Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2022 May 31

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May 31

A Fisful of Dollars/For a Few Dollars More - white buildings

In the two spaghetti western films A Fisful of Dollars and it's sequel For a Few Dollars More, what are those white buildings called? And are there buildings like that in Spain, Mexico and the United States (and were there in 19th century)? See 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. 86.130.4.167 (talk) 22:14, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

The building material is Adobe, and the name "adobe" is sometimes just used to designate a simple structure like this ("adobe house"). The adobe article links to several related articles about architecture using adobe, particularly Spanish Colonial architecture. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 23:14, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

Beyond that, when people write about architectural "styles", they mostly talk about professionally designed buildings, which mostly means public buildings and the homes of wealthy people. These are ordinary buildings - vernacular architecture - which means they weren't designed by an architect, and were mostly built with local materials to address the challenges of weather specific to the location. So they have thick adobe brick walls for insulation (maybe with a cavity for extra R-value), small windows, and whitewashed walls - all of this to address the problem of living in a hot dry climate. These have flat-ish roofs (often they're somewhat vaulted, and made of brick), which shows there is a low amount of rain - in places (such as California) where more rain falls, you might see a similar building but with a pitched roof (maybe made of thatch, logs, or later tiles). This vernacular building style is pretty common around the Mediterranean and middle east - if you search online for photos of "vernacular adobe house" you'll find pretty similar buildings in North Africa, Spain, Greece, Arabia, etc. Often the same building materials and technology are used to construct public buildings, but with a higher standard of materials and craftsmanship and designed by an academically-educated architect. For example, the architecture of the California missions has something in common with those simple vernacular cottages, but also owes a lot to the European classical tradition of its builders. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 13:16, 1 June 2022 (UTC)

The filming location is Los Albaricoques, one of the "White Towns of Andalusia" (Pueblos Blancos). The white comes from lima blanco (lime white, or whitewash). The buildings could, I guess, be called "lima blanco adobe casitas". The style is not typically Andalusian, which is influenced by Moorish architecture. 2603:6081:1C00:1187:7C90:56FA:1615:6FF8 (talk) 23:29, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

What about Mexico and the United States (like New Mexico and Texas)? And are they featured in other spaghetti westerns and in US westerns too? 86.130.4.167 (talk) 20:09, 1 June 2022 (UTC)

They can be found almost anywhere where the climate is warm and the villages are rural and relatively small and old (with exceptions, of course), especially areas with Spanish influence, like Mexico and the American Southwest. As such, they often appear in Westerns (the whitewashed buildings are also great for photographic illumination). 107.15.157.44 (talk) 20:31, 1 June 2022 (UTC)

Los Albaricoques was also a filming location for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Many John Wayne films and later US-produced westerns were shot in Arizona. John Ford used Monument Valley as the location for a number of his Westerns, including Stagecoach; see List of appearances of Monument Valley in the media § Films. See also Old Tucson Studios § Movies filmed at Old Tucson.  --Lambiam 20:43, 1 June 2022 (UTC)

Los Albaricoques was also a filming location for El Condor .^[1] 2603:6081:1C00:1187:1980:E5E5:6D0D:42EA (talk) 21:25, 1 June 2022 (UTC)