Adobe used to be made of sun-dried earthen bricks. The walls were thick, the houses were fairly low, and the effect was kind of like a house built half-underground– well-regulated temperatures and dark (but that’s a good thing when the sun is so intense). The roofs were flat partially to catch rain water for drinking and watering plants. Also, if it rained and then evaporated off the roof, the whole roof acted as a swamp cooler.

Nowadays, when a house is built as an “adobe”-style home, it’s usually concrete and drywall, with a layer of chicken wire and then a layer of textured plaster to coat the outside. So it looks adobe, but it has none of the benefits– the roof often doesn’t collect and distribute water, it’s just as hot as a regular house without the thick walls. The fake adobe houses are better than the mobile homes, but really everything is better than an aluminum oven.

Of course, there is a growing community of people who are reverting more toward the old style of doing things– with some modern touches. It’s not so strange to see an adobe house (real adobe) with solar panels on the roof and effective rain-catching system. Yay sustainability!

Also, studies have shown that houses painted lavender reflect sunlight better than houses painted white.

Adobe used to be made of sun-dried earthen bricks. The walls were thick, the houses were fairly low, and the effect was kind of like a house built half-underground– well-regulated temperatures and dark (but that’s a good thing when the sun is so intense). The roofs were flat partially to catch rain water for drinking and watering plants. Also, if it rained and then evaporated off the roof, the whole roof acted as a swamp cooler.

Nowadays, when a house is built as an “adobe”-style home, it’s usually concrete and drywall, with a layer of chicken wire and then a layer of textured plaster to coat the outside. So it looks adobe, but it has none of the benefits– the roof often doesn’t collect and distribute water, it’s just as hot as a regular house without the thick walls. The fake adobe houses are better than the mobile homes, but really everything is better than an aluminum oven.

Of course, there is a growing community of people who are reverting more toward the old style of doing things– with some modern touches. It’s not so strange to see an adobe house (real adobe) with solar panels on the roof and effective rain-catching system. Yay sustainability!

Also, studies have shown that houses painted lavender reflect sunlight better than houses painted white.

I’d heard that the adobe-style homes that were being built now were often only cosmetically adobe-style. So they sort of looked like the old buildings to fit in visually without actually having any of the climate-appropriate features. Is this what you’re talking about in Tucson?

Later, I moved to Tucson (the hot part of Arizona). It is interesting to look at different architectural styles around town. Lots of old homes are built adobe-style: thick walls made of some sort of mud/brick material, and coated in a pale dust color to reflect sunlight. Many of the really old homes have a sort of shaded loft up on the roof where people used to sleep in the summertime. If you got up to a breezy place at night, it was beautiful. These days, more and more low-income houses are so poorly insulated and made with such poor building materials that people are actually being cooked to death when their air conditioning unit breaks.

Cars coming standard with air conditioning changed the schedule and culture of the town. My mom remembers Tucson having a rich summer nightlife in the 60s and 70s. Kids would cruise up and down the streets with their windows down and music blasting. Now everybody keeps their windows up and their A/C cranked high.