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Feature Article

The Tradition of Adobe in Home Building
by Kurt Faust, Tierra Concepts Inc.
 
Adobe is still one of the most widely used green materials in Santa Fe home building.  There is something innately obvious about using the earth from the locale as the main ingredient in making a shelter or home. The use of adobe goes as far back as 2000 BC in northern Africa and has remained relatively unchanged over the millennia. There are many methods of using mud to make walls, differing mostly in how it is placed. Sometimes it is cobbled together in globs or clumps, sometimes it is poured into forms in monolithic layers, and sometimes made into sun-dried bricks.
           
Here in Santa Fe, New Mexico we have a tradition of making bricks four inches tall, by ten inches deep, by fourteen inches wide. They are made mostly of sand, clay and water which can vary widely in proportion. Too much sand makes the adobe soft and crumbly.  Too much clay makes the adobe shrink and crack. The right mix depends on the soil at hand and what it needs to be stronger. Some small crushed gravel will strengthen the mix considerably and often a little bit of straw is added to help bind it all together.
           
Because adobe is locally made and the manufacturing process is low-tech, there is relatively little “embodied energy” in the material. This makes it high on the list of sustainable or green building materials. Embodied energy is the sum of energy it takes to mine the raw material, process and transport it to the manufacturing facility; to make the product; to deliver it to the end-use location; and to dispose of it properly at the end of its life-cycle and reclaim the mining site.
 
Adobe is a very efficient thermal mass. This refers to the ability of a material to store heat from the winter sun or store the coolness from the summer nighttime air and re-radiate that temperature back into the home during the opposite 12 hour cycle. This thermal flywheel affect is the basis of many passive-cooling and solar-heating systems.
 
Adobe has the disadvantage of not being a very good insulator. For that reason we often use spray foam insulation on the exterior of the adobe walls, mostly because of our cold winter season. It allows the heat from solar gain and from the other heating systems to radiate more easily toward the interior of the home instead of being conducted to the cold outside. Spay foam has the advantage of adhering nicely to the adobe surface and mimicking the form and texture of the adobe and, when stuccoed, retains the essential soft look of a traditional adobe structure.
 
In most cases a pure unstabilized adobe block is susceptible to rapid deterioration in wet weather. The stucco system keeps the weather off of the walls and a cement block is used as the first coarse to raise the adobe off of the ground for protection against moisture. In traditional times buildings were regularly protected with a fresh layer of mud plaster. Sometimes the adobes are stabilized by the addition of oil or cement in the manufacturing process. It is common to add an emulsified asphalt to the water and use the water and oil solution to make the adobes. The asphalt becomes integral to the adobe and significantly reduces the amount of moisture the brick can absorb. These stabilized adobes are excellent for using as exposed adobe yard walls.
 
Compared to wood frame, adobe construction takes several weeks longer to complete and is a little more costly. The solid thick walls provide some sound attenuation, but require a more involved process to place the rough electric and plumbing in the walls and there is extra labor and skill required to install cabinets and closet shelves. The extra cost of adobe is mostly reflected in the resale value of the home.

Feature articles/Media

The following publications have featured our quality custom built Santa Fe homes.

2004 Haven by Chris Madden, Clarkson Potter Publishers, New York, 2004.
2001 Metropolitan Home, honorable mention, Home of the Year Design Competition
2000 Interiors by Design with Chris Madden, Home and Garden Television, episode 704.
1998 Santa Fean, October, 1998, Great Designs, Great Designers issue.
1995 Metropolitan Home, honorable mention, Home of the year Design Competition.

articles/Media Written By Tierra Concepts, Inc.

The following publications have featured our quality custom built Santa Fe homes.

A few ideas about site selection, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, July 2004  download (87kb)
About 'price per square foot', The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, January 2008  download (88kb)
About wall panels and blocks, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, May 2008  download (86kb)
Alternatives: rammed earth, pumice-crete, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, April 2008  download (88kb)
At-home spas lead latest design trend, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, May 2004  download (89kb)
Building and emotion, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, October 2006  download (86kb)
Contemporary architecture is in in Santa Fe, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, September 2006 download (90kb)
Creativity focused in Design Week, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, November 2006  download (87kb)
Design evolves into the art world, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, March 2007  download (86kb)
Guidelines for building green, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, January 2007  download (91kb)
Haciendas - A Parade of Homes 2007 download (22kb)
Haciendas a standout homes event 2005, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, August 2005 download(88kb)
History Built in to Santa Fe Style, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, September 2007  download (86kb)
House Design download (25kb)
How to create a home? Know thyself!, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, January 2006  download (88kb)
How to harvest your rainwater, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, October 2004 download (88kb)
Intelligent home design  download (24kb)
It's best to define specifics at outset, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, April 2006  download (86kb)
National norms quite different from ours, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, February 2006  download(88kb)
Northern New Mexico Design Influences  download (24kb)
On architecture and global warming, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, March 2006  download (91kb)
On the evolution of 'Santa Fe Style', The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide  download (86kb)
On the nature of building materials, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, March 2005  download (87kb)
On the process of house design, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, August 2004  download (87kb)
On the subject of green building, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, July 2006  download (90kb)
On wall materials in new construction, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, April 2006  download (85kb)
On Zero-Energy homes, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, June 2006  download (87kb)
Prepare for enjoyable building process, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, February 2005  download (84kb)
Santa Fe blossoms with Design Week, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, November 2007  download (86kb)
Santa Fe Style Artists  download (33kb)
Santa Fe's Renovation  download (27kb)
Talking about insulation!, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, June 2008  download (87kb)
The Advent of Santa Fe Style 2  download (29kb)
The Advent of Santa Fe Style download (31kb)
The beauty of custom home design, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, February 2008  download (85kb)
The Carpinteros of New Mexico  download (33kb)
The intangibles in choosing a builder, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, December 2007  download (85kb)
The Northwest Quadrant  download (28kb)
The Tradition of Adobe Building, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, February 2008  download (85kb)
Time to accentuate your outdoor space, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, June 2004  download (88kb)
Weatherize, winterize, and be energywise, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, November 2005 download (86kb)
What defines 'Santa Fe style', The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, September 2004  download (88kb)
Why talk about cost per square foot?, The Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, October 2004  download (87kb)