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On the surface, rural New Mexico isn’t the most prepossessing place to build a house. Not only are there extremes of temperature, but the protected environment needs to be carefully managed. This new house by Tucson-based Dust Architects embraces these challenges, using the environment as a creative springboard from which to launch a refined and sensitive response to a client brief.
Explore New Mexico house Sombra de Santa Fe
Sombra de Santa Fe is located in a turn-of-the-century development in the Galisteo Basin Preserve, about 75 miles northwest of downtown Albuquerque. The site consists of a scattering of plots perched on the edge of a mesa at an altitude of 6,500ft, with far-reaching views across the Northern New Mexico landscape. The design team, led by practice co-founders Cade Hayes and Jesús Edmundo Robles Jr, along with Natalia Zieman Hayes, Jerrick Lee Tsosie, and Jacob Downard, were briefed by clients keen to create a sanctuary in the wilderness.
This sense of sprawling nature was preserved by the design codes and master plan for the site. As Hayes notes, ‘when the land parcels were established, a master plan designated building areas and set the construction limits so that each house on the mesa would not be visible from the Galisteo Basin below, as well as being somewhat obscured from adjacent properties.’ Other restrictions included limits on height and stipulations about colour, as well as the percentage of the plot that could be built upon.
‘We negotiated with the developers to get the house closer to the mesa edge, so the owners could get a better view into and over the basin,’ the architect recalls. But other than that, the new house is woven carefully between landscape and legislation. From the outset, it was decided to use scoria walls, a type of construction material formed from compressed volcanic sand. According to Robles Jr, scoria is less material-intensive than a standard concrete mix, although more attention to detail is needed in the formwork to achieve high-quality finishes.
The compacting process is also less labour-intensive than rammed earth, and most importantly, it absorbs thermal energy. ‘We’re not the innovators, but the facilitators and experimenters,’ says Robles Jr, praising the clients for their support and local pioneers Lava Works, who have developed ways to work with the scoria mix.
Placed atop a concrete plinth with integrated angular windowsills, the superstructure is formed from 2ft-thick walls. These provide effective insulation against heat, wind and cold, with deep window and door reveals keeping the interior shaded at the hottest parts of the day. The rectangular plan incorporates a central living area, which opens out on to the main terrace, flanked by two ensuite bedrooms. The entrance and utility spaces are located to the east, while a west-facing covered terrace offers sunset views. A little way from the house is a separate garage and guest room.
‘The house takes advantage of the landscape; it engages with it on all four sides,’ says Hayes. By aligning each façade to a point on the compass, the outdoor spaces are ‘tuned to light, wind and season’. This allows the owners to use the porches, patios and terraces seasonally and for different parts of the day, explains the architect. Covered terraces are sited to benefit from shade in the summer or provide spots for soaking up warmth during the cooler months. One key reason for this pragmatic approach is the absence of air conditioning. ‘The house is designed with common-sense passive solar strategies, with radiant floor heating and a fireplace for warmth,’ adds Manning Hayes. Cross ventilation keeps the interiors cool.
In addition to its thermal properties, the use of black scoria ties the house to its place. ‘There are many dormant volcanoes in the area,’ the architect notes. ‘The clients also had an aesthetic admiration of our Casa Caldera project, which used red scoria. In this case, we chose black.’ The thick walls were cast in place, with the material poured into a framework layer by layer. This process remains visible inside and out, with stripes of texture that add to the sense of the house being part of the landscape.
‘We negotiated with the developers to get the house closer to the mesa edge for a better view’
Throughout the house are textiles inspired by Shiprock Santa Fe, a long-established gallery that deals in Navajo rugs and blankets, and other contemporary Native American crafts. Their strong geometric presence contrasts with the polished concrete floors, dark scoria walls and pared-back white oak furniture, designed in collaboration with Simrel Achenbach of Desciencelab in Taos. With the Sombra de Santa Fe house,
Dust’s experience of cadence and climate has created a true observatory of the landscape, a sanctuary integrated with the land yet always looking to the distant horizons fringed by the Sandia and Manzanita Mountains.