David Wright

David Wright is a Californian architect described in the 1980 Rocky Mountain News profile of Karen Terry as one of the leading passive solar architects in the country. While living in New Mexico in the early 1970s, he designed The Karen Terry House (1974, Santa Fe) — adapting a variation of his own house and incorporating many of Terry’s ideas. Terry had been referred to him by New Mexico architect William Lumpkins.

The Sunscoop (Wright’s own house)

Wright’s own 1974 Santa Fe residence — The Sunscoop — is the house the Karen Terry House was “a variation of.” It is documented in A Survey of Passive Solar Buildings (AIA Research Corporation, 1976), reproduced in Steve Baer’s 2009 AIA slideshow. The Sunscoop is a two-story (ground + loft) one-bedroom house and office of adobe construction: 14″/10″ adobe walls with 2″ exterior styrofoam, 24″-thick adobe floors, and 384 sq ft of thermopane forming the south wall for direct gain. Several 55-gallon water drums are buried beneath an adobe banco below the south glazing for extra storage; canvas/insulation shutters and a wood stove provide control and backup.

It is a distinct building from the Karen Terry House — the Terry house used brick floors and a four-level, greenhouse-topped plan — though both are David Wright direct-gain houses in Santa Fe dated 1974, which is why the two are easily conflated.

Beyond these two houses, Wright’s background is not documented in this archive.

See also

• The Karen Terry House
• Karen Terry
• Baer AIA passive solar slideshow