Adobe homes, built for the high desert.
Adobe and earth block are Northern New Mexico’s oldest way to build: walls of earth laid in earthen mortar and finished in lime or mud. We design and build new adobe homes in Taos, Santa Fe and across New Mexico, and restore the old ones.
Mass, from the ground you build on.
| Thermal mass | Thick earth walls soak up the day’s heat and give it back at night, which suits the big day-night swings of the high desert. |
|---|---|
| Local material | Earth, sand, clay and straw, with very little processing or shipping behind them. |
| Breathable finish | Lime and mud plasters let the wall dry out, and can be patched and renewed for generations. |
| Quiet + calm | Thick earthen walls are quiet, and the rooms feel steady through the seasons. |
Adobe, done regeneratively.
Adobe is mass, not insulation. In a Taos winter we keep the mass inside and the insulation outside, set the windows to the sun, and give the winter light floors and walls to land on. That is how an earth wall stays warm without a big heating bill.
Every adobe home we build can carry the same systems as the rest of our work: solar power, catch water, greywater and wastewater treatment, and passive heating and cooling, fully off-grid or with conventional backups.
New adobe, and the old.
- A-100
Design + drawings
Custom adobe homes drawn for your site, through the permit set.
Drawings - C-500
New construction
Built by our own crew, from footing to lime plaster.
Construction - R-500
Restoration + renovation
Adobe preservation and historic renovation, with new systems inside old walls.
Renovations
Four ways to build a wall.
We choose the structure building by building, for the site, budget and schedule.
Rammed-earth tires
Upcycled tires packed with earth, bermed on the north. Enormous mass, plastered in earth.
Tire wallsInsulated concrete forms
Foam forms filled with reinforced concrete: a continuous insulated shell around a mass core.
Custom designs3D-printed walls
Two printed faces tied by a printed web, the cavity insulated. Printed on site from the drawings.
3D printingAdobe & earth block
Northern New Mexico's oldest way to build, laid in earthen mortar and finished in lime or mud.
ConstructionAdobe, answered.
Can you get a permit for an adobe home in New Mexico?
Yes. New Mexico has its own Earthen Building Materials Code for one- and two-family homes with earthen bearing walls: adobe, burned adobe, compressed earth block, rammed earth and terrón, up to two stories. We draw to it and handle the permit. Permits in New Mexico
Is adobe warm enough for a Taos winter?
On its own, an earth wall stores heat but doesn’t insulate much. Insulation outside the mass, good solar orientation and tight windows are what make an adobe home warm in the high desert.
Can an adobe home be off-grid?
Yes. Power, catch water, wastewater treatment and passive heating and cooling work the same in an adobe home as in any other building we design.
Do you work outside Taos?
Yes. We build in Taos and Santa Fe and across New Mexico, and we draw projects across the country and around the world.
Start with the site.
Tell us where it is and what you want the building to do. We design and build across the country and around the world.