More useful books on adobe

How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built

• First, it's just a wonderful book. Sometimes a wonderful book is just wonderful no matter how interested or uninterested you are in the topic. The quality of the thinking and writing comes through and carries you away, just as if you been obsessed with the topic. I'm re-reading it, because the first time I only read the story via the photos and captions -- I was so taken with images I couldn't follow the text.
  
  
  So I have to hold-heartedly recommend this book:
  
  
• Second, although adobe buildings are a small fraction of the total covered, there are three sets of priceless photographs -- photos of the Santa Fe Palace of the Goveners (which is built of brick!) which was first decorated with "fancy" sawn-lumber columns (1868), Victorianized (1882), then "restored" in 1909 to round, log columns and corbels. The change in adobe interiors is tracked in photos from 1943, 1935 and 1985 -- all with a corner fogon ("kiva") fireplace on page 146, which for me illustrated the odd quirks Santa Fe Style has developed (which Tiffany chandalier would go best in your adobe home?). In the same chapter the birth of Santa Fe building rules are examined, and boy is that an interesting story. It just highlights the ways that even conservation is creation, choosing what to conserve and what to remove.
  
  
• Third, a very important source, that I found through the references of "How Buildings Learn" is the National Park Service publications on restoring buildings. You can find versions of them online, or order them in bundles.
  
  
• Fourth, this book captures the deep joy and daily living pleasure of living in an old building and adapting it to your needs. When everyone agrees I could build from scratch cheaper (and with less marital stress) it's hard to explain why I desire these dirt buildings. Stuart Brand captures the joy of making creative choices from limited options in a historic building.