Vastu for Balconies, Terraces and Gardens: Plants, Water and Open Space

About the rules and numbers below: Vastu guidance is a tradition, and practitioners differ; we say who recommends what. Building rules come from the Model Building Bye-Laws 2016, a template each state adapts. Load figures are illustrative arithmetic from the Indian Standards, not a structural design.

Vastu practitioners generally keep the north, north-east and east of a garden, terrace or balcony low and open, with lawn, shrubs and small pots, and put tall trees, heavy planters and built structures towards the south, south-west and west. Most put water in the north-east, north or east, though even that is disputed. On a roof or a flat's balcony, the slab decides how much of this you can actually do, so weight, waterproofing and drainage come first.

This guide covers outdoor space alone. For the whole-house basics, start with our practical Vastu guide for a new home.

The common rule: open to the north and east, weight to the south and west

Almost every modern guide repeats it:

Gardens: Brick & Bolt's guide says to plant small shrubs in the north and east, keep the north-east "open and free", plant tall trees in the south, west and south-west, and keep the north and east boundaries lower (Brick & Bolt, garden Vastu).
Built garden elements: Star Cement suggests flowering plants in the north, east or north-east and heavier concrete walls towards the south-west (Star Cement).
Balconies and terraces: HomeLane's guide puts open spaces such as balconies, terraces and decks in the north, east or north-east, heavy furniture on the south or west side, and a vertical garden on the south or west walls (HomeLane).

Plan of a 36 by 30 ft roof terrace with north at the top, divided into nine Vastu zones with compass bearings. A lawn with low shrubs and a small water bowl fills the North and North-East, with another lawn in the East and a dashed 'no tall tree' marker there. Heavy planters with small trees line the South, a tree and a pergola sit in the West, and a stair room with the water tank above is in the South-West. A rainwater outlet is marked in the North-East corner and the parapet runs round the edge. — How practitioners commonly arrange a roof terrace: low and open to the north and east, heavier to the south and west, with the parapet and outlet the bye-laws and codes ask for. Diagram: MOA

Where the guides disagree:

Heavy things on a balcony. Brick & Bolt's balcony guide puts heavy furniture in the south-west or west (Brick & Bolt, balcony Vastu). Design Cafe says the opposite: avoid heavy furniture in balconies, "especially in the south-west or west zones" (Design Cafe).
The worst direction for a balcony. Brick & Bolt calls south- and west-facing balconies "not ideal"; Design Cafe singles out the south-west.

There is no scientific evidence that where you put a planter affects health or money; people follow these rules as tradition. An architect's practical reading, not the texts': across most of India the harshest afternoon sun comes from the south and west, so trees and pergolas on those sides shade the house, while low planting to the north and east keeps the morning light.

What the older texts say about trees

The classical rules do not simply say "nothing tall to the north and east". In N. Chidambaram Iyer's 1884 translation of Varahamihira's Brihat Samhita, the chapter on house-building says that the plaksha (a fig), the banyan, the udumbara (cluster fig) and the ashvattha (peepal) bring prosperity when they stand on the north, east, south and west of the house respectively, and misery when they stand on the opposite sides (ch. 53, v. 85). So the text accepts a banyan to the east.

The next verses warn against thorny trees and trees with milky sap growing near a house, and against fruit trees close by. Where such trees cannot conveniently be removed, the text suggests planting "superior" trees between them, including ashoka, punnaga, bakula, jackfruit and shami (vv. 86 to 87). The separate chapter on gardening recommends gardens beside water and, notably, says trees "may be planted in any quarter of the garden" (ch. 55, vv. 1 and 6).

Brick & Bolt gives a practical reason to keep large trees such as peepal away from the house: their roots can damage the foundation. On a terrace or balcony, the worry is weight instead.

Water features: where, and how to keep them safe

Most guides put moving water in the north-east, north or east and keep it out of the south-west. Brick & Bolt's balcony guide and Design Cafe both say a fountain belongs in the north-east and not the south-west; Star Cement names the north-east or east. Yet Brick & Bolt's garden guide says a waterfall should "never" go in the north-east while recommending a bubbling birdbath there.

Whatever the direction, a water feature is a breeding site if the water stands still. The National Center for Vector Borne Diseases Control lists flower vases, earthen pots and the trays under potted plants among the places where Aedes mosquitoes breed, notes that the cycle from egg to adult can take 7 to 8 days, and advises changing the water in flower vases, plant pots and bird baths every week (NCVBDC, 2019). Keep a fountain recirculating and empty saucers after watering. Water also weighs about 1 kg a litre, so a large bowl is a real load.

On a plot, small water features cost nothing in floor area. Under section 4.29.1.1(b) of the Model Building Bye-Laws 2016 (page 65), a rockery, a plant nursery, an uncovered water pool, a fountain and a platform round a tree are not counted in covered area for FAR. Our guide to setbacks, FAR and height limits explains why that matters.

Terraces: use, parapets and drainage

On a house roof, practitioners apply the same pattern: lawn and seating towards the north-east; the stair room, overhead tank and heaviest planters towards the south-west. HomeLane adds that the floor should be lowest at the north-east corner, where the outlet goes, which is easy to build into a new house.

Design render of a rooftop garden in daylight: a curved lawn edged with grey paving, long black planters of flowering shrubs and palms along the parapet, and curved timber steps leading up to a covered deck with a hanging swing behind a screen of slim vertical bars. — Design render of the Terrace Garden in South Delhi by Rippotai Architecture: a lawn for morning yoga, with planters along the parapet and a covered swing deck. Image: Rippotai Architecture on MOA

The render is from the Terrace Garden by Sagar Chhabra of Rippotai Architecture on MOA, a 2025 rooftop for an elderly couple in South Delhi with a yoga lawn, planters, a small pantry and water nearby. Its page does not mention Vastu; we show it for how planting, seating and parapets come together on a roof.

The bye-laws set the basics for any terrace you can walk on:

Parapet height: parapet walls and handrails on roof terraces, balconies and verandahs must be at least 1.0 m and at most 1.2 m above finished floor level. This does not apply to a roof with no stair access, and a taller screening parapet is allowed only around equipment such as a water tank or DG set (section 4.12, page 55).
Pergola: one pergola per floor is allowed in a residential building, on the terrace or in the open spaces, up to 3.5 sq m, with 40% of it left open and a clear height of 2.2 m (section 4.29.1(d)(iii), page 65).
Drawings: the building plans must show the parapet heights and the drainage, and include a terrace plan with the drainage and slope of the roof (section 2.10.5(d) and (h), page 18).

A garden changes what the roof has to carry. IS 875 (Part 2) designs a flat roof with access for an imposed load of 1.5 kN per sq m, about 153 kg per sq m, and says a roof used as a promenade or for gatherings should be designed for the floor loads of that use instead (IS 875 Part 2, clause 4.1.1 and Table 2, page 14). Moist earth weighs 1,600 to 2,000 kg per cubic metre (IS 875 Part 1, Table 1, page 17), so a lawn on 300 mm of soil adds 480 to 600 kg per sq m: three to four times that roof allowance. Plan a roof garden into the structure, or keep to pots an engineer has checked.

Drainage is the other half. IS 1742 sizes rain-water pipes by roof area: at 100 mm of rain an hour, one 100 mm pipe serves about 42.7 sq m of roof. It also asks for gratings over roof and terrace outlets to keep leaves out (IS 1742, clause 4.10.3.8 and Table 5, pages 29 to 30; clause 6.2.3.1, page 44). Leaves and soil from a garden are exactly what blocks them, so clear the outlets before every monsoon.

We found no Indian code setting out roof-garden layers. Common practice, our guidance rather than a rule, is a membrane carried up the parapet, a root barrier if the membrane is not root-resistant, a protection layer, then drainage and filter layers under the soil, with a flood test before planting.

Balcony gardens in flats

In a flat, the balcony's direction is fixed when you buy. Inside it, the usual advice applies: light pots towards the north and east, heavier planters towards the south and west, and nothing tall blocking the north and east light.

The 2016 bye-laws allow group-housing balconies of 1.2 m width, up to 3.5 sq m per bedroom and no more than three per flat, as projections not counted towards FAR (section 4.21(c)(iii), page 58). Many are cantilevers, slabs held only at the wall, and that changes where weight should go.

Two plans of a 3.0 by 1.2 m cantilevered flat balcony and a section through one. On a north-side balcony the room wall is to the south, heavy planters sit along it, light pots sit at the free edge and the rainwater outlet is in the North-East corner. On a south-side balcony the wall is to the north, heavy planters still sit along the wall and heavy pots at the free south edge are marked avoid. The section shows a planter on feet near the wall, a waterproofing membrane turned up the wall, a screed falling to an outlet and a 1.0 to 1.2 m railing. A bar chart compares design imposed loads of 153 and 306 kg per sq m with soil beds of 240 to 300 and 480 to 600 kg per sq m. — Why a balcony garden starts with the slab: where weight can go, where water must go, and how quickly soil outweighs what the code assumes. Diagram: MOA

Load

IS 875 (Part 2) designs balconies in dwellings for an imposed load of 3.0 kN per sq m, about 306 kg per sq m (Table 1, page 7). A single planter 600 mm long, 300 mm wide and 300 mm deep holds 0.054 cubic metres of soil: 86 to 108 kg of moist earth before the pot, the plant or the water. A soil bed 300 mm deep across the floor would weigh 480 to 600 kg per sq m, 1.6 to 2 times the balcony allowance. So, as practical guidance:

Use pots and raised planters, not soil beds laid on the floor.
Keep the heaviest planters close to the wall, over the support, and lighter pots at the free edge.
If your balcony is on the south side of the flat, the wall is to the north. Vastu's "heavy to the south" then points at the free edge, and the structure should win.
Never hang heavy planters off the railing.

Waterproofing and drainage

As guidance: raise planters on feet so water can run under them, keep saucers emptied, never block the outlet with a pot, and do not let soil wash into the drain. If you retile, keep the existing fall to the outlet and carry the waterproofing up the wall. Practitioners like the outlet in the north-east; in a flat, moving it means breaking the waterproofing.

What you can and cannot change in a flat

You can usually change: pots, planters, trays, seating, a small fountain and lighting.
You usually cannot change: the slab, the railing height, the outlet position or the waterproofing without the society, the builder and an engineer. Glazing a balcony in usually needs approval too, because it turns a projection into a room.

For budgets, see our room-by-room interior cost guide; for how modern Vastu advice holds up, our explainer on Vastu and science.

Frequently asked questions

Which direction is best for a balcony as per Vastu?

Practitioners generally prefer north, east or north-east. South- and west-facing balconies are considered less favourable; in a flat, most suggest lighter colours and planting rather than any change.

Where should I keep plants on my balcony as per Vastu?

The common rule is small pots and flowering plants towards the north and east, tulsi in the north-east, and heavier planters towards the south and west. On a cantilevered balcony, keep the heaviest near the wall.

Where should a water fountain go as per Vastu?

Most guides say the north-east, north or east, and not the south-west, though some disagree about a waterfall in the north-east. Keep the water moving and change standing water every week to stop mosquitoes breeding.

Can I make a terrace garden on my house roof?

Yes, if the slab is designed for it. A flat roof with access is designed for about 153 kg per sq m of imposed load under IS 875, and a 300 mm soil bed weighs 480 to 600 kg per sq m. Get the slab checked and the waterproofing and outlets done first.

Planning a terrace garden or a balcony makeover? Find an architect on MOA or an interior designer on MOA who can plan the space with Vastu in mind and get the structure, waterproofing and drainage right.

Sources

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, TCPO: Model Building Bye-Laws 2016 (sections 2.10.5, 4.12, 4.21(c), 4.29.1(d)(iii) and 4.29.1.1(b); pages 18, 55, 58 and 65) (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
Bureau of Indian Standards, via Public.Resource.Org: IS 875 (Part 2): 1987, Design Loads: Imposed Loads, Table 1 (page 7), clause 4.1.1 and Table 2 (page 14) (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
Bureau of Indian Standards, via Public.Resource.Org: IS 875 (Part 1): 1987, Design Loads: Dead Loads, Unit Weights of Building Materials, Table 1, item 45 (page 17) (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
Bureau of Indian Standards, via Public.Resource.Org: IS 1742: 1983, Code of Practice for Building Drainage, clauses 4.10.3.8 and 6.2.3.1, Table 5 (pages 29, 30 and 44) (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
National Center for Vector Borne Diseases Control: Guidelines for Prevention and Control of Dengue in Schools (2019) (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
N. Chidambaram Iyer (trans.): The Brihat Samhita of Varaha Mihira (1884), via Internet Archive: Part II, ch. VI (53), On House-building, vv. 85 to 87 (pp. 37 to 38); ch. VIII (55), On Gardening, vv. 1, 3 and 6 (pp. 59 to 60) (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
Brick & Bolt: Vastu for Gardens: Tips, Guidelines and Best Practices (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
Brick & Bolt: Balcony Vastu Tips: Best Directions, Colours, and Plants (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
HomeLane: Vastu Tips for Your Balcony to Attract Positive Energy (updated 24 Jul 2025) (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
Design Cafe: Home Vastu for Balconies: Tips to Design Balconies as per Vastu Shastra (10 Feb 2026) (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
Star Cement: Building a Vastu-Compliant Garden with Concrete (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
Member of Architecture: Terrace Garden by Sagar Chhabra, Rippotai Architecture (accessed 16 Oct 2026)

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