Building Community: The Roots of Adobe
Creando Comunidad: Las Raíces del Adobe

Introduction

The adobe homes and churches of the Río Grande region of New Mexico stand as testimony to a tradition of communal building, self-sufficiency and the use of locally available materials. Aesthetically and technically, these buildings are strongly based on Spanish and Mexican precedents.

The historic Ranchos de Taos church showing a blending of Native American and Hispanic influences and the technologies used in its construction and repair. La historica iglesia de Ranchos de Taos que incorpora elementos de construccion y de reparo hispanos e indigenas.

When the Spanish arrived in the Southwest in the late 16th century they encountered the Pueblo Indian people living in compact earthen and stone villages which they called pueblos, or towns. Although the layout of the pueblos differed from that of Spanish villas, the inhabitants of both the semi-arid regions of the Mediterranean and of New Mexico each had arrived at a common use of earth as the material to provide shelter from the forces of nature as well as to protect against enemies. Indeed, the use of adobe is common to many other parts of the world that share similar climate and topography, including Africa, India, China and South and Central America. Today, nearly half of the world's population lives in adobe or other earthen dwellings. Due to adobe's accessibility, it is the only affordable building material for most of the world's population. In New Mexico, as elsewhere, adobe is made from a mixture of clay, sand, water and straw.

Pueblo Building Styles

For centuries, Pueblo people had built their multi-storied communities from locally available tuff, ledgestone, or puddled, coursed or hand-molded adobe. Usually they built directly on the earth, foregoing the use of foundations, and often built several stories high, each level retreating back from the previous in a step formation. This configuration enabled rooftops to become places where people carried out domestic activities, such as pottery-making or drying crops from harvests.

Because many activities were carried on outside, the rooms of a pueblo were principally used for the storage of foodstuffs or as retreats from poor weather; thus they tended to be rather small in size. Exceptions to this are the kivas, circular underground chambers similar to the pit houses from a prior building era. At times quite large, their roofs were held up by vertical standing logs and spanned by beams which were covered by horizontal poles covered with grass and layers of earth.

Spanish Building Styles

The Spanish, on the other hand, had inherited their adobe building techniques from the Moors and Arabs of North Africa and the Middle East. Central to this building tradition were wooden molds to produce uniformly shaped bricks that dried quickly and allowed the construction of walls of greater thickness than those made by the Pueblos. Pueblo walls were typically about ten inches thick while those of a Spanish home might be twice as much. Church walls frequently attained the width of about six feet at the base and tapered off as they rose to a height of about forty feet.

Other contributions to Southwest adobe architecture by Spanish settlers include fogones, or corner fireplaces, equipped with flues which directed the smoke out of a room (these replaced the open smoke holes of traditional Pueblo dwellings), and corbels which supported massive roof beams that could span larger spaces.

Additional structures introduced by the Spanish included a dispensa, or pantry, where foodstuffs were stored; dome-shaped hornos, or beehive ovens, where harvests were baked before drying; and the torreon, or circular defense tower.

The early homes of the Hispanic people were usually built in contiguous rooms around a central protective plaza. The Plaza del Cerro in Chimayó is one such surviving example. These homes generally consisted of just a few rooms: a kitchen, one or two bedrooms and a sala or receiving room. In some cases, an oratorio, or family chapel was attached to the family home. Nichos, or carved spaces for placing revered objects such as santos, or images of saints carved from wood and painted, were also common.

A house under construction showing the placement of the vigas, or roof support beams. Una casa bajo construcción que muestra el colocamiento de las vigas de pino que sostienen el techo

Later, as defense became less of a concern, many of the houses were made to stand independently of others and took on an I, L or U shape. Only a few homes, particularly those of the wealthy, conformed to a central patio design which insured a family's privacy. The Martínez Hacienda in Taos, the Palace of the Governors and the Casa Sena in Santa Fe are prime examples of this kind of construction. Common to both Pueblo Indian and Hispanic traditions was the use of viga, or timber beam laid horizontally to support the roofs. Narrow cross poles of aspen (latillas) or split cedar branches (rajas) were laid on top of these in a herringbone pattern.

The latillas in turn supported a thick layer of mud and another of dry earth meant to protect the building from rain and snow. This method of roof construction, however, was not waterproof and roofs frequently leaked. Another disadvantage of this method of roofing was the rotting of the latillas caused by their contact with the earth. If not replaced periodically, the roofs tended to rot and cave in.

Because adobe will erode from the effects of the weather, these earthen structures require continual upkeep. Customarily, the repairing and replastering was done in the spring or summer, particularly by women. Family, neighbors or even an entire community might gather to make the necessary repairs on any given building. Cared for, an adobe structure could last for hundreds of years, as, in fact, they have.