As the largest city in New Mexico, Albuquerque is one of the fastest-growing high-tech centers in the U.S. Yet you rarely see skyscrapers here. Instead you will find small, dirt-walled houses everywhere.
With flat roofs — often with projecting beams — stepped levels and round-edged walls, they are called adobe houses, and they are one of Albuquerque's defining characteristics.
Quentin Wilson, director of the Adobe Construction Program at Northern New Mexico College, said that "in the desert parts of the world, adobe is the wonderful material that everyone wants to choose. Because of the big thick walls, they work very well with the desert climate. It will store coolness, or they will store heat."
Adobe means a building material mix of earth and straw. American Indians started building houses with adobe in the 1400s. Spanish elements were added when the Spanish conquered the region in the 1600s. Northern Europeans took over later. Yet, Wilson said, all three groups of people saw the beauty of adobe.
"Everybody embraced it and saw it as a valuable material, and they didn't come in and tear it down and try some other kind of construction," he said.
The big massive walls are important in New Mexico's desert climate. During the summer, people open the doors at night to let the walls store coolness and close the doors during daytime. That keeps the indoor temperature cool, as if the rooms were air-conditioned.
Kris Linton bought three of the houses and turned them into adobe-style, short-term rental houses. Her goal is to let people see what a house was like in the city's early days.
"The feeling of it coming together and giving it a whole new life is exciting," she said. "We have not repurposed them. We have kept what they were here for, [which] is to live in."
And adobe houses are still being built. Alan and Joyce Weitzel live in a contemporary version.
"I do like the quiet of the adobe structure," Alan said. "It is solid. It's very quiet — kind of leaves a very soothing, calm feeling in the house."
One down side is that the thick adobe walls can weaken cellphone signals. But this is a compromise the Weitzels are willing to make. They also need to keep an eye on the adobe walls, applying mud finish every other year to keep them dry and in shape.
In spite of such shortcomings, with committed fans like Linton and the Weitzels, adobe architecture will be preserved and remain a symbol of New Mexico.
Vocabulary
adobe:泥砖
repurposed:改换意图
高中英语语法-would 与 used to
高中英语语法-“未曾实现的愿望、打算”表达法种种(一)
高中英语语法-英语谚语佳句推荐(2)
高中英语语法-rather than, prefer 与 would rather
高中英语语法-闯过特殊量词六道关(一)
高中英语语法-相似短语辨析(2)
高中英语语法-worth 用法拾零
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高中英语语法-make词组练习
高中英语语法-must, have to和have got to
高中英语语法-had better, should, ought to学习四要素(一)
高中英语语法-Each & every
高中英语语法-数学英语词汇之三
高中英语语法-谈 more than 与 less than
高中英语语法-闯过特殊量词六道关(二)
高中英语语法-例析以 -ic 与 -ical 结尾的几组形容词
高中英语语法-still, quiet, silent 和 calm
高中英语语法-如何完美表达书信中的“谢谢”
高中英语语法-before 译法种种
高中英语语法-give词组练习
高中英语语法-介词 from 的否定意义及其汉译
高中英语语法-数学英语词汇之四
高中英语语法-“ up to ”用法小结
高中英语语法-比较情态动词must, can/ could, may/ might 用法
高中英语语法-“未曾实现的愿望、打算”表达法种种(二)
高中英语语法-but 的用法之二
高中英语语法-重难点词语精析
高中英语语法-had better, should, ought to学习四要素(二)
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