scale entertainment within one flexible venue. At first glance, it is a bold black industrial building. But its relationship with the land, roads, movement and internal functions reveals an intriguing spatial logic.
So is this accidental Vastu harmony, or simply good modern design arriving at
principles Vastu has described for thousands of years?
BOXPARK runs broadly along a North South axis. Fulton Road lies to the North, Olympic Way along the East and Repton Lane to the South.
This creates two immediately interesting conditions: movement along the North and exceptional openness along the East. Olympic Way functions like the “aorta” artery and carries huge waves of people between Wembley Park station and Wembley Stadium, strongly activating BOXPARK's eastern edge.
The site also falls from South towards North, while the southern side has greater visual and structural weight, reinforced by Wembley Stadium.
This broadly reflects a fundamental Vastu principle: greater openness and movement towards North and East, balanced by greater weight and containment towards South and West.
BOXPARK's food and beverage units surround a large multipurpose communal space used for dining, events, markets, screenings and performances.
From a Vastu perspective, this relates to the Brahmasthan, the energetic centre of a building. Despite its activity, the centre remains largely open and connected, allowing people to gather, circulate and disperse without feeling trapped.
At the very centre ( Brahmasthan) of the main ground floor hall sits a large square bar island, echoing Rahu themes of intoxication, illusion and heightened experience. Its open internal layout with plenty of room for servers to move around, prevents the important Brahmasthan area from feeling congested and loaded down with weight. The well placed gleaming bottles, glassware and reflective surfaces also visually lighten the mass. Above, an enormous mirrored globe scatters light in every direction, keeping the centre bright, dynamic and energised.
The southern part of BOXPARK is strongly associated with major entertainment, including live music, DJs, comedy and sports screenings.
The Vastu fields here are strikingly compatible.
Vivaswan relates to visibility and recognition. Gandharva connects with music, enjoyment and performance, while Yama represents the discipline and regular practice required to master an art.
The South therefore becomes a natural zone for relaxation, performance, entertainment and public visibility.
The western upper areas shift towards interactive entertainment, including
pool, shuffleboard, ping pong, air hockey, arcade games and other experiences.
In Vastu, the West is strongly associated with Varuna, the powerful deity connected with wisdom, self control and sustained effort. Other western fields reinforce this. Sugreeva relates to recognising and grasping opportunity, Pushpadanta carries a supportive and positive quality, while a balanced Asura can introduce attraction and intrigue. Varuna has extraordinary powers and is said to have a thousand eyes, symbolising heightened observation and awareness. His energy is the drive that keeps a person moving forward and striving to give their best performance.
Interactive play requires concentration, repeated effort, judgement, awareness of surroundings and the desire to improve performance.
The West therefore becomes a natural zone for play, performance, opportunity and the enjoyment of achievement.
Commercial Vastu is not only about individual placements. It also examines how people and activity move through a space.
Visitors arrive through active surroundings, enter from the East, gather in the
central hall and disperse towards food, games and entertainment. Movement enters, circulates and reaches its function rather than becoming trapped in disconnected pockets.
BOXPARK's black exterior is perhaps its most distinctive feature.
In the Matsya Purana, both Shani, Saturn, and Rahu are associated with dark or black colouring. Symbolically, Rahu magnifies spectacle, crowds and heightened experience, while Saturn represents weight, structure and containment.
That combination feels particularly relevant beside Olympic Way.
On football and concert days, thousands of people move past BOXPARK carrying anticipation, celebration, disappointment and euphoria. Against this
highly charged environment, the dark structure appears almost like a Saturnine container for Rahuvian intensity.
Rahu amplifies. Saturn contains. Inside are screens, lights, music, food, games and crowds. Outside, the architecture remains dark, solid and grounded.
The lesson is not that black is universally favourable or unfavourable in Vastu. It is that colour must always be read in relation to function, scale and environment.
I am not aware if BOXPARK Wembley was deliberately designed according to Vastu. But it makes a particularly compelling Vastu case study.
The North and East receive movement and openness. Both the northern and eastern entrances have auspicious slopes to north and east respectively. The site itself slopes towards the North. The centre remains active. The South supports performance and entertainment, while the West supports games, sustained effort and achievement. Even the heavy black exterior makes unusual sense within Wembley’s intensely charged environment.
So is BOXPARK a case of Accidental harmony, or has good architecture been speaking the language of Vastu all along?
Answer: There is no indication that it was. The interest lies in how its orientation,
movement and spatial use independently echo several Vastu principles.
Answer: Yes. Vastu can be studied through direction, movement, openness, levels,
function and the way people use a space.
Answer: No. Its value as a case study lies in the overall spatial relationship between
direction, activity and function.
Answer: Olympic Way creates exceptional openness and pedestrian movement along the eastern edge, strongly activating that side.
Answer: Because colour must be judged in context. At BOXPARK, the dark exterior
creates solidity and containment around an exceptionally active entertainment environment.
