In the last issue of NAHB HouseKeys, we started a journey into vernacular architecture. Vernacular architecture is a city or area's cultural thumbprint, its architectural language, its classic skyline. From the brownstones of Brooklyn to the colorful Victorians of San Francisco, architecture can distinguish a city as well as a Mardi Gras parade evokes the city New Orleans. 

In continuing our theme of all things green, we look at the eco-friendly and organic heritage of the Southwest.

Long before the first Europeans arrived in North America, the inhabitants of the Southwest — an area ranging from northern New Mexico and southern Utah to the border with Mexico, and from west of the Colorado River to west Texas — built houses made of stone and mud. Adobe homes, built using sun-dried clay bricks held together with exposed wooden beams, were being built by the Pueblo Indians as long as 1,000 years ago.

When the Spanish arrived in the New World, they began establishing missions through the region, in part to spread the Catholic faith among the natives as well as facilitate colonization of this land. These two influences, adobe structure and Spanish missions, became the base of influence from which most vernacular Southwest architecture formed.

Southwestern architecture characteristically features simple, unadorned walls made from adobe coated with stucco to protect it from the elements.

The elements and design of this region’s architecture evolved in a way true to its form — organically. Southwestern architecture begins with nature, is built with materials from the land and dried by the sun. It was shaped as a response to several factors: availability of supplies, climate and geology, and culture.

With a limited supply of building materials as well as resources such as water and wood and a lack of advanced construction knowledge, settlers quickly learned to respect the region’s climate and terrain as their native predecessors had.

Buildings were simple and unadorned, consisting of broad, massive walls, coated with stucco to protect the adobe bricks from the elements. Though modest, their interiors remained constant and cool in the region’s often brutal heat.

	Southwestern architecture organically evolved as a response to culture and climate. Its simple adobe structures cast against the big open Southwestern sky has been a lure for photographers and artists for decades.

With the arrival of the Spanish, plazas, arcades and interior courtyards and patios began to appear. With the arrival of the railroad in the 1880s, architectural ideas and prefabricated materials diluted the vernacular voice of the region and created eclectic results, many which did not take into account their climatic incompatibility.

In the early 1920s however, an emphasis on promoting a sense of regional cultural heritage revived many of the more traditional styles. Incorporating the simplistic styles of the past, these structures later began to draw on the ranch house style, including an open floor plan with an open relation to outdoor spaces, a heavy emphasis on natural lighting, and minimal decorations.

A half century later, the Southwest became a hotspot for research as the modern environmental movement began to gain speed. Southern Arizona in particular became a center for those studying appropriate responses to a desert environment. Along with the energy crisis, sustainability became an important element in building. The Southwest saw a resurgence in organic and sustainability building materials and energy efficient ways of living.

The vernacular architecture seen currently has been an organic evolution of the region’s history, climate and culture. Many of the elements in today's Southwest homes — emphasis on sustainability, simple design, open floor plans, large windows throughout, adobe and stucco facades — were present in homes a century ago. It says “Southwest” as strongly as sagebush and roadrunners, and draws tourists and artists alike to bask in its simplistic beauty.

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