Sustainable Solar Homes | Property Management | Repair/Remodel | Finish Carpentry & Tile | Home Inspections
Click on galleries below to see recent projects completed by Sunwood Design & Building.

Dixon Hacienda
A complete renovation of a 400 year-old adobe hacienda that was part of the original Spanish settlement in Dixon, NM.

Pueblo-Style Two-Story Adobe
This home uses RASTRA wall materials and many other unique features are incorporated in the construction. Designed by Sunwood Design.

Mountain Sanctuary
This home is powered completely by solar energy. The "living roof" is covered with soil and plants to promote energy efficiency. Designed by Archetype Design.

Southwestern Dream Farmhouse
This post-and-beam with strawbale home comes with custom pine spiral staircase, stained concrete floors, stone window and door sills, nichos, talavera tile, smooth interior plaster, and much more.

In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design or climatic design because, unlike active solar heating systems, it doesn't involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices.
The key to designing a passive solar building is to best take advantage of the local climate. Elements to be considered include window placement and glazing type, thermal insulation, thermal mass, and shading. Passive solar design techniques can be applied most easily to new buildings, but existing buildings can be adapted or "retrofitted".

Lama Foundation Community Center
In 1997, after the disastrous fire in the Lama area, this community building miraculously survived but was in need of repair.
The large solar roof provides heat which is ducted to the rest of the building, and both active and passive solar features power the self-sufficient structure. A small solar shed keeps the inverters and other equipment warm, with some of the PV panels mounted on the shed roof.
Plumbing/ mechanical by Phoenix Mechanical, concrete by Medina Specialties, concrete counters by Cassim Dunn, plaster by Malcolm Boyd, kitchen table by Kailash, cabinets by Jonathan Scharfman, with lots of other parts of the whole contributed by Lama volunteers.
Sunwood is happy to have been part of the effort to finish this facility for the Lama Foundation community.

Research has shown that straw-bale construction is a sustainable method for building, from the standpoint of both materials and energy needed for heating and cooling.