Solar Adobe: Energy, Ecology, and Earthen Architecture by Albert Narath
Against the backdrop of a global energy crisis, a widespread movement embracing the use of raw earth materials for building construction emerged in the 1970s. A new book, Solar Adobe: Energy, Ecology, and Earthen Architecture by Albert Narath , examines this new wave of architectural experimentation taking place in the United States, detailing how an ancient tradition became a point of convergence for issues of environmentalism, architecture, technology, and Indigenous resistance.
Utilized for centuries by the Pueblo people of the American Southwest and by Spanish colonialists, adobe construction found renewed interest as various groups contended with the troubled legacies of modern architecture and an increasingly urgent need for sustainable design practices. In this period of critical experimentation, design networks that included architects, historians, counterculture communities, government weapons labs, and Indigenous activists all looked to adobe as a means to address pressing environmental and political issues.
Albert Narath charts the unique capacities of adobe construction across a wide range of contexts, consistently troubling simple distinctions between traditional and modern technologies, high design and vernacular architecture. Drawing insightful parallels between architecture, environmentalism, and movements for Indigenous sovereignty, Solar Adobe stresses the importance of considering the history of the built environment in conjunction with architecture’s larger impact on the natural world.
The Metropolis Magazine article, “The Politics of Adobe Architecture“, discusses recent scholarship on earth architecture in America that highlights larger issues concerning power, extraction, and Indigenous resistance to the settler state and capitalism.
Taos Pueblo is an ancient, occupied multi-generational community in Northern New Mexico. “Pueblo” refers to both the physical buildings and community (stylized “pueblo”) and the native people of those communities (stylized “Pueblo”). The people are also known as Puebloans, or Pueblo peoples, and are native to the Southwestern United States (New Mexico, Arizona, Texas). They share a common culture, including food and agriculture, history, traditions, and religious practices. Aside from Taos, inhabited pueblos include San Ildefonso, Acoma, Zuni, and Hopi.
The most recognizable feature of the Taos Pueblo community are the multi-story, red clay and adobe homes and community buildings. They span both sides of the Sacred Blue Lake/Rio Pueblo de Taos (a tributary of the Rio Grande) which is also the population’s only source of water. The community has been continuously occupied for over 1000 years, likely originally built between 1000 and 1450 C.E. It is both the longest continuously inhabited community in the United States, and the largest of the pueblos.
The structures are built in terraced tiers, extending out as they descend toward the ground, and a height of five stories at maximum. “The property includes the walled village with two multi-storey adobe structures, seven kivas (underground ceremonial chambers), the ruins of a previous pueblo, four middens, a track for traditional foot-races, the ruins of the first church built in the 1600s and the present-day San Geronimo Catholic Church” UNESCO. The community sits at the base of the Taos mountains, the Sangre de Cristo range of the Rocky Mountains
Spanish explorers arrived in 1540 C.E. and originally believed the community to be one of the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola, a legend of Aztec mythology pursued by Coronado, among others. The miccaceous mineral (micca) found in the clay that is used to re-mud the homes every year shimmers in the light, seemingly like gold.
old-taos-images-historic-museum-of-taos-008 https://taospueblo.com/history/old-taos-images-historic-museum-of-taos-003 https://taospueblo.com/history/old-taos-images-historic-museum-of-taos-002 https://taospueblo.com/history/Google Earth 3D aerial of Taos Pueblo buildingsGoogle Earth aerial of Taos Pueblo land
R. M. Schindler in Taos, October 1915. Photographer likely Victor Higgins. Courtesy UC Santa Barbara Art Museum, Architecture and Design Collections, Schindler Collection.
Rudolph Schindler was an Austrian architect that practiced in Southern California from 1920 to 1953. [1] Starting as a talented student at the “Wagnerschule” in Austria, Schindler became a pioneering figure in 20th-century modern architecture, ultimately emerging as one of the most significant influences of the Modern Movement in America. Rudolph was born in Austria but spent most of his life in the United States, establishing his identity as a “Californian architect”[2].
Nevertheless, Rudolph Schindler generally surpasses many boxes attributed to him with a term he championed in his work: space architecture, in which he sought the protagonism of materials into a “new architecture”[2]. Materials like adobe!
His country house in adobe project is the result of a trip to Taos, New Mexico in which Schindler allowed the Southwestern scene to fill his sketchbooks and camera films, influencing his designs and eventually his style[3].
Photograph taken by Schindler in 1915. Courtesy of New Mexico Architecture Magazine.
His sketches and photographs reveal a delicate eye sensitive to tradition in Southwestern America, and inevitably an understanding of the nature of this material[3]. Delineated lines in his sketchbook represent the characteristic irregular bulk of adobe walls, and his photographs show his interest in how adobe ultimately shapes space[3].
Sketch made by Rudolph Schindler in New Mexico. Courtesy of New Mexico Architecture Magazine.
These observations hung onto Schindler when he was commissioned to design a summer house for a client, Dr. T. P. Martin in a site spanning approximately 3 acres, set against the scenic backdrop of Taos, New Mexico. [4]
Taos Pueblo, October 1915. Photograph by R. M. Schindler. Courtesy UC Santa Barbara Art Museum, Architecture and Design Collections, Schindler Collection.House Floor Plan Design by Schindler. Courtesy UC Santa Barbara Art Museum, Architecture and Design Collections, Schindler Collection.
In his proposed plan, Schindler advocated for a modernization of the Spanish Pueblo vernacular architecture he discovered featuring ADOBE, to draft his “Country Home in Adobe Construction” design that stretched horizontally within the site[4]. While the house plan did not model local tradition with its reigning symmetric layout, his material of choice, adobe, allocated him the freedom to explore what he inevitably noticed in his trip to Taos: the versatility of the material [3]. His design therefore probes the fundamental thickness of the adobe walls in the deep recesses of the windows and reveals adobe’s inherent lack of rectangular precision with the uneven surfaces of the walls[3].
As planned, his proposed layout sought to integrate harmoniously with the landscape as a low-rise adobe structure with viga ceilings and a large courtyard[4].
Perspective of Design by R.M. Schindler. Courtesy UC Santa Barbara Art Museum, Architecture and Design Collections, Schindler Collection.
This design never came to fruition, but the lessons that Schindler absorbed from New Mexico fundamentally embedded his designs with a vision he could only learn from the South, architecture as a question of space formed through materials[5].
“When I speak of American architecture I must say at once that there is none. . .The only buildings which testify to the deep feeling for soil on which they stand are the sun-baked adobe buildings of the first immigrants and their successors — Spanish and Mexican — in the south-western part of the country.”
Letter from RMS to Richard Neutra, Los Angeles, California, ca. January, 1921: quoted in E. McCoy, Vienna to Los Angeles: Two Journeys (Santa Monica, Arts & Architecture) [6]
[6] “R. M. Schindler and Richard Neutra: Space Architecture and the Pueblo” Southern California Architectural History, 18 May 2019, socalarchhistory.blogspot.com/2019/05/schindler-wrote-to-neutra-extolling.html
La Luz, designed by Antoine Predock, is a planned townhouse community that blends modern architecture with materials that reflect the cultural heritage and traditional building practices of the southwest region. Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on open land between the Rio Grande and the Sandia Mountains, La Luz was conceived by Predock in 1967 and completed by 1974.
The development features 96 townhomes, ranging from 1,500 to 2,100 square feet, clustered together with 16-inch thick adobe walls. This design choice not only pays homage to traditional Southwestern architecture but also serves a functional purpose by providing excellent thermal mass for passive climate control.
Credit: Antoine Predock Architect PC
The townhouses in La Luz’s layout are oriented eastward, offering residents picturesque views of the Sandia Mountains and morning sun, while the western facade features mostly blank walls to shield against harsh afternoon sun and dust storms. Private courtyards act as solar traps in winter and provide shade in summer.
Credit: Jerry Goffe
The site design is inspired by the architectural heritage of Native pueblos and Hispanic villages in New Mexico and is accentuated with curved walls, which soften the overall aesthetic and mirror the natural contours of the landscape.
The development contributes to a sense of community through the inclusion of shared green space, fountains, pedestrian paths, tennis courts, and a swimming pool. La Luz also preserves 40 acres of untouched land as a permanent natural preserve.
La Luz, with its adobe-inspired design, became the cornerstone that cast Predock into the national spotlight and lay the foundation for the recognition he received in the American architectural field.
Despite not being a native of New Mexico, Predock considered Albuquerque his spiritual home and the place that shaped his architectural vision.
Credit: Antoine Predock Architect PC
Born on June 24, 1936, in Lebanon, Missouri, Predock’s architectural journey began while taking a technical drawing course taught by Professor Don Schlegel during his time as an engineering student at the University of New Mexico. This experience compelled Predock to transfer to Columbia University to pursue his B.A. in architecture, which he received in 1962.
After graduation, Predock was awarded a traveling fellowship that allowed him to explore Spain, Portugal, and other parts of Europe for two years. After apprenticing, he established his own architectural firm, La Luz was one of the firm’s early projects that highlighted his unique approach toward weaving modernism with the regional traditions of the American southwest.
CITATIONS:
[1] Predock, A. (n.d.). La Luz. Antoine Predock Architect PC. Retrieved from http://www.predock.com/LaLuz/La%20Luz.html
[2] Predock, A. (n.d.). Desert Beginnings. Antoine Predock Architect PC. Retrieved from http://www.predock.com/DesertBeginnings/desertbeginnings.html
[3] Pearson, C. A. (2024, March 4). Tribute: Antoine Predock (1936–2024). Architectural Record. Retrieved from https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/16768-tribute-antoine-predock-19362024
[4] Albuquerque Modernism. (n.d.). La Luz Community. University of New Mexico. Retrieved from https://albuquerquemodernism.unm.edu/posts/cs13_la_luz.html
[5] Wilson, C. (2014). La Luz Community. SAH Archipedia. Retrieved from https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/NM-01-001-0007
[6] Lucas, C. (n.d.). Architect Antoine Predock’s La Luz Community. Chris Lucas ABQ. Retrieved from https://www.chrislucasabq.com/post/flyer-architect-antoine-predocks-la-luz-community-5-tennis-court-nw-87120
[7] Docomomo US. (2022, July 14). The Planned Community of La Luz is Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Retrieved from https://www.docomomo-us.org/news/the-planned-community-of-la-luz-is-listed-on-the-national-register-of-historic-places
[8] AIA Los Angeles. (n.d.). Antoine Predock, FAIA. Retrieved from https://aiala.com/antoine-predock-faia/
[9] World-Architects. (2024, March 4). Antoine Predock, 1936-2024. Retrieved from https://www.world-architects.com/en/architecture-news/headlines/antoine-predock-1936-2024
[10] American Academy in Rome. (2024, March 6). In Memoriam: Antoine Predock. Retrieved from https://www.aarome.org/news/features/memoriam-antoine-predock
McDonald-Schmidt Ranch House. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
The McDonald Ranch House in the Oscura Mountains of Socorro County, New Mexico, was the location of assembly of the world’s first nuclear weapon. The active components of the Trinity test “gadget”, a plutonium Fat Man-type bomb similar to that later dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, were assembled there on July 13, 1945. The completed bomb was winched up the test tower the following day and detonated on July 16, 1945, as the Trinity nuclear test.
The George McDonald Ranch House sits within an 85-by-85-foot (26 by 26 m) low stone wall. The house was built in 1913 by Franz Schmidt and is built of adobe, which was plastered and painted. The plutonium hemispheres for the pit of the Trinity nuclear test “gadget” (bomb) were delivered to the McDonald Ranch House on July 11, 1945. Text via Wikipedia.
The Adobe Factory in Alcalde, New Mexico, is the largest adobe factory in the world, with the capability of producing up to 25,000 adobes each day. Here’s how it is done:
Santa Fe is famous in part for a particular architectural style, an adobe look that’s known as Pueblo Revival. This aesthetic combines elements of indigenous pueblo architecture and New Mexico’s old Spanish missions, resulting in mostly low, brown buildings with smooth edges. Buildings in the city’s historic districts have to follow a number of design guidelines so that they conform with the dominant style. Deviating from those aesthetics can stir up a lot of controversy.
But this adherence to the “Santa Fe Style” hasn’t always been the norm. For a time, there was actually a powerful push to “Americanize” the city’s built environment. Then, over a century ago, a group of preservationists laid out a vision for the look and feel of Santa Fe architecture, and in the process dramatically transformed the town.
Listen to the mud episode of Unsettled podcast from Santa Fe Art Institute created by Dr. Alicia Inez Guzmán & Diego Medina. Listen to artists Joanna Keane Lopez and Christine Howard Sandoval reflect on the the complex history, traditions, politics, and meanings embedded within the act of building with mud in New Mexico and California.
Earth USA 2013 is the Seventh International Conference on Architecture and Construction with Earthen Materials initiated by Earth USA. The conference organizer is Adobe in Action.
The formal conference will take place on October 4 and 5, 2013 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. October 6th will be dedicated to local earthbuilding tours and excursions. The conference is being held at the New Mexico Museum of Art in the St. Francis Auditorium (107 West Palace Avenue, Santa Fe, NM 87501). Earth USA 2013 indicates a wider field of interest than previous conferences and will include adobe, rammed earth, compressed earth block (CEB) and monolithic adobe (cob). Any material or method that uses clay as a binder is considered.
Earth USA 2013 is now accepting abstract submissions (due April 14, 2013) for conference presentations. For more information visit http://earthusa.org/
