Looking for most sustainable building ideas for northern New Mexican home.

Im wondering your thoughts on a building method most suitable for this climate.

2.5 acres of non forested, flat, sagebrush covered land near Taos, NM. 7,200' elevation. About 13" precipitation a year. Lots of sun. Winter lows in the single digits and summer highs in the mid 90s. Timber is available in limited quantities about 20 miles away. Ponderosa possible, but hard to access. Mostly pinon pine and juniper. Water catchment will be main water source due to high well drilling cost and 300+ foot minimum depth. Ideally no climate control indoors.

Earthships are one option here, but require many unnatural materials to build. Curious about tube earthbag construction, even if it were for some walls and not the entire house. Intrigued by the earthship design incorporating greenhouse barrier area to south side of home. Adobe soil with high clay content is available at local gravel yard, but soil on property has limited clay content.

Do any of you have thoughts on what could be a more sustainable building type for this area? All ideas are welcome. Thank you.

Hi Wade,

Taos is ideal for most earthen natural building methods. If you wanted to mimic an earth ship with less non-natural materials earth bags would work well. Alternatively, you could build a conventional house with straw bale or light clay straw on the north, east and west walls and cob or earth bag on the south wall with plenty of glazing and big roof eaves all around. Owen Geiger produced a lot of earth bag house plans. Here's a linkto his stuff.

Also, with adobe, cob or earth bag you need a greater proportion of sand then clay. I like ~80% sand/ ~20% clay so your soil sounds great.