Adobe [Hardcover]

David Larkin (Author), Orlando Romero (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 1994

This book tells the story of adobe, sun-dried brick houses, popular in the desert Southwest and California. It is a story that travels from Asia and North America to the Iberian Peninsula, from the history-filled Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the homes of the famous inhabitants in the hills of Taos. It is a book that is both historical and cultural.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Books in Print lists over 20 books on adobe construction, from construction manuals to scholarly accounts of its history, preservation, and bibliography. The book at hand, which is noteworthy primarily for the beauty and care with which it has been produced, features beautiful photographs, elegant text, and fine editing. Romero is head of the library at the oldest European building in America, the Palace of the Governor in Santa Fe, and Larkin has made a career out of producing just this kind of historically minded style book; his Shaker: Life, Work, and Art (LJ 11/15/87) is a model of this sort. With an introduction that deals with the African roots of adobe and chapters on plastering, solar applications, and artistic formulations, this celebration of the most ancient of sustainable building techniques will appeal to a wide range of the public, including ecologists, contractors, architects, designers, and historians.
Peter Kaufman, Boston Architecture Ctr.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

When David Larkin's name graces a title page, the book is bound to be well designed and full of superb color photographs. His most recent projects include Frank Lloyd Wright: The Masterworks and Barn (1993). Here Larkin has teamed up with Romero, library director for the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe and expert on adobe in particular and southwestern culture in general, to create a picture-rich study of the history, technology, and dignified, sculptural beauty of adobe structures. The oldest of building materials, adobe bricks are made from mud and straw and have been used in Africa, the Iberian peninsula, and all across the Southwest and Mexico. Surprisingly durable if maintained, adobe constructions can last for centuries. Romero and Larkin explain brick-making and remudding techniques, showing both archival photographs of Native Americans at work on their pueblos and photographs of contemporary builders. They also document some of the Southwest's most famous adobe churches and pueblos, such as the San Francisco Mission Church at Ranchos de Taos and the wondrous mesa-crowning Acoma Pueblo, as well as a selection of lesser-known buildings. Special attention is paid to interior decorative detail and to adobe's intrinsic connection to the landscape. Donna Seaman

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 1ST edition (October 28, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395566932
• ISBN-13: 978-0395566930
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 10.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #839,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars hundreds of pictures, worth millions of words, November 1, 2009

By 

John Wilder - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Adobe (Hardcover)

I had borrowed this book from the local public library like, fifteen times over the course of a couple of years. I have read all the copy many times, but the main feature is the exquisite photography. You can TASTE the adobe! You can SMELL the yellow soil in those ancient and new buildings. So, I finally broke down and bought a used copy on Amazon, for dirt cheap, like $9.00 plus shippinng, something ridiculous like that. The book was very used and even had some wrinkly funky pages. I didn't care a bit. I had those pictures to ogle to my heart's content. Old old New Mexican structures, an ancient church, some astounding buildings in North Africa, and so on.
If you want to just drink it in, this is the best book about adobe. You will want to lick the pages. Really, it's fantastic. This is no elitist coffee table book of over-priced pseudo-green castles in the wetsern suburbs of Austin, Texas or New Mexico. No no. This is real adobe and it is real old-world green building. Get it, and drool.