The following classes are offered at various times throughout the semester. Please check the current schedule section of our website or join our mailing list for latest dates and times.

Adobe 100-101 “Traditional Dwelling Design” (Live Instruction)
Instructor: Quentin Wilson
Credits:4

You will cover the design and construction techniques of traditional and modern adobe dwelling and monumental structures of Northern New Mexico from foundation to roof, including passive solar design.

Adobe 101-101 “Adobe Design and Construction Worldwide” (WebCT/Internet)
Instructor: Kurt Gardella
Credits: 3

This internet class covers the fundamentals of building with earth from foundation to roof. Topics include: the history of adobe design and construction worldwide, different earth building techniques used worldwide, basic floor plan drawing and site planning for a home, overview of the current New Mexico Earthen Building Code, performing a soil test to determine soil suitability, mixing soil for mud bricks and mortar, making a 2-brick mud brick form, making, curing and storing your own mud bricks, constructing and setting up a speed lead leveling system for building mud brick walls, constructing and using a simple water level for adobe construction, constructing gringo blocks, rough bucks and lintels for window and door openings, overview of traditional NM roof and ceiling systems, mixing and applying mud and other natural plasters, installing a traditional mud floor. The course provides you with step-by-step instruction sheets, podcast interviews with our department chair Quentin Wilson as well as downloadable demonstration video sequences. A semester long online adobe discussion group also accompanies the course.

Adobe 102-101 “Adobe Wall Construction” (Live Instruction)
Instructor: Quentin Wilson
Credits: 4

You will cover exterior and interior walls and buttresses, foundations, rough bucks, lintels, bond beams; and the installation of doors and windows, including wood frame, and post and beam techniques. Classes are conducted on- and off-campus.

Adobe 103-101 “Roof Design and Construction” (Live Instruction)
Instructor: Quentin Wilson
Credits: 4

You will cover traditional Southwest designs of pitched and flat roofs: materials, structure, and plans, including vigas, beams, joists, rafters, trusses, latillas, rough boards, tongue-and-groove, deck sheathing, canales, and parapets. Class are conducted on- and off-campus.

Adobe 104-101 “Floor Design and Construction” (Live Instruction)
Instructor: Quentin Wilson
Credits: 4

You will discus and build (or mock up) traditional and modern floors and floor coverings found in the Southwest, including mud, wood, brick, stone, concrete, tile, and sheet goods. . Class are conducted on- and off-campus.

Adobe 105-101 “Interior Finishes” (Live Instruction)
Instructor: Quentin Wilson
Credits: 4

You will deal with traditional and modern finishes found in the buildings of the Southwest: mud plaster by hand and trowel, cement and gypsum plasters, exposed adobe bricks, carved adobe, wood trim at doors and windows, baseboards, wainscot, tile work, decorative stone, tin ceilings, nichos, carved columns, corbels, lintels, sheet rock hanging and finishing, and painting and staining. . Class are conducted on- and off-campus.

Adobe 106-101 “Exterior Finishes” (Live Instruction)
Instructor: Quentin Wilson
Credits: 4

This class deals with traditional and modern finishes found on buildings of the Southwest: mud, stabilized mud, cement plasters, elastomeric plasters, insulation, vapor barriers, moisture protection, lath systems, exterior sheathing, patios, portales, vigas, posts, corbels, exposed lintels, wood trim at doors and windows, brick, stone, paint, and tile decoration. Classes are conducted on- and off-campus.

Adobe 107-101 “Passive Solar Heating” (Live Instruction)
Instructor: Quentin Wilson
Credits: 2

You will learn the passive solar heating systems that work well when integrated into the design of adobe homes, including direct gain systems, Trombe wall (indirect) systems, and greenhouse/sunspaces. You will learn the advantages and disadvantages of each system in order to choose between them for use in different parts of a house or commercial structure. You will cover calculations for appropriate sizing of systems as well as auxiliary back-up systems.

Adobe 107-102 “Passive Solar Heating” (WebCT/Internet)
Instructor: Kurt Gardella
Credits: 2

This internet class covers the fundamentals of designing a passive solar adobe structure for maximum use of the sun in heating and cooling. Topics include: a brief history of passive solar heating, an intro to the 3 major passive systems (direct gain, Trombe wall and greenhouse), information on site planning and layout for optimum solar gain, info on system sizing and glazing needed, info on thermal storage of heat using adobe, info on passive cooling, info on backup heating practices, info on key insulation techniques, info on heat gain and loss calculations, info on floor plan design and modeling. The course provides you with step-by-step instruction sheets and podcast interviews with our department chair Quentin Wilson. A semester long adobe discussion group also accompanies the course.

Adobe 110-101 “Remodel Theory and Practices (WebCT/Internet)
Instructor: Kurt Gardella
Credits: 2

This internet class covers the fundamentals of renovating an earthen structure from foundation to roof. Topics include: overview of different earth building techniques used worldwide, identifying different adobe architectural styles found in New Mexico, definitions of essential terms dealing with the field of adobe restoration, overview of the current New Mexico Earthen and Historical Earthen Building Codes, locating adobe material suppliers in your area, essential tools needed for adobe restoration, identifying the most common problems in adobe structures, evaluating an adobe structure from foundation to roof, preparing a budget for restoring an adobe house, performing a soil test for determining soil suitability for restoration work, mixing soil for mud bricks and mortar, making a 2-brick mud brick form and your own mud bricks, solving common problems with adobe structures such (site drainage, foundations, adobe walls, windows, doors, ceilings and roofs, floors), energy-saving improvements in older adobe structures. The course provides you with step-by-step instruction sheets, podcast interviews with our department chair Quentin Wilson as well as downloadable demonstration video sequences. A semester long online adobe discussion group also accompanies the course.

Adobe 111-101 “Horno (Clay Oven) Design and Construction” (WebCT/Internet)
Instructor: Kurt Gardella
Credits: 1

This 5-week internet class takes you through the process of building your own horno/clay oven. Topics include: overview different clay oven techniques used worldwide, performing a soil test to determine soil suitability for your project, mixing soil for mud bricks and mortar, video of step-by-step foundation instructions, video of step-by-step horno base instructions, video of constructing a sand form for the dome of your oven, video of adding an insulative layer to the dome of your oven, video of plastering your finished oven, video of firing and using your oven, information on baking bread and pizza in your oven.

Adobe 112-101 “Arches, Domes and Vaults” (Live Instruction)
Instructor: Anselmo Jaramillo and Quentin Wilson
Credits: 2

Students learn systems to create wall openings and roofs in adobe structures using masonry materials in situations where wood and steel are not available or not desired. They will discuss and use traditional New Mexican and world-wide techniques.

Adobe 147-101 “Adobe Tour in Mexico” (Live Instruction)
Instructor: Staff
Credits: 0.5

Adobe 147-101 “Build with Adobe” (Live Instruction)
Instructor: Anselmo Jaramillo
Credits: 2

This is an introductory course on building with adobe. It explores the human need for shelter particularly in arid and semi-arid areas such as New Mexico where earthen homes have been built since the earliest of times. The contributions of Anasazi and Pueblo Indian people will be examined as well as those of the Spanish-Mexicans whose understanding of this material and its method owes much to the Arab and Berber peoples. Indian Pueblos, Indo-Hispano homes, monumental church architecture and the humble horno or bread oven will all be studied in depth. The course makes provisions for substantial hands-on opportunities and possible visit to selected sites.

Adobe 147-102 “Rammed Earth Construction” (WebCT/Internet)
Instructor: Eduardo Carvalho
Credits: 2

Eduardo Cavvalho is an architect and rammed earth specialist from Portugal. This internet class covers the fundamentals of rammed earth construction. Topics include: overview of the different earthen construction techniques worldwide, internet resources about earth construction, historic and contemporary examples of rammed earth, codes and regulations for rammed earth in the US and around the world, how to assess soil suitability for construction with rammed earth (field and laboratory testing), how to make your own rammed earth form, basic building techniques for DIY-construction, designing and constructing a scale model for your own house, floors and walls made of rammed earth, how to integrate infrastructural fixtures (electricity, water, and sewer) into rammed earth, how to make openings into rammed earth, how to protect earthen walls from the weather, lots of opportunities to answer questions about your doubts. A semester long online discussion group also accompanies the course.

Adobe 147-103 “Earth in Contemporary Architecture” (WebCT/Internet)
Instructor: Eduardo Carvalho
Credits: 1

The course will discuss the use of earth as a structural and conceptual material in contemporary architecture. The use of earth as a building material has been sanctioned by the concern about sustainability. Being a recyclable and low embodied energy building material, earth presents itself, in the scope of sustainable development, as a legitimate alternative to industrial building materials.

Nevertheless, ecological materials by themselves won’t produce good architecture. Architecture will deal with materials but also with conceptual and formal issues. That is, the ways by which materials are given shape and meaning. The course will try to identify different approaches to architecture built with earth, by architects around the world. The focus will be placed on the architectural possibilities of the material in an industrialized context: the static, aesthetical and ethical reaches of a massive, heavy and ancient material in an ever changing, light and apparently disposable time.

Adobe 147-104 “Websites for Trades and Artists”
Instructor: Kurt Gardella
Credits: 1

This 5-week internet class takes you through the process of building your own basic website using the user-friendly Wordpress system. Topics include: signing up for a free website space at wordpress.com, switching and tweaking the style of your website, preparing and adding pictures to your site, adding text content and formatting to your site, setting up and using a blog page for news and upcoming events, adding widgets to your site sidebar, adding links to your site, info on setting up your own unique domain name for your wordpress.com site. The lessons are presented as downloadable video screencasts with audio narration.

Adobe 147-105 “Build with Adobe” (Live Instruction)
Instructor: Kirk Higbee
Credits: 2

Learn the basics of adobe construction in a one-week intensive class in El Rito, New Mexico. The class focuses on hands-on learning and will introduce you to such topics as making adobe bricks, mixing mud mortar, adobe brick wall construction, foundations for adobe structures and much much more.

Adobe 201-101 “Advanced Topics in Adobe” (Live Instruction)
Instructor: Quentin Wilson
Credits: 4

This course is designed for you if you have completed the core adobe curriculum or who have construction industry experience and wish to gain skills beyond the entry level. Topics will range across the full curriculum, plus introduce new industry techniques and materials. Individualized learning objectives will be accommodated and research topics may be included. Topics may include computerized heat loss and gain analysis, super-adobe, cast-earth, rammed earth, straw-bale, straw/clay, and pumicecrete construction. If you wish to build skills to establish a business, you might pursue topics such as bidding with architects and designers; establishing credit with banks, suppliers, and subcontractors; and getting paid. May be repeated once for credit.

RE 103-101 “Intro to Renewable Energy” (Live Instruction)
Instructor: Quentin Wilson
Credits: 3

RE 147-101 “Intro to Renewable Energy” (WebCT/Internet)
Instructor: Kurt Gardella
Credits: 3

This internet class covers the fundamentals of renewable energy techniques for the owner/builder. Topics include: theory and discussions on the topic of CONSERVATION, theory and discussions on the topic of PASSIVE SOLAR DESIGN, theory and discussions on the topic of PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS, theory and discussions on the topic of SOLAR WATER HEATING, theory and discussions on the topic of WIND POWER SYSTEMS, a series of audio lectures with Quentin Wilson (a renewable energy/passive solar adobe specialist), a series of step-by-step hands-on renewable energy projects for the DIY home owner/builder, a series of field interviews with home owners who successfully using renewable energy systems. The course provides you with step-by-step instruction sheets, podcast interviews with our department chair Quentin Wilson as well as downloadable demonstration video sequences. A semester long online discussion group also accompanies the course.

RE 147-102 “Solar Electric System Theory” (WebCt/Internet)
Instructor: Gregory Seelhorst
Credits: 1

CONS 156-101 “International Construction Code” (WebCT/Internet)
Instructor: Donna Concannon
Credits: 2