built for the desert

In an earlier post about Josias Joesler - A Tucson Classic - I mentioned that he designed and built desert homes that are at home in the desert. He worked in Tucson back in the 30's, 40's and 50's when air conditioning was either nonexistent or in it's infancy, so it was vitally important to build homes that were in harmony with the desert environment. And although we now have very sophisticated heating and cooling systems available, in order to enjoy desert living to it's fullest there are a few key elements of home design that should be considered. The summer sun is blisteringly hot in the desert and having a home that is designed and oriented to shield you from that hot sun is very important.
Here are a few basic things to keep in mind when you're searching for your desert home;
Orientation- Ideally a Tucson home should have what we call a north/south orientation. A north/south orientation means that the long sides of the house, generally the front and back, face north and south. So for example, the back of the house and the backyard faces north, and the front of the house faces south. Or vice-a-versa. Either way it's a north/south orientation, which protects you from the rising sun, and more importantly, from the late afternoon sun, which is hotter than you can imagine in the summer. With a north/south orientation the smallest/narrowest parts of the house get the direct hit from the morning and afternoon sun- you have light but no direct sun blazing in the windows. With an east/west orientation, you get the rising sun in the morning and the late afternoon sun hitting the longest, broadest, biggest sides of your house, and shining directly in all the windows. So of course your house gets much hotter and your AC has to work it's hardest to keep the place cool, which it may or may not be able to do. And with an east/west orientation, you'll probably have to cover your windows in the morning to keep the sun out, but you will definitely have to cover them in the afternoon to block out the blazing summer sun. So you'll be shut in to virtually windowless rooms until the sun sets, and that's at about 7:45 in the summer. And if your backyard or patio faces west, forget about sitting out there in the late afternoon during the summer, it's just too hot. A north/south orientation is the most important feature of a desert home. Besides, in the Foothills the mountain views are to the north and the city views to the south. If you get the orientation right, everything else is icing on the cake.
Covered porches, patios- It's great to have a covered porch or patio so that you can sit outside, out of the sun and enjoy Tucson's great weather, and have lunch or dinner outdoors, at any time of year. Having covered outdoor space is a key feature for being able to enjoy the Tucson lifestyle. On the south side of the house a covered porch or patio will also keep the sun off the exterior walls of the house, which will keep it cooler, and you'll have that shady area to relax out of the sun all day long.
Windows- Windows on the west side of the house are a no-no in the desert because of that blazing afternoon sun. If your house has an east/west orientation you're going to have windows on the west side, because that's either the front, or worse yet, the back of your house. Great big expanses of windows are great for the views but when it's 110 outside they allow a lot of heat to penetrate the house. Make sure that the windows are double pane low e glass. And windows that are recessed 6 to 8 inches or more from the exterior of the house keep the daytime summer sun from shining into the south side of the house.
Type of Construction- Back when Joesler was building homes in Tucson, he used adobe or brick or some other masonry material because it is more substantial and it does a much better job of insulating the house from the heat. Many of the homes that I show to clients during the summer are vacant, because many of the homes here in the Tucson Foothills are second homes, and the owners are back in Chicago or Columbus for the summer. When it's 100 degrees outside and we walk into a vacant (the AC is turned off) frame stucco built house, it's 115 in the house. 20 minutes later when we walk into a vacant masonry built house, but particularly one built of adobe, it's 80 to 85 degrees in the house, with no AC.
Masonry construction, particularly adobe, or straw bale (though straw bale is rare in Tucson) works very well as a thermal barrier, keeping the interior cooler than the temperature outside, with no AC. Our first house here in Tucson was a beautiful newer frame stucco built house with some west facing windows. We sold it, and recently moved to a classic Tucson adobe built home, with a perfect north/south orientation and a covered porch on the entire south side of the house. Last month the weather gurus were predicting a string of days with temperatures in the low 90's, the low 90's in March is somewhat unusual. So based on our experience in our old frame stucco house, we figured we'd have to turn on the AC. Never happened. The tempeature did hit the low 90's for a few days, but inside the house, it was about 74 degrees. Adobe, ahhh!