Just the right building for your land, your people, and your vision.
Custom strawbale homes, farm buildings, schools, and community spaces designed around your needs in Maryland and the broader DMV region.
What We Design
We work across building types. Every project uses natural, low-carbon materials wherever possible — strawbale walls, timber framing, bio-based insulation, energy-efficient systems. The common thread is care: for the people inside, and for the land the building sits on.
Custom strawbale residences — primary homes, retreat houses, guest houses
Agricultural and farm structures — retreat houses, event barns, worker housing, bathhouses
Community and nonprofit buildings — gathering spaces, welcome centers, cultural facilities
Schools and educational facilities — from early childhood through higher education
Small commercial buildings — offices, studios, retail, and mixed-use spaces
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) — custom-designed for your specific property
For us, strawbale isn't just a sustainable material—it's a way to create healthier, more resilient places for people to live, work and be.
Our Custom Work
Read about our custom strawbale residences, community buildings, and agricultural structures. A few recent projects — each one different, each one built around the specific needs of the people and place it serves.
Pricing
Custom design is priced in two parts: an hourly design fee and a construction cost. Every project has its own site conditions, program, complexity, and materials, so pricing is shaped around what you’re building.
Here’s how each part works:
Design services: Principal Architect: $225/hour. Overall architectural fees are tailored to each project based on scope, size, and complexity.
Construction: Custom strawbale homes are highly site- and project-specific. Construction costs are established with our building partners as the design develops, with early cost planning built into the design process.
Have a project and budget in mind? Tell us about it. We can help you understand what’s possible.
How It Works
We keep our process simple and our communication clear. Here's what working with POM Studio looks like from first conversation to finished building:
You reach out through our contact form
We ask questions and listen — about your project, your goals, your timeline, your budget
If it feels like a fit, we prepare a proposal and walk you through it together
Once you sign, we send you our detailed project questionnaire for a deeper dive
Design phases begin — we guide you through every decision with clarity and patience
We support permitting, contractor coordination, and construction administration through to completion
No pressure, no rush. If we're not the right fit for your project, we'll tell you — and hopefully point you in a helpful direction. Either way, you'll leave the conversation with more clarity than you came in with.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Straw is the dry stalks left over after grain (wheat, rice, rye) is harvested — it's an agricultural byproduct that's widely available and inexpensive. When compressed into bales and used as wall panels, it becomes an excellent insulator: roughly R-30 or higher depending on the wall assembly. It sequesters carbon rather than releasing it. It's non-toxic, bio-based, and often locally sourced. And when plastered, it creates a wall that's quiet, solid, and warm in a way that conventional insulation rarely achieves.
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Residential, agricultural, community, nonprofit, and small commercial — as long as the project is a good fit for natural building methods and our design approach. We're particularly drawn to projects with a community focus or a mission behind them. When in doubt, reach out and we'll tell you honestly whether we're the right team.
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Yes — while our primary focus is Prince George's County, Washington DC, and the broader DMV region, we work with clients outside the area when the project is a good fit. Reach out and we'll let you know if we can serve your location.
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We get this one a lot. Yes, loose straw burns easily. But compressed straw bales are a different story — they're so dense that oxygen can't move through them freely, which is what fire needs to spread. Straw bale walls are plastered on both sides, creating a sealed, airtight assembly that actually meets or exceeds fire code in most jurisdictions. In fire testing, straw bale walls have outperformed conventional wood-frame construction.
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Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) are smaller, independent homes located on the same property as a primary residence. They usually include their own entrance, kitchen, bathroom, and living and sleeping space, so someone can live in one fully separate from the main house. An ADU can be a detached backyard cottage, a unit attached to the main house, or a conversion of an existing space like a garage.
People build them for a range of reasons. They can provide space for family members, aging parents, adult children, or guests, and they can bring in rental income or serve as a home office or studio. Because they are smaller than a typical house, they also tend to use less energy and fewer materials. Size limits, setbacks, utility connections, and other requirements depend on where your property is, so it helps to look into your local rules early. All three of our prefab strawbale designs are sized to work as ADUs where they are permitted.
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Yes — strawbale is one of our preferred systems, but we design ADUs in conventional and other natural building methods as well. If you're not sure which approach is right for your project, that's exactly what an initial conversation is for.
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Yes — garage conversions and existing structure adaptations are something we can take on. Reach out with details about your space and we'll tell you what's possible.
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The best first step is your county or municipal planning department — they can tell you what's currently permitted and what's changing. For Prince George's County, the PG County Planning Department and the county's ADU Task Force are the best resources. Maryland's statewide ADU legislation (HB 1466) requires all counties to adopt ADU-authorizing laws by October 1, 2026, so if your jurisdiction doesn't allow ADUs today, that may change very soon.
We're happy to help you think through the planning side of things during an initial call — we've navigated the permitting landscape with a number of clients and can point you in the right direction.
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Another great question. The short answer: no, not if the building is built correctly. The straw inside is compressed and dense, not loose bedding. We use the same techniques that builders have refined over decades of straw bale construction — and rodent infestation simply isn't a documented problem with properly built and plastered panels.
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ADU regulations are currently evolving in response to recent Maryland legislation. State law is pushing counties to update their local rules, and the details of how that plays out can differ by county, by zoning district, and by property. That means the requirements for your lot may be different from what a neighbor or a nearby county has run into.
If you’re considering an ADU in Prince George’s County, reach out to us. We can help you understand the current requirements, including zoning, lot size, utilities, and permitting, and what they mean for your property. We can also look at your site and help you decide which of our designs, or a custom strawbale design, may be the best fit.
Ready to Talk?
The best first step is a conversation. Just us asking questions and listening. Tell us about your site, your goals, and what drew you to strawbale.
Our Strawbale Story
We're a small, intentional architecture firm serving Prince George's County, Washington, DC, and the broader DMV region. We design buildings that are beautiful, healthy, and built with genuine care—for community-focused clients, nonprofit organizations, and anyone who believes the built environment should reflect the people who actually live in it.
I'm Portia Strahan, founder and principal architect. I'm one of a small number of licensed Black women architects in the United States, and I started this firm because representation in architecture isn't a nice-to-have—it's how we build a more equitable world. POM Studio is a hub for minority creatives and emerging practitioners, and I bring that same spirit of mentorship, curiosity, and care to every project.
Our interest in strawbale and natural building deepened through our partnership with Earthbound Builders, whose commitment to craftsmanship, ecological stewardship, and time-tested building traditions challenged us to think differently about what homes can be. Working alongside their team reinforced a belief we already held: the materials we build with matter.
What goes into your walls matters just as much as what goes on your plate. Healthy materials create healthier buildings, healthier communities, and a healthier relationship with the land.
These kit designs are the result of years of collaboration, research, and hands-on natural building experience. They are our effort to make high-performance, low-carbon, naturally beautiful buildings more accessible—without sacrificing quality, comfort, or craft.