Of Dragons and Geoengineering: Rethinking Elemental Media

Abstract

Dragons help ventilate the air in Hong Kong. Many of the city's high-rise apartment complexes and skyscrapers have gaping holes in their middle sections. In accordance with local lore and the feng shui (literally "wind and water") principle of not cutting off good energy flows, these holes let mythical dragons fly through the buildings (figure 1). It turns out that these stunning architectural features also have the pragmatic effects of increasing air ventilation and creating breezeways. Letting high-rise buildings breathe through these dragon holes is one way to facilitate the external movement of the tropical air and create an optimal "wind environment" in Hong Kong's densely built urban space, a place where cosmology and engineering come together (Lo 2018; Keegan 2018; Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of Architecture 2005).