The Reichstag Glass Dome ("Opening the Heavenly Gate at the Central Palace")

Why was it built this way? When reconstructing Germany's heavy masonry parliament building in 1999, Norman Foster crowned the exact center of the structure with a transparent 40-meter Glass Dome. Suspended down the center of the dome is an inverted cone clad in 360 angled mirrors pointing directly into the parliamentary debating chamber below, topped by an open circular exhaust aperture at the apex.

The Unbroken Feng Shui Thread: Massive stone buildings with enclosed cores easily suffer from Yin Stagnation and Yang Deficiency at the Central Palace (Zhong Gong), causing mental fatigue and oppressive indoor air. Foster's intervention is a textbook realization of the classical Yang Dwelling principle "Opening the Heavenly Gate to Draw Sunlight and Expel Stale Qi" (Kai Tian Men, Tu Gu Na Xin): the 360-mirror cone captures natural daylight from all directions and beams vibrant Yang energy straight down into the heart of the building, while the open oculus at the top acts as a natural thermal stack that draws warm, stale air up and out to the sky.