The Adobe Alliance

Simone Swan (1928 – 2025)

The adobe world was saddened to hear about the passing of Simone Swan on January 16, 2025. Simone received recognition for initiating and managing a range of endeavors concerned with architectural and environmental concepts. She was awarded an Honorary Lifetime Membership by The Earthbuilders’ Guild in 2016.

Early in her career Simone established Withers Swan, a public relations agency in New York committed to public information on art, architecture, and the environment. Clients were museums and universities. She later served as founding director of the Menil Foundation where, beyond art endeavors, she initiated energy conservation and alternative energy programs.

In the 1970s, Simone apprenticed to Hassan Fathy, renowned environmental architect and author of Architecture for the Poor and Natural Energy and Vernacular Architecture, inspired by his use of earthen materials and his interest in reviving indigenous building techniques for owner-built cooperative housing.

In the late 1990s, Simone established the Adobe Alliance in the Big Bend area of West Texas in order to realize low-cost housing in the border region. After much local research on environmental climate and culture, she decided to target Presidio County, with a 37% unemployment rate. The Alliance has since constructed houses on both sides of the border that demonstrate the innovative use of earthen materials to create a new building standard for environmentally compatible, sustainable homes and communities.

As adobe lovers, we honor Simone Swan for her inspiring contribution to the adobe world. Her many writings about the power of adobe live on as part of the Adobe Alliance website. We are certain that Simone’s many students and friends will continue her important work. Four of them have reached out to the Adobe Alliance website to include personal tributes to Simone (see below).

Kurt Gardella – Adobe Alliance Webmaster
February 10, 2025

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Ronald Rael writes:

It was March 2000, and I was leading a group of University of Colorado Boulder students on a cross-country journey to explore earthen architecture across Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. The trip had been filled with awe-inspiring discoveries, but nothing could have prepared us for what awaited in Presidio, Texas: a meeting with the legendary Simone Swan.

As we neared Presidio, I stopped at a pay phone to call Simone, checking if she needed anything while we shopped for lunch supplies. Her response was quintessential Simone—demanding and with a hint of mystery. She asked for fresh greens from Baeza’s, the local grocery store, but she insisted we not choose them from the display. Instead, she instructed us to ask the grocers to take us to the back, where the freshest greens were hidden. I followed her instructions. The shopkeepers immediately understood. “For Simone?” they asked knowingly, as though fulfilling a sacred ritual. Armed with the greens, we arrived at her adobe home, filled with curiosity and anticipation.

Simone was in the middle of leading the construction of the Parr residence a mile down the road, a stunning house of soaring vaults and domes made of adobe. My students and I joined her crew, led by Jesusita Jimenez, carrying heavy adobes under the blazing sun. It was deeply inspiring work—an intimate introduction to the ancient craft of Nubian vault construction. As the sun set, Simone shared stories with us, her voice carrying tales of her mentor Hassan Fathy, the beauty of adobe, and her life in the magical expanse of the Big Bend region.

That evening, Simone had a surprise for us. “How about dinner in Ojinaga at Los Comales, my favorite restaurant across the border?” she proposed with a mischievous sparkle in her eye. Simone’s small red four-wheel-drive International led the way, with our rented RV following behind. At the border, we faced a hiccup: the RV wasn’t allowed to cross into Mexico. But Simone wasn’t one to let logistics stand in the way of adventure. Four students squeezed into her tiny truck, while the remaining five—and myself—clung to the outside like some desert carnival ride, gripping doors, the spare tire, and roof racks. Laughing and shouting, we passed through the checkpoint, our wild procession drawing curious glances and smiles.

Dinner at Los Comales was an unforgettable concoction of food, margaritas, laughter, and storytelling, but the journey back was even more memorable. Once again, we piled onto Simone’s red International, the desert air rushing past as we clung to the truck, hollering with tequila-fueled delight. It felt like a scene from a movie, a mix of daring adventure and pure joy, capped with Simone’s infectious enthusiasm.

From that day forward, Simone and I became fast friends. I visited her often, sometimes staying in her breathtaking vaulted adobe home while she was away. Our conversations would stretch late into the night, enveloped by the serene beauty of her desert sanctuary. We shared a profound passion for earthen architecture—not just as a heritage practice but as a material for contemporary construction. It was something both she and I, and undoubtedly her mentor Hassan Fathy believed to be essential for the survival of earthen construction in the 21st century.

We spoke often about the politics of adobe. I shared my belief that building with adobe is a political act—a stance against capitalism and, in some cases, restrictive building regulations. It was a way to reaffirm one’s connection to heritage, land-based practices, and sustainability, standing in opposition to a disposable, plastic society. Simone was equally passionate, and from those conversations emerged “Adobe is Political,” a mantra that became Simone’s tagline. Together, we envisioned architecture as more than construction—it was an ethical and moral statement, a social act with the power to transform.

Simone’s stories deepened my connection not only to earthen architecture but to its cultural lineage. Her tales of working with Hassan Fathy, as well as her colorful adventures with Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, the Menil family, and her days at Studio 54 in New York City, painted a vivid picture of her remarkable life. Inspired by these conversations, I began compiling a database of earthen architecture and its cultural connections, which became www.eartharchitecture.org. From that website, a book emerged, where I had the privilege of publishing Simone’s first house—the Camacho Residence. It was a small, elegant adobe home that blended Nubian techniques with the climate-responsive wisdom of the Chihuahuan desert.

Simone’s influence continues to shape my practice to this day. She left an indelible mark on my work, particularly in combining contemporary technologies, like 3D printing, with the timeless principles of earthen construction. In what feels like a fitting tribute, just last year I constructed the first 3D-printed roof ever made—an experimental, technological reimagining of a Nubian vault. The foundation for that innovation was laid 25 years ago, when I first learned how to build a vault by hand while assisting Simone’s crew.

Simone Swan was more than a mentor or a friend—she was a force of nature, a living connection to the past, and an inspiration for the future. Her stories, her passion, and her vision continue to guide me, and through her, I feel connected not only to Hassan Fathy but to the global community of earthen architecture—a legacy I am honored to carry forward.

Ronald Rael
rrael

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The Adobe Alliance Lives

The Swan House on the mesa in view of the Rio Grande is changing hands. Adobe enthusiasts will be ready to restore the site after earlier damage by climate chaos rains. We hope adoberas & adoberos, masons in earth architecture, and students of adobe masonry and lime plasters will converge on the site near Presidio, Texas. This website will be up-to-date at that time. Simone Swan, founder of the Adobe Alliance, remained a friend of and was in constant communication with the keepers of the house about its rebirth.

For your information: The Adobe Alliance activities are suspended until further notice. The content of the website as a whole, written in 2016 by Simone Swam, is left untouched.

Simone Swan Adobe Building
by Dennis Dollens.