Adobe houses have long been built in desert climates to mediate between the large swing between hot daytime and cold nighttime temperatures. Their solid, thick walls inform their architecture so distinctly, both inside and out:
The gallery above includes some beautiful interiors and exteriors of (mostly) small, adobe-construction homes. We love the vaulted interior of the fifth image and the soft, mottled walls of the third. Take a look and let us know what you love about adobe.
(Images: Kathy Burns-Millyerd/House Design Ideas, The Adobe House, Tim Street-Porter/Architectural Digest, Learning Around the World, Cal-Earth)
Tina Wilson's Striking Style 
30 DIY Projects for the 3-Day Weekend
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Make Chocolate Magic Shell Ice Cream Topping with Only 2 Ingredients
Magic One-Ingredient Ice Cream 5 Ways: Peanut Butter, Nutella, and More
Comments (10)
I love the "earthy" quality of the material. Very inviting.
ha! ha! ha! What is adobe about the first house? It's a stuccoed deco 50's ranch painted white! The second picture is hacienda (terra cotta roofs) the next to the last one is the most adobe-like of the all from the exterior, the last inside pic is definately adobe (i.e hand-made).
Yep, the first two are definitely not adobe construction. I'd guess only the last picture is adobe, though traditional adobe has timber and board ceilings.
A dessert climate? Mmmmmm....I'm imagining chocolate chip rain & ice cream snow. I want to go there.
desert has one s, not two.
I agree - The first two appear to be stuccoed cinderblock...
I live in Tucson in an 1920s adobe duplex that's great. Stays cooler than my old apartment for sure. Here you can see a lot of adobe buildings that do not have the timber or board ceilings. Tucson has great examples of the wide variety of adobe architecture.
@mirandajane - I'm with you. Will there be taffy rainbows?
When I was in fourth grade the teacher taught our class a mnemonic device regarding the spelling of desert/dessert: Dessert has two s's (?) because you always want a second helping. I am now several decades beyond fourth grade and that little bit of advice has served me well.
And, yeah, the first two houses are in no way adobe.
I love the first home....its streamline deco adobe!
Conveniently for very little, I live in Albuquerque - where the variety of what "an adobe" looks like is fairly astounding.
Imagine my surprise at this (made of adobe bricks) "castle":
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10114506@N00/3207063984/