Edgewood, New Mexico
1,850 square feet
The Bern’s home was designed and built for an engineer who loved solar house design and cacti! This home, built in the 1980s in Edgewood, New Mexico, utilized the passive solar house design strategies of the day, with clerestory windows, a large greenhouse that also served as a passive solar collector and a north side with few windows and an earth berm.
This open plan is two story and takes advantage of every square foot, with built-ins and storage space under the staircase. Interior adobe walls and brick floors added thermal mass. The ample south facing windows do their job keeping the house warm in winter while the thermal mass and correctly-sized overhangs keep out unwanted summer heat.