Pueblo architecture

When Spanish colonists arrived in the Southwest beginning in the late 1500s, they learned the local construction techniques from the Pueblo people and adapted them to fit their own building types, such as haciendas and mission churches.

[2] As modern building materials like brick, glass, and milled lumber became more available during the Territorial period and especially with the arrival of railroads in the 1870s and 1880s, the traditional construction methods fell out of favor, though they remained commonplace at the pueblos themselves and in other rural areas.

The buildings have flat roofs supported by rough-hewn wooden beams called vigas and smaller perpendicular laths or latillas.

Traditionally, upper floors were accessed by ladders, and buildings were often semi-fortified with minimal door and window openings at ground level.

Other key elements of Pueblo architecture include kivas, which are circular ceremonial rooms which are partially or fully below ground, and enclosed courtyards or plazas.

Each pueblo's cosmos encircles the nan-sipu, and the surrounding mountains, where the sky and earth touch, are the boundaries of the well-organized spaces in which people, animals, and spirits live.