A Pueblo-style solar house in Santa Fe
An attractive little Pueblo Revival style home is now on the market in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pueblo-style buildings imitate the traditional homes built by the Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest, who have a long history of living in villages constructed of earth and stone. While the Pueblo dwellings were large, multi-storey buildings housing many families, this small house has only one bedroom in its 510 ft2 (47.4 m2).
The home is a good example of the Pueblo Revival style. Unlike many modern-day Pueblo-style buildings, whose walls often have a core of concrete block or brick covered with plaster or stucco, this 1932 version was built with adobe. The walls are massive with rounded corners and a slight taper from base to top. Because of the wall thickness, the windows are typically set quite deep.
Adobe was also used to create and sculpt interior features, such as this home’s fireplace and the adjacent banco (built-in bench). The flooring material here is brick, although wood and stone are often used as well. The roof is supported by vigas, peeled log rafters that are visible on the inside and extend out through the walls as a decorative element on the exterior.
A plaque on the front of the house commemorates it as the first home in New Mexico to utilize “solar space-heating technology”. This must be referring to active solar technology, as the Pueblo peoples have for centuries used passive solar principles in the design and placement of their dwellings. Active solar systems use mechanical devices, such as water pumps that circulate water through collector panels.
The solar collectors were added to this home in the late 1950s, housed in a pair of rooftop structures that were probably added at that time. One of the roof additions is large enough that it can be used as a loft bedroom, accessed by a wooden ladder. The other, reached by the steps sculpted into the fireplace, is smaller and probably just houses the solar system’s mechanical equipment and storage tanks.
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Photographs courtesy of Santa Fe Properties. Via Country Living.
Text copyright 2016 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.
This home has a lot of attractive features on the interior but would benefit from an infusion of santa fe style. I think the fireplace should be redone to look like a kiva. The rooftop structures that were added to the original home are hideous. Removing them would return the home to its pueblo origins. Solar panels could be mounted on the ground.
did you read the information in the introduction? This is the original house. It has a plaque commemorating its construction as a solar house in 1958. removing the solar aspects from the roof would reduce the historical and functional value. Did you notice that the FP has a front grate to circulate heat? replacing this fp with a kiva style would remove the access to the upstairs plus destroy the heating function. This house is in Santa Fe.
Well, Kristina, I am going to ask you a question: did you read the information in the article? As it stands, this is not the original house. It was built in 1932 and remodeled in the 50s to include those ugly structures on the roof that have solar panels. The original home would have had a flat roof, like the ones you see at Taos pueblo. Sometimes improvements mess with the style, but I suppose the Cultural Registry would not approve of altering the home (not that I’m buying it – $329,000 is pricey for a house this small, even on artsy Canyon Road in Santa Fe.) Losing the loft bed shouldn’t be a big deal; it’s claustrophobic. The photos show a bed in the living area that doubles as a sofa, so there is a place to sleep. As for the fireplace, a true kiva is made of adobe bricks or concrete blocks that “give the structure considerable mass. Once heated this mass conducts, convects, and radiates its stored heat into the surrounding environment. True kivas are probably the most efficient open fireplace ever designed.” (http://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/kiva-fireplaces.97695/)
How much would ths sell for?
since it is listed, you can check it out.
The realtor has listed it at $329,000.
I think this is a gorgeous small house. It looks very comfortable for a short person.
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