Grass House / BLDUS

Grass House / BLDUS - Exterior Photography, Door, Windows, Garden, ForestGrass House / BLDUS - Exterior Photography, Wood, Windows, Facade, GardenGrass House / BLDUS - Interior Photography, Dining room, Table, Windows, Chair, Brick, BeamGrass House / BLDUS - Interior Photography, Table, Windows, Door, ChairGrass House / BLDUS - More Images+ 21

  • Architects: BLDUS
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  700 ft²
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2019
  • Photographs
    Photographs:Ty Cole
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  BamCore Prime Wall System https://www.bamcore.com/, Calibamboo, Danielle Trofe, Gutter Supply, Living Willow Farm , Locust Lumber, Loewen Triple Pane Wood Windows https://www.loewen.com/, Lunos ERV, ReSawn Timber Co Monogatari Charred Cypress https://resawntimberco.com/
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Grass House / BLDUS - Exterior Photography, Door, Windows, Garden, Forest
© Ty Cole

Text description provided by the architects. 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. Utilizing natural, traditional building materials processed with simple but modern techniques, the Grass House proposes a contextual and healthy alternative to standard stick-frame construction.

Grass House / BLDUS - Exterior Photography, Wood, Windows, Facade, Garden
© Ty Cole
Grass House / BLDUS - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade, Garden, Beam
© Ty Cole

The Grass House is the first code-compliant bamboo building on the East Coast and a morsel of promise in the quest for affordable, high-quality, and healthy building materials. Changes to the city zoning code enabled the construction of this backyard studio space, providing workspace for B L D U S, freeing up space in the historic house that had previously functioned as home-office space, and shortening daily commutes.

Grass House / BLDUS - Interior Photography, Dining room, Table, Windows, Chair, Brick, Beam
© Ty Cole
Grass House / BLDUS - Interior Photography, Table, Shelving, Chair, Beam
© Ty Cole
Grass House / BLDUS - Image 25 of 26
Plan

The Grass House calls into question the fundamentals of the built environment while retaining roots in traditional aesthetics and craftsmanship. Designed as much for the hand to touch and the nose to smell as for the eye to see, the Grass House asks its inhabitants to reconsider their relationship to air, water, sunlight, and the ground.

Grass House / BLDUS - Interior Photography, Dining room, Table, Windows, Beam
© Ty Cole
Grass House / BLDUS - Interior Photography, Dining room, Table, Windows, Chair, Beam
© Ty Cole

Nestled across the street from the Frederick Douglass House, in a neighborhood frequented by tourists but plagued by violence, the Grass House is a testament to the rights of all to healthy habitation. The Grass House was built in the midst of a community that is learning about architecture and development in order to advocate for a better future for themselves and their neighborhood.

Grass House / BLDUS - Interior Photography, Table, Windows, Door, Chair
© Ty Cole

In that sense, the Grass House is a diagram of the possible, built as a way to learn about the potential of healthy systems alongside the building’s inquisitive neighbors. Surrounding Anacostia are large-scale public housing projects with histories of mold growth, pest infestation, and toxic chemical exposure; the Grass House suggests a new way forward.

Grass House / BLDUS - Interior Photography, Beam
© Ty Cole

The Grass House is an exploration into the economies of clean, healthy building materials. Proof-of-concept for BamCore’s framing system, Omniblock’s insulated masonry units, and sheep’s wool insulation, and showcasing beautiful local materials through finely crafted details, the Grass House lurks in the shadows of the nation’s Capital.

Grass House / BLDUS - Exterior Photography, Windows
© Ty Cole
Grass House / BLDUS - Interior Photography, Wood
© Ty Cole

This farm-to-shelter architecture invites people to understand where a building’s materials originate, how they arrive at the site, how they are processed, and how they will be disposed of when the building is eventually dismantled. The Grass House is intended to question what “clean” and “healthy” can mean in architecture today and in the future—for humans, for other species, and for the Earth.

Grass House / BLDUS - Exterior Photography, Facade
© Ty Cole

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Project location

Address:Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Grass House / BLDUS" 21 Jan 2023. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/994952/grass-house-bldus> ISSN 0719-8884

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