HOUSE OF STRAW

Buildings connect to living systems in a myriad of ways. While the forces that actively move through the project and site are the most obvious, the building itself is a manifestation of energy, material, carbon, capital, and no small amount of labor and ingenuity. This custom home, located on a former Christmas tree farm, attempts to shift the narrative around the hidden environmental cost of buildings by using carbon-sequestering materials. The walls are predominantly TJIs infilled with straw, which acts as both an insulator and stores the carbon those grasses pulled from the air into the structure itself. Architecture is inherently an extractive and destructive process, but through careful selection of materials we can both mitigate these effects and connect the work to its surroundings. We must pay attention not only to how are buildings are made but also what they are made of if we are to achieve balance with nature.

design © Arkin Tilt Architects, photography © Ed Caldwell