Southwestern house plans combine simple wood, brick, and stucco construction with decorative details evoking the desert southwest.

Inspired by the residences and architecture of the desert southwest’s native inhabitants and its Spanish colonizers, the Southwest style utilizes wood, brick, and stucco to create homes that blend with the desert landscape. The typical Southwest home design is low to the ground - two stories at most - and asymmetrical. Rooms are arranged to interact with the outdoors while keeping the interior cool and shady; many Southwest floor plans feature courtyards. Though the stucco exterior is ubiquitous in Southwestern home designs, the red tile roof is more typical of the variations with Spanish roots, while Adobe houses have flat roofs. Decorative details are restrained and typically limited to expressions of the structure, like exposed beam ends and arched openings.