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Metropolis Editors, Natural Habitat, sustainability, sustainable architecture

METROPOLIS Introduces Natural Habitat, a Sustainable Homes Video Series

The series debuts with a tour of a tranquil upstate New York retreat designed with Passive House principles.

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A narrow alleyway lined with modern wooden and concrete houses, tall trees, wooden fences, and overhead utility wires under a partly cloudy sky.

May 4, 2026

BLDUS Unveils a Cork-Wrapped Home in a Washington D.C. Alley

Adjacent to another BLDUS project, the house is made of locally sourced redwood, cedar, black locust board, and Bamcore Eucalyptus panels.

By: Katherine Mazade

By: Jennifer Hughes

A new developer-built house in the heart of the Capitol Hill neighborhood isn’t letting its urban site—or the fact that it’s in a Washington D.C. alleyway—stop it from finding a connection to nature.

BLDUS, a Washington D.C.–based firm started by Andrew Linn and Jack Becker in 2013 that has become known for its “farm to shelter” designs, teamed up with local Schmidt Development to create the 2,800-square-foot Eucalyptus House in 2025.

The fourth such project for BLDUS, the design draws back on the lived urban history of Washington D.C. in which back alleys had been inhabited long before the city prohibited construction in alleyways in the mid-20th century. Zoning legislation changes in 2016 and 2020 have allowed for new homes to occupy the interior of an urban grid, reviving historic use of the existing land in contemporary developments.

Two-story building with wooden beams, railings, and columns; exterior features sliding glass doors and a textured brown wall under a sloped roof.

The home hugs the southeast corner of the 2,700-square foot parcel in the alleyway behind duplexes and townhomes. The L-shaped plan wraps around a corner garden with a double-decker exterior zone that forms a covered porch on the ground floor and a long balcony on the upper level.

A modern two-story house with a flat roof, wooden exterior, small square windows, a black garage door, and a potted plant by the entrance.
A narrow alleyway runs between a wooden-fenced building on the left and a gray building on the right, with trees and power lines visible under a partly cloudy sky.
A wooden corridor with vertical slats casting shadows, leading to an open doorway with a glimpse of an indoor plant and sunlight beyond.

“We continue to be fascinated by porches, how they act as thresholds and layers and spaces and circulation all at once,” Linn explains, “and by palisades, which allow fences and buildings to blur together into the same things.”

Inside, the ground floor contains a garage and open-plan kitchen, dining, and living space that open to the porch through sliding doors. Upstairs, four bedrooms and three bathrooms are arranged on a single-loaded corridor that bends around the balcony, bringing light in from multiple sides of the house.

The corners of the ground floor have been chamfered to accommodate navigation and infrastructure in the alley. In addition to adding nuance to the home’s silhouette, the chamfer changes the footprint from a rectangle to an octagon—a shape present in the designs of famous U.S. architects like Thomas Jefferson, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Orson Squire Fowler.

“In these back alleys, wood fences are the vernacular language and have been since the founding of DC,” Becker notes, calling out the locally sourced redwood, cedar, and black locust boards that transition from the garden boundary to the building enclosure. “Eucalyptus House embraces its court by embracing the language of the fence.”

Wooden balcony with slatted railing, two modern chairs, a potted plant, and sunlight casting shadows across the floor.
Covered walkway with wooden beams and brick flooring, sliding glass doors on the left, and a wooden gate at the end, lit by natural sunlight.
View of a wooden building exterior with vertical slats, open corridors, and a potted plant on the railing, set against a backdrop of trees and a partly cloudy sky.

Eucalyptus House is framed with BamCore’s hybrid eucalyptus-wood plywood panels that reduce thermal bridging and create a continuous insulation cavity within the wall assembly that is then wrapped in insulative cork cladding.

“The resulting envelope is a highly insulated and tightly sealed shell that keeps conditioned air inside the house, reducing the demand for newly created conditioned air,” says Linn. “During shoulder seasons, the screened sliders facing the garden can be opened to bring the outdoors into the living experience.”

Modern kitchen with wood cabinets, marble backsplash, three gray stools at an island, pendant lights above, and a bowl on the countertop.
Contemporary open-plan living and dining area with neutral tones, modern furniture, potted plants, large windows, and artwork on the wall. Sunlight streams across polished floors.

Despite the home’s speculative construction, Schmidt Development was committed to transparent material sourcing and carbon footprint reduction, BLDUS says, highlighting the local material harvesting and the reuse of garden pavers from other projects.

The project’s biggest challenge—and one of its many successes—was the ability to capture a sense of seclusion in the busy alley and to prioritize nature within the urban context.

A minimalist bedroom with a bed, a bench under a window, a framed artwork, and sliding glass doors opening to a wooden balcony.

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