June 12, 2025

BLDUS Brings a ‘Farm-to-Shelter’ Approach to American Design

The Washington D.C.–based firm is imagining a new American vernacular through natural materials and thoughtful placemaking.

By: Nigel F. Maynard

Photography: Jared Soares

Andrew Linn and Jack Becker are two unconventional designers running an unconventional firm (BLDUS) in a (mostly) architecturally conventional city (Washington, D.C.). But that’s not to suggest the two are producing experimental work that only appeals to other architects. In fact, the duo takes a unique approach to problem-solving, materiality, affordability, and sustainability, resulting in high-quality work for the world at large.

The firm’s body of work is one of the reasons Diarra McKinney, founder and CEO of D.C.-based real-estate finance and development firm Rosewood, chose to work with BLDUS. “I selected them because of their creative approach to design, their understanding of sustainable building materials, and their deep dedication to high design,” McKinney says. “They [have an] ability to think through complex issues and come up with effective and efficient solutions.”

The Inception of BLDUS

Linn and Becker met on the first day of classes at Cornell University in 2006. They became good friends and agreed that they would one day team up to open their own firm. “We went to different grad schools strategically, knowing we’d want to work together afterward and that we should diversify our résumés a little bit,” Linn says. “So he went to Harvard GSD and did urban design, and I went to Yale to study the history of science and medicine and took architecture classes.”

Founded in 2013 by Jack Becker and Andrew Linn, BLDUS is a Washington, D.C.–based firm that practices design, development, and construction throughout the United States. The architects, guided by a “farm-to-shelter” ethos, create buildings using natural materials that help “contribute to the American Vernacular.”

Adelaide Alley is a project built for Andrew Linn and his wife, Hannah, in 2021. The architect-owner navigated D.C.’s new alley zoning and building regulations to construct a four-bedroom, 2,500-square-foot home.

An Early Focus on Historic Preservation and Renovation

It was during this time that the two started thinking about alternative building materials, building science, and some of the ideas that would eventually become the “farm-to-shelter” strategy that is now a centerpiece of the firm’s work.

Still, launching the business in 2013 was not that simple. As at most start-up firms, work was not that steady, so the duo had to find ways to generate income.

“There was a lot of moonlighting in the first half of our firm’s history,” says Becker, who worked nine-to-five jobs at various architecture and development firms in D.C., while Linn taught at different architecture schools. “And it was a lot of, ‘you take what you can get’ type projects, which were almost exclusively residential in nature and nothing earth-shattering or paradigm-breaking.” The firm’s early work included residential additions, renovation projects, and, because it was Washington, D.C., historic preservation.

Bridging Materiality and Sustainability in Projects

As a strategic move, the two set up in Anacostia, a largely Black neighborhood and the only residential historic district east of the Anacostia River. “We started our office in Anacostia because we saw the predominance of architects in Northwest D.C. and in wealthy neighborhoods and we thought that if there weren’t any architects in that part of the city, we should be there,” Linn explains. “And that put us in touch with a lot of people who typically wouldn’t be looking for an architect to work on their house or to help them solve problems.”

Their home base combined a 1892 Victorian house—where Becker and his wife lived—with a newly built accessory building that served as the firm’s studio. A showcase of the firm’s ideas about alternative building systems, materiality, sustainability, and healthy homes, Grass House (as the office was named) was the firm’s first integrated farm-to-shelter project. Conceived as a response to Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, Grass House is a healthy and contextual accessory structure built with BamCore, a “carbon-negative” bamboo/eucalyptus/wood framing system. The building also features a staircase and countertops made from a walnut tree felled for construction, a handrail made from mulberry trees that needed to be cut down, and sinks from the 1950s. “We love creating these handshakes with old architecture and history through finding creative ways to incorporate salvaged materials and fixtures,” Becker says.

If Grass House was a coming-out party of sorts, the duo’s respective new houses cemented the firm’s skill at creative placemaking using unconventional materials and building systems. In particular, the firm was interested in using underutilized spaces in the alleys behind D.C.’s many row houses.

Healthy materials continue in the interior of Brown House-Overbeck Alley. Suberra Cork countertops were chosen for their durability, renewability, and tactility, further enhancing the home’s commitment to natural materials. BLDUS’s interest in cork comes from the Mid-Atlantic’s rich history in cork manufacturing, prior to World War II, when the material was phased out and replaced with fossil-fuel-intensive foam. “Foam works well, but not well enough to justify its environmental harm,” the firm writes.

Thoughtful Single-Family Housing Decisions

After the city updated its zoning regulations to permit alley housing, the pair saw an opportunity to add thoughtfully designed single-family houses. Linn’s home, Poplar Grove, is part of that effort.

The home features all the hallmarks of a BLDUS project—a highly insulated building envelope, an energy-efficient HVAC system, an energy recovery ventilator, and superefficient triple-glazed windows. It also features one of the firm’s signature materials, BamCore. The designers even chose an unconventional material, bark, for the siding. Recently the pair also completed
a second alley house, for Becker and his wife Maddie, applying some of the same design principles.

Becker and Linn’s architectural worldview is shaped by sundry areas, including the mission of the Jim Vlock First Year Building Project at Yale; the work of Studio 804 at the University of Kansas; the work of OJT and Jonathan Tate; Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian houses, which were simple, moderately priced small residences for middle class familes; and the work of the Rural Studio, an Auburn University design-build program that teaches students about the social responsibilities of architecture and provides well-designed houses for poor communities in rural west Alabama.

Conceived as a response to Philip Johnson’s Glass House, the Grass House is a LEED Platinum accessory structure built behind a recently renovated 1892 Victorian house in the historic Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Courtesy Ty Cole

Located across the street from the Frederick Douglass House, the Grass House is the first code-compliant bamboo building on the East Coast. Courtesy Ty Cole

Delivering Good Designs for Affordable Housing

The through line is that architecture and development should deliver good design and dignified housing to people of modest means using high-quality materials that are less harmful to the planet. This aligns with the firm’s goals for the coming years. In the early days, Becker and Linn envisioned a firm where they would act as architect and developer, allowing for greater influence and a measure of control over decision-making. That remains their ultimate goal.

“We wanted to take on more ownership of our projects, take on more risk and pursue architecture as an entrepreneurial act that engages with construction and development,” says Becker, who adds that some of their earliest conversations were about how they could accomplish this through self-developed projects. At the moment, about 25 percent of BLDUS projects are the firm’s own developments.

“I think a dream project for us would be multifamily affordable housing that incorporates all of these ideas about healthy architecture and farm-to-shelter architecture,” Becker says. “We want to broaden the reach of the attitudes we’ve tried to bring to single-family architecture, making it much more accessible and at a more affordable price point.”

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