In the Alleys of Washington D.C., Magic is Happening:

BLDUS Transforms Forgotten Spaces with BamCore's Revolutionary Building Systems

Photo by Ty Cole. BLDUS "Brown House" in Overbeck Alley

Where once were forgotten spaces filled with abandoned cars and overgrown weeds, architects Andrew Linn and Jack Becker of BLDUS have created a revolutionary approach to urban infill housing that challenges conventional construction methods. Their "farm-to-shelter" philosophy combines traditional building wisdom with cutting-edge materials like BamCore's hybrid bamboo/wood/Eucalyptus panels to create homes that are not only sustainable and healthy but also deeply connected to their local context. Through a series of innovative alley houses in Washington D.C., BLDUS has demonstrated how natural materials including bamboo, cork, bark, wool, mycelium and hemp can be used to construct buildings that improve over time while reducing both embodied and operational carbon. Their work, featured extensively in Dwell magazine and documented in filmmaker Kirsten Dirksen's videos, represents a paradigm shift toward what they call "healthy building cuisine" - an approach that treats construction materials with the same care and intentionality that farm-to-table chefs apply to food ingredients.

The Vision: Farm-to-Shelter Architecture

BLDUS, founded in 2013 by Jack Becker and Andrew Linn, operates from a fundamental belief that architecture should "connect past with future, modernity with tradition, and humanity with the natural world". Their approach, which they term "farm-to-shelter," treats building materials with the same consciousness that sustainable food advocates bring to agriculture. This philosophy emerged from their shared educational background at Cornell University and subsequent graduate studies at Harvard (urban design) and Yale (history of science and medicine), which gave them complementary perspectives on how buildings can serve both human health and environmental stewardship.

The duo deliberately chose Washington D.C. as their base of operations, recognizing unique opportunities within the city's urban fabric. As Linn explains, "There are amazing minds in DC, but most of them are thinking on a national and international scale, not about the people who actually live here." Their focus on alley housing emerged from DC's 2016 zoning reform, which once again permitted residential construction in the city's more than 3,000 alleys after decades of prohibition. These narrow urban spaces, originally designed for horse stables and service functions, represent rare opportunities for thoughtful infill development in a city with limited undeveloped land and strict height regulations.

As Linn explains, "There are amazing minds in DC, but most of them are thinking on a national and international scale, not about the people who actually live here."

Both architects bring significant academic credentials to their practice, currently teaching at Virginia Tech's School of Architecture while maintaining their active building practice. Becker, a fourth-generation licensed architect, has been recognized with numerous awards including the 2021 AIA Young Architect Award. Linn has received similar recognition with the 2025 VT Professional Development Award. Their firm BLDUS garnered both the 2019 Young Architect Award from The Architect's Newspaper and the 2023 Architectural Record Vanguard Award. Their dual roles as educators and practitioners allow them to use real-world construction as a laboratory for testing sustainable building concepts.

Revolutionary Materials Integration: BamCore at the Forefront

Central to BLDUS's material philosophy is their pioneering use of BamCore's hybrid bamboo-wood and Eucalyptus framing panel system, which represents what they consider "potentially the first major innovation in stick framing in a century". BamCore's panels reduce traditional studs from wall construction, creating continuous insulation cavities while dramatically improving thermal performance by removing thermal bridges. As Becker notes, "tools like Revit give us a global awareness of the project, and make it really expedient for developing ideas quickly," but it's the integration of BamCore's structural system that enables their most ambitious sustainable building goals.

Framing system comparison. These numbers are based on Prime.24 and DuoShear installed on a 2x6 bottom plate. A lower framing factor means fewer studs in the cavity, which reduces acoustic and thermal bridging.

The technical specifications of BamCore's system align perfectly with BLDUS's sustainability objectives. BamCore's panels offer more than double the load-bearing capacity of traditional 2×6 framing while achieving up to 116% reduction in embodied carbon and 6% reduction in operating emissions. The panels arrive with precut openings and clear installation markings, enabling 50% faster installation compared to conventional framing methods. For BLDUS, this efficiency allows them to serve as their own general contractors on many projects, maintaining quality control while reducing costs.

BLDUS "Brown House" in Overbeck Alley showing BamCore's DuoShear framing system.

Beyond structural applications, BLDUS incorporates an extensive palette of natural materials that complement BamCore's bamboo and Eucalyptus base. Their projects feature cork cladding both interior and exterior, wool and cellulose insulation, black locust wood screens, and even innovative products like MushLume pendant lamps made from mycelium. Each material is selected not just for environmental performance but for its ability to create what they call "healthy material environments" that allow occupants to connect viscerally with their spaces.

As noted in their material philosophy, "spaces made from healthy materials that are natural, straightforward, and recognizable allow people to relate to them at a visceral level more than anonymous painted-drywall spaces."

Media Recognition and Documentation

BLDUS's innovative approach has garnered significant media attention, particularly through their collaboration with filmmaker Kirsten Dirksen, who has produced two comprehensive documentaries about their alley house projects. The first video, "Young family turns parking lot into stunning eco-home (DC alley)," focuses on Andrew Linn's own Adelaide Alley house, which transformed a former parking lot filled with abandoned cars into a completely compostable home. The second documentary, "Couple's alleyway home feels like an oasis farm in the middle of DC," explores Jack Becker's Brown House, showcasing how the "Brown Home" creates a lush oasis in the heart of the capital.

These documentaries have reached hundreds of thousands of viewers, with Dirksen's first video about the Adelaide Alley house gaining over 450,000 views. The films provide intimate looks at how BamCore's structural system integrates with other natural materials to create healthy living environments. In the Adelaide Alley house, viewers can see how BamCore panels reduce thermal bridges while supporting innovative design features like a central atrium inspired by Roman domus architecture. The documentation shows residents noting that "basically every surface in this space is a natural organic material, largely cellulose based," resulting in homes that smell of "drying grasses" rather than typical new construction odors of paint and drywall.

Dwell magazine has featured BLDUS projects multiple times, including a comprehensive profile of their Adelaide Alley house titled "In Washington, D.C., a Back Alley Becomes a Sustainable Haven." The magazine's coverage emphasizes how the architects transformed "leftover urban space and timber by-products" into perfect solutions for small families, highlighting the integration of BamCore's structural system with locally sourced materials. Additional coverage in ArchDaily and Designboom has brought international attention to their material innovations and spatial strategies.

Case Studies: Transforming Urban Voids

Adelaide Alley: The Compostable House

The Adelaide Alley house, where Andrew Linn lives with his wife Hannah and their son, represents BLDUS's most comprehensive exploration of urban infill sustainability. Built on what was previously an informal parking lot with abandoned cars and weeds, the house demonstrates how BamCore's structural system integrates with hyper-local material sourcing to create a compostable residence. The primary structural system uses BamCore's hybrid bamboo-wood and Eucalyptus panels, which reduce thermal bridges while providing double the load-bearing capacity of traditional framing. These panels form the core of exterior walls stuffed with sheep's wool insulation - a material choice that allowed the architect's pregnant partner to safely participate in construction.

Photo by Ty Cole. BLDUS, The Adelaide Alley house

Exterior cladding features Tulip Poplar bark from Bark House in Spruce Pine, NC, trees being processed for plywood production, creating a textured facade that blends with the alley's organic character. Beneath this bark layer lies cork insulation, forming a continuous thermal barrier that contributes to the house's net-zero energy performance. Black locust structural timbers, another regional material, support extended eaves that protect the cladding from weather while creating deep shadows reminiscent of DC's historic alley architecture.

The interior spatial organization draws direct inspiration from Roman domus architecture, featuring a central atrium with nine skylights that flood the double-height living space with natural light. This lightwell strategy addresses alley living's privacy challenges while eliminating the need for artificial lighting during daylight hours. Second-floor net flooring suspended above the atrium creates playful interstitial spaces while maintaining light penetration to ground levels.

Photo by Ty Cole. BLDUS, showing the interior of the Adelaide Alley house

Material selections emphasize local provenance and circularity - mulberry trees removed from the site were milled into flooring pavers, while structural timber scraps became privacy screens. Interior surfaces use untreated Tulip Poplar plywood and milk paint finishes, creating environments where, as residents note, "every surface is a natural organic material" emitting scents of drying grasses rather than volatile chemicals. The house's health conscious design extends to its mechanical systems, with a central energy recovery ventilator managing air quality through natural filtration rather than synthetic media.

Thermal performance metrics exceed expectations, with the BamCore/cork/wool assembly achieving approximately R-30 insulation values while minimizing thermal bridging. The Linn family reports being able to use the house throughout the day without artificial lighting, enjoying comfortable temperatures year-round—a benefit they attribute to the continuous insulation and strategic window placement that enables passive solar gain.

Brown House: Material Legibility and Urban Integration

The Brown House in Overbeck Alley, designed by BLDUS for Jack Becker and Maddie Hoagland-Hanson, stands as the firm's manifesto for tactile urbanism—transforming a narrow Capitol Hill lot into a layered exploration of natural materials and passive design. Clad in a protective screen of black locust slats harvested from Mid-Atlantic forests, the residence uses regional resources to create a breathable, biodegradable envelope that challenges conventional urban infill. Behind this latticework, Amorim Cork insulation forms a continuous thermal barrier across exterior walls, its textured surface aging gracefully while eliminating synthetic finishes.

Photo By Jennifer Hughes. The Brown House in Overbeck Alley

Structural innovation emerges through BamCore’s hybrid bamboo-wood and Eucalyptus panels, stained with PolyWhey—a whey protein byproduct from Vermont’s cheese industry that enhances durability without toxic additives. These panels support interior spaces where spray-applied cork ceilings absorb sound and exposed bamboo surfaces reveal the building’s anatomical truth. Hempwool and cellulose insulation pack wall cavities, completing an assembly that achieves high thermal performance while remaining fully compostable at end-of-life.

Spatially, the house negotiates urban density through vertical layering. A ground-floor bedroom-bathroom suite enables single-level living for aging residents, while a central switchback stair ascends past balconies filtered by black locust screens to a productive rooftop garden. Copper gutters channel rainfall into underground cisterns, irrigating planter beds that yield seasonal produce and creating microclimates for native pollinators. This integration of food production and water stewardship reimagines alley living as an act of ecological caretaking, where residents tend their patch of urban wilderness.

Photo By Jennifer Hughes. The Brown House in Overbeck Alley showing exposed BamCore framing panels, with owners Jack Becker and his wife Maddie Hoagland-Hanson

BLDUS’s material rigor extends to atmospheric details—the scent of curing cork mingles with black locust’s natural tannins, creating olfactory landscapes distinct from typical new construction’s chemical undertones. Media coverage in Designboom and Dwell has highlighted how these sensory qualities foster deeper occupant connections to place, with journalists noting the house “smells like a forest after rain” rather than emitting off-gassing volatiles.

By demonstrating that alley homes can prioritize health and ecology without sacrificing aesthetic rigor, the Brown House reshapes expectations for urban infill. Its cork-clad walls and bamboo bones suggest a future where cities function as living systems rather than concrete machines—a vision now taking root in DC’s overlooked alleys.

Home on Earth: Codifying the Approach

BLDUS’s book, Home on Earth: Recipes for Healthy Housing, provides a theoretical framework for the firm’s material-first approach to architecture. The book, which has evolved from a release into an ongoing book tour with recent speaking engagements at the University of Maryland, Auburn, Oregon, Cal Poly, and Miami University (OH), presents what Linn describes as “a loose framework for BLDUS’s unique farm-to-shelter architecture.” Using traditional materials processed with contemporary techniques, the book showcases built houses alongside material studies and models to propose what they call “a healthy building cuisine specific to the Mid-Atlantic Region."

BLDUS’s book, Home on Earth: Recipes for Healthy Housing

The book emphasizes contextual houses as "advocates for simple healthy building materials that work well in the Mid-Atlantic region and have low impacts on their points of growth, manufacture, installation, inhabitation, and eventual disposal". BamCore's bamboo-Eucalyptus based panels feature prominently in this framework as an example of how innovative manufacturing can transform traditional materials into high-performance building systems. The book documents how bamboo, which "sequester[s] carbon more effectively than wood while growing faster and producing stronger fibers than wood," can be transformed through BamCore's hybrid panel system into structural elements suitable for multi-story construction.

The publication serves as both design manual and advocacy document, arguing for broader adoption of natural building materials in urban contexts. Linn's academic background in the history of science and medicine informs the book's approach to material health, presenting building materials as ingredients that should be selected with the same care applied to food sourcing. The book positions BamCore's innovations within a longer history of material experimentation while demonstrating their contemporary relevance for addressing climate change and urban housing challenges.

Industry Impact and Future Directions

BLDUS's integration of BamCore technology has contributed to broader acceptance of bamboo-based building systems in North American construction markets. Their projects serve as built proof-of-concept demonstrations that address common concerns about bamboo/Eucalyptus construction, including code compliance, structural performance, and long-term durability. Their Grass House—built before the Alley Houses—was the first code-compliant bamboo building on the East Coast and has opened pathways for other architects and builders to pursue similar projects.

Photo by Ty Cole. The Grass House—built before the Alley Houses—was the first code-compliant bamboo building on the East Coast

The firm's dual role as educators and practitioners amplifies their impact beyond individual building projects. Through their teaching at Virginia Tech, Becker and Linn are training the next generation of architects in sustainable building practices while conducting ongoing research into natural building materials. Their courses on natural materials and vernacular building help establish bamboo construction as a legitimate area of academic inquiry and professional practice.

Recent recognition includes inclusion in Architectural Record's 2023 Design Vanguard list, which highlights emerging practices "that are setting new directions for the future of design". This recognition, combined with multiple AIA awards and media coverage, has positioned BLDUS as leaders in the sustainable building movement while demonstrating the commercial viability of BamCore's structural systems

Conclusion

BLDUS's alley houses represent more than innovative architecture - they demonstrate a fundamentally different approach to urban development that prioritizes human health, environmental performance, and community integration. Through their partnership with BamCore, architects Andrew Linn and Jack Becker have shown how traditional building wisdom can be combined with cutting-edge materials technology to create homes that improve over time while reducing environmental impact. Their "farm-to-shelter" philosophy treats building materials as carefully as farm-to-table restaurants treat food ingredients, resulting in spaces that are not only sustainable but also deeply satisfying to inhabit.

As cities worldwide grapple with housing shortages and climate change, the BLDUS approach offers a path forward that addresses both challenges simultaneously. Their integration of BamCore's structural systems with comprehensive natural material palettes creates a replicable model for healthy, sustainable urban infill development. Through continued documentation, education, and built examples, their work continues to demonstrate that magic is indeed happening in the alleys of Washington D.C. - and that this magic can be replicated wherever architects and builders are willing to embrace a more thoughtful relationship between materials, context, and human habitation.