Residential Adobe Architecture Around Santa Fe
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RESIDENTIAL ADOBE ARCHITECTURE AROUND SANTA FE AND TAOS FROM 1900 TO THE PRESENT by HAMIYET OZEN, B.S. in Arch. A THESIS IN ARCHITECTURE Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech Unlversity in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE Approved Chairperson of the Committee Ac^épted Dean^of the Graduate School December, 1990 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Prof. WiUard B. Robinson for directing this project, and Prof. John P. White and Dr. Joseph E. King, for their beneficial suggestions. I also would like to thank Barbara Walker for editing and being supfx^rtive during the writing process of this project. CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii LISTOFHGURES iv I. INTRODUCnON 1 II. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND HISTORICAL USE OF ADOBE 8 Pueblo Indian Architecture 9 Spanish Colonial and Mexican Architecture 13 American Period Territorial and Railroad Style 16 Revival Style 23 III. HISTORIC PRESERVATION OF ADOBE BUa.DINGS 31 Preservation Problems 34 Rehabilitation and Preservation of Adobe Structures 37 Stabilization of Adobe 42 IV. ARCHITECTURAL AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF RESIDENTIAL ADOBE 45 Evolution of Residential Architecture 45 Popularity of Residential Adobe Architecture 59 V. PRODUCTION AND MANUFACTURING OF ADOBE 67 Production of Adobe Bricks 68 Production Methods of Adobe Bricks 73 VL CONCLUSION 78 ENDNOTES 83 BIBLIOGRAPHY 88 ui LIST OF FIGURES 1. The map of the region 2 2. Taos Pueblo Multistoried North Plaza Building 11 3. The plan of Taos center 11 4. Palace of the Govemors which was built in 1610 and is the oldest public building in the United States 14 5. Plan of Martinez Hacienda, Taos, N.M 17 6. The Ortiz House built in the late 1700's 21 7. The new type of plan with central hall and doubling of rooms is due to influence of Greek Revival movement 22 8. Territorial style adobe building on Canyon Road, Santa Fe 24 9. Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe, Administration and Research Building 27 10. Water, wind, animal, insect, and vegetation damage 35 11. ZuniPueblo 48 12. Theevolutíon of thepit house to the pueblo 50 13. Urban forms of historical pueblos 51 14. Hacienda plan 54 15. Roor plan of the traditional house from southem Turkey 55 16. A common L-shaped plan with a single-file of rooms with porch 57 17. This is a classical example of rural pitched roof adobes in Truchas, N.M 62 18. Carlos VierraHouse, SantaFe, was built in 1915 64 19. Van Dresser House, Santa Fe, was built in 1958 65 IV CHAPTERI INTRODUCTION "The sun retums, but time never." Roman saying The topic of this study will be Residentíal Adobe Architecture around Santa Fe and Taos from 1900 to present (see figure 1). The thesis statement is that adobe has long been an important building material and contínues to be in use today. Understanding the technology and historic use of the material enables us to plan for better restoration and use the material effectively in new constructíon. The research for this study is divided into four main chapters with conclusions. The first chapter deals with the architectural background and historic use of adobe material from the Indian Pueblo period to the American Anglo period. The second chapter covers the historic preservatíon of adobe buildings. This chapter gives ideas about preservation problems and tíieir solutíons. The third chapter discusses the architectural and cultural significance of residentíal adobe architecture. This chapter deals with the evolutíon and popularity of residentíal adobe architecture during the 20th century. The plan of adobe houses has many influences from other cultures such as Spanish, Muslim and other Middle East and Mediterranean cultures. The productíon and manufacturing of adobe bricks in the Santa Fe and Taos region is the contents of the last chapter. From the time mankind first congregated in villages almost 10,000 years ago, unbaked earth has been one of the principal building materials used on every contínent. The first towns in the worid, in Ur, in Jericho, in Babylon, and in Nineveh, were built primarily of sun-dried mud bricks. Furthermore, over one-third of the worid's population stiU lives in earth houses. For example, far from being limited to ancient history, adobe has long been a major building material for New Mexico. 1 C O L O R A D O MEW MEXICO Figure 1. The map of the region. 3 The Indian, Spanish, and Anglo cultures have used adobe for home building. The constructíon of New Mexico buildings has always revolved around adobe as a primary construction material. Adobe as we know it originated in northem New Mexico, wiih the term "adobe" deriving from the Spanish word "adobar," meaning "to knead." However, some others state that the temi comes from Spanish and Moroccan roots meaning "to mix" or "to puddle." Adobe reflects the influence of Spanish colonists from Mexico who brought their own brick-making techniques with them when they settled in New Mexico at the end of the 16th century, The Spanish word has been traced (via the Arabic at-tob) all the way back to the Egyptian hieroglyphic "t'b," meaning "brick." So it is easy to see that adobe is a vital and long-Iastíng building material. This ancient material has a long history of widespread use by the Indian, Spanish, and Anglo-American residents in and around Santa Fe and Taos. The development of adobe over hundreds of years has formed the backbone of New Mexico's architectural heritage. Both the indigenous and eclecric architectural landscape conrinue to disringuish this state from the rest of the nation. Regardless of periods and styles, untíl the present time, architecture in New Mexico has commonly revolved around adobe as a primary building material. The state of New Mexico has a building heritage older tíian any other part of the United States. Especially impressive is the influence of ancient and historic regional styles that srill bear on much of today's building. Indeed, adobe is a cultural heritage of New Mexico. Man has been building permanent structures in New Mexico for more than 2000 years. Pithouses with stone-lined pits and wood and earth roofs were built as early as 300 B.C. Multi-unit buildings with stone and mud walls above ground date from 700 A.D. The evolurion of the architecture in New Mexico can be broken down into four eras: Indian (A.D. 700-1598), Spanish and Mexican Colonial (A.D. 1598-1848), Territorial (A.D. 1848-1912), andlater American (A.D. 1912-present). 4 Adobe has been used extensively around Santa Fe and Taos since primitive rimes. The use of earth started with the Indian Pueblo people, and their culture fumished the basic methods and materials for early Spanish Colonial architecture. Later these two cultures were the basis of Anglo architecture in the region. The use of adobe has been confined to the arid and semiarid regions of the earth. This is due to the unique adaptability of adobe to such locales, the cost or scarcity of other materials, and the comparative ease of adobe construction. Among the advantages of adobe is its comparative simplicity of construcrion, which allows the use of unskiUed labor. Adobe also ensures oprimal "thermal comfort," providing natural regulation between indoor and outdoor temperatures, in sharp contrast to the heat-loss and overheating characteristic of other materials and particularly of concrete. It is particularly suited to the needs of Southwest do-it-yourself home building. Spectacular examples of both historical and adobe revival houses are to be found in the Santa Fe and Taos areas. The Adobe Revival style is a part of the historic preservation movement,an effort to memorialize cultural backgrounds, architecture, and people from the past in tíie region. Therefore, to have a conrinuance of the architectural heritage, one should preserve this rich and unique architecture in an appropriate way. Indeed, the past could be a guide for present and future generations. The residential architecture is an especially clear mirror for the evaluation of society and its culture, its architecture and its history. It is possible to see tíiese attributes around Santa Fe and Taos because of the three different cultures and their accumularive mixture. This popular architectural heritage ought to be preserved to remember the past John Gaw Meem, a New Mexican architect, had a statement about this as follows; In the worid that is increasingly tending to think alike and look like, it is important to cherish and preserve those elements in our culture that belong to us and help differentiate us. We are fortunate in tíiis region in that we 5 have a style of architecture that uniquely belongs to us and visually makes memories of our history and earth itself.l The residenrial adobe architecture around Santa Fe and Taos (northern New Mexico) will be the subject for this thesis. Houses here have one or the other of two different origins: The first origin produces vemacular houses (village houses around the ciries), which derive from Spain and Mexico. They have evolved naturally in a forthright manner from diverse cultural sources and have become a rich and varied regional style, different from adobe styles elsewhere in the worid. The second origin is the "Santa Fe Style," which is a self-conscious attempt to recapture a romantic image of old Southwest architecture, both Spanish and Indian. The Santa Fe adobe style has eclipsed any other styles in the area. The region tributary to Santa Fe and Taos is one of the oldest and richest archaeological territories in the Western Hemisphere, reaching back several thousand years. However, for a long rime, it was isolated from other parts of the United States.