About Santa Fe - Architectural Styles

Acequia: An irrigation ditch that runs through a yard or garden from a central water source. Traditionally a shared resource, can only be used with deeded water rights.

Adobe: The traditional building material of southwest-style houses, adobes are large rectangular bricks made of mud and straw. Once a cheap material, adobes are now expensive because of the labor involved – most “adobe” style homes are no longer made with adobe.

Alacena: A cupboard dug into an interior adobe wall. See nicho.

Arroyo: Refers to a dry riverbed that may fill with rainwater during a flashflood.

Banco:

A plastered adobe bench built

into the base of a wall. Many

traditional-style homes have bancos,

either built near the kiva fireplace,

in a sitting room or outside on

a verandah or a portal.

Canale: A drain spout leading from the flat-roofs of adobe homes to allow rain water to flow off the roof and protect walls from falling water.

Casita: Literally “small house,” a casita is generally used to refer to a guest house behind the main dwelling.

Corbel:

A wood support

that distributes

weight of roof

beams, often

decoratively

carved.

Coyote Fence: A fence formed by wiring the large branches or saplings together, generally made with aspen or cedar.

Entrada: An entryway between rooms.

Hacienda: Traditional Spanish house built in a half-circle design around a central Plaza.

Horno:

A rounded

outdoor oven

used for cooking

and baking.

Kiva Fireplace:

A rounded, plastered adobe

fireplace with a narrow

opening built in the corner

of a room. Logs are stacked

upright inside.

Latillas: Juniper sapling branches arranged above Vigas to form the ceiling in an adobe home. (See Vigas.)

Lintel: An exposed beam above a window or a door – often carved with decorative designs.

Nicho:

A sculpted indentation

in an adobe wall, used as

a shelf, and often housing

small religious

shrines.

Northern New Mexico-style: Pueblo-style house with a pitched tin roof.

Placita: An inner courtyard in the back of a house.

Plaza: A city center, square, or public market.

Portal:

A porch or covered

patio with a roof

supported by vigas

projecting from

the houses.

Pueblo: A village or small town. In northern New Mexico, pueblo is used to refer to the villages of the Native Americans.

Pueblo-style: The classic Santa Fe home, Pueblo-style houses feature flat-roofs with protruding vigas and canales, along with earth-tone colored walls formed by adobe bricks. Today, many Pueblo-style homes are wood-frame rather than adobe, and can be two or three story while the originals were almost all single story houses.

Territorial-style: A Pueblo-style home modified with sharp-cornered walls, brick coping around the roofline, and milled woodwork details such as pedimented

lintels on windows frames.

Vigas:

Large exposed wooden

ceiling beams that hold

up the roof in an

adobe home.