Here are just some of the house styles that you will encounter with you are looking at Taos houses:
Most Typical Taos House Styles
Southwestern
The southwestern Taos house style reflects a rich history of Colonial Spanish and Native American styles and is usually a one story house with flat roofs, covered porches, and round log ceiling beams or vigas. Walls of southwestern style homes are often coated in stucco or stone and usually have overhangs or trellises to provide some shade from the hot desert sun.
Pueblo Revival
The Pueblo Revival Taos house style is a regional architectural style of the Southwestern United States, which draws its inspiration from the Pueblos and the Spanish missions in New Mexico.
Pueblo Revival style architecture imitates the appearance of traditional Pueblo adobe construction, though more other materials such as brick or concrete are often substituted. If adobe is not used, rounded corners, irregular parapets, and thick, battered walls are used to simulate it. Walls are usually covered in stucco and painted in earth tones. Multistory buildings usually employ stepped massing similar to that seen at Taos Pueblo. Roofs are always flat. Common features of the Pueblo Revival style include projecting wooden roof beams or vigas, which sometimes serve no structural purpose, corbels (curved and often stylized beam supports), and latillas (peeled branches or strips of wood) laid across the tops of vigas to create support for a roof. The interior of the Pueblo Revival house typically features corner fireplaces, unpainted wood columns, and tile, brick, or wood floors.
Other Taos House Styles
Contemporary
You know them by their odd-sized and often tall windows, their lack of ornamentation, and their unusual mixtures of wall materials–stone, brick, and wood, for instance. Architects designed Contemporary-style homes (in the Modern family) between 1950 and 1970, and created two versions: the flat-roof and gabled types. The latter is often characterized by exposed beams. Both breeds tend to be one-story tall and were designed to incorporate the surrounding landscape into their overall look.
Conventional
Conventional style might more accurately describe the actual building method rather than a specific style. This is the most common type of home construction, where the entire home is constructed right on the building site. This method generally offers the most flexibility for house design and floor plan modifications. It is very common today to find some home components in conventional construction, such as roof or floor trusses, and/or sections and wall panels pre-fabricated off-site and delivered and assembled on-site.. For instance, some new homes now use complete factory-built bathrooms.
There may be some time saved when using factory built components, although it is often insignificant. The greater value one might expect thought is a higher quality due to constructing the pre-fabricated components inside in a controlled environment often using exact jigging to improve fit and quality.
Territorial
The territorial Taos house style architecture is characterized by either frame or adobe construction, can be one or two stories, generally have a central hall plan with rooms placed somewhat symmetrically across the hall from one another, usually have larger doors and windows, and will generally have large porches.
Beyond a home’s style, there are also considerations about the various Taos house construction methods used. Some methods may only apply to specific styles of homes, but some methods might apply to various styles. Understanding these construction methods will help you as you are out looking at Taos houses.
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