The HwaBang: Where a Dweller Seeks Cosmic Harmony
Sketch of the Myra House HwaBang dome, courtesy Sung Sohn
I received a message from Sung Sohn a few weeks ago inviting me and my family to dinner at Myra House to celebrate the completion of the dome. I had no idea that he had built a dome, but I was intrigued. I never pass up an invitation to Myra House.
Myra House is so many things. It is the beautiful home of Sung Sohn and family, lovingly named after his wife Myra. It is a retreat house. It is a garden that provides healthy food along with fresh eggs from the chickens of Myra house. It is a sacred space for meditation complete with a pond and a labyrinth.
When I arrived, I saw the dome and it radiated a feeling of peace. I felt invited in. It was cool inside. Sung had created a sanctuary.
I had many questions about the construction of the dome. It was similar to the St. Frances spiral pictured below. I had observed the building of the spiral so I easily understood when Sung explained. They had filled long bags with earth and created a type of beehive design. He learned this type of adobe building at CalEarth.
But Sung shared that the process was difficult, mistakes were made and he had to reconfigure existing plans. This was a conversation between Sung and the dome that was “becoming” a HwaBang. The winter season in California this year was unusually rainy. Sung had to place tarps over the dome and at times, the walls wanted to cave in. A dome is a relational structure. The ceiling and the walls work together to hold everything in place. The arch is the strongest form in architecture and has been used in building for thousands of years. A dome is simply an arch rotated 180 degrees.
The relationship was not yet complete when the rains came. Sung persisted and we can see the end results. He shared his drawings so we can peek into his imagination and dream with him. But this is a dream that became an actual occasion.
-Kat Reeves
“A building is a living creature of having heart, lungs and soul on its structural skeletons.”
–Sung Sohn
“The Whiteheadian perspective has taught me that we create the best circumstances by choosing anew in every moment of becoming and perishing.”
–Sung Sohn
You are an architect with a philosophy. Please explain your philosophy of the body of a building
I apply organic philosophy showing that a building is a living creature of having heart, lungs and soul on its structural skeletons.
How did you decide to build the dome?
It is the most simple, earnest natural form, and consists of earth raw ingredients, a standing creature that breathes in and out sync with my breathing patterns.
The dome has a name, will you tell us about that?
HwaBang, Room, where dwellers seek a cosmic harmony, starting with self, garden, other family members and dwelling place, our planet and with cosmic order.
Can you explain your dream of Myra House and the process of it's becoming?
A shelter where you are safe, protected from all type of storms and turmoil and prepared for dashing into next saving/rescuing project.
How does the dome fit into the living and changing space at Myra House?
It completes a unique whole of the Holistic Living Center sustaining our mental physical spiritual stability.
“Beauty can be defined as being the perfection of harmony.”
–Sung Sohn
How It Works
Long or short sandbags are filled with moistened earth and arranged in layers or long coils. Strands of barbed wire are placed between each layer of sandbag to act as both mortar and reinforcement. Stabilizers such as cement, lime, or asphalt emulsion may be added. Similar to how a potter stacks coils of clay to make a vessel, builders stack coils of earth for make a structure.
The superadobe building system can be used for structural arches, domes and vaults, or conventional rectilinear shapes. The same method can build silos, landscaping elements, or infrastructure like dams, cisterns, roads, bridges, and for stabilizing shorelines and watercourses.
Basic Materials Needed
- Synthetic, low UV (ultra-violet) resistant degradable sand bags
- Four-point, two strand, galvanized barbed wire
- Shovels
- Tampers
- Soil & Water
“Each family needs to respond to the call for their own home, family, and local community so that wellness for our entire planet becomes possible.”
–Sung Sohn
Sung Sohn is a Holistic health educator, CA licensed acupuncturist, practical theologian, ecological/sustainable design consultant. Sung received his Ph.D. from the Practical Theology Department at Claremont School of Theology. He is the founder of Myra House Holistic Living Center (2001), Ecoterra (2007) and Acology Institute (2008). Sung’s first career was as a trained architect, he later became a UMC minister and served the Pacific UMC as the senior pastor, now practice acupunctural and herbal treatment remaining as an independent clergy member. He has taught at the LA Korean Methodist Seminary and leads various workshops and seminars as a visiting lecturer.
