diff --git a/compose/service.py b/compose/service.py
index 64a46453..8b9f64f0 100644
--- a/compose/service.py
+++ b/compose/service.py
@@ -701,12 +701,6 @@ class Service(object):
 
         build_opts = self.options.get('build', {})
         path = build_opts.get('context')
-        # If build argument is not defined and there is no environment variable
-        # with the same name then build argument value will be None
-        # Moreover it will be sent to the docker engine as None and then
-        # interpreted as string None which in many cases will fail the build
-        # That is why we filter out all pairs with value equal to None
-        buildargs = {k: v for k, v in build_opts.get('args', {}).items() if v != 'None'}
         # python2 os.path() doesn't support unicode, so we need to encode it to
         # a byte string
         if not six.PY3:
@@ -721,7 +715,7 @@ class Service(object):
             pull=pull,
             nocache=no_cache,
             dockerfile=build_opts.get('dockerfile', None),
-            buildargs=buildargs,
+            buildargs=build_opts.get('args', None),
         )
 
         try:
diff --git a/compose/utils.py b/compose/utils.py
index 494beea3..1e01fcb6 100644
--- a/compose/utils.py
+++ b/compose/utils.py
@@ -95,4 +95,4 @@ def microseconds_from_time_nano(time_nano):
 
 
 def build_string_dict(source_dict):
-    return dict((k, str(v)) for k, v in source_dict.items())
+    return dict((k, str(v if v else '')) for k, v in source_dict.items())
diff --git a/tests/unit/config/config_test.py b/tests/unit/config/config_test.py
index 24ece499..3e5a7fac 100644
--- a/tests/unit/config/config_test.py
+++ b/tests/unit/config/config_test.py
@@ -715,7 +715,7 @@ class ConfigTest(unittest.TestCase):
         ).services[0]
         assert 'args' in service['build']
         assert 'foo' in service['build']['args']
-        assert service['build']['args']['foo'] == 'None'
+        assert service['build']['args']['foo'] == ''
 
     def test_load_with_multiple_files_mismatched_networks_format(self):
         base_file = config.ConfigFile(
diff --git a/tests/unit/service_test.py b/tests/unit/service_test.py
index ae2cab20..a259c476 100644
--- a/tests/unit/service_test.py
+++ b/tests/unit/service_test.py
@@ -445,7 +445,7 @@ class ServiceTest(unittest.TestCase):
             forcerm=False,
             nocache=False,
             rm=True,
-            buildargs={},
+            buildargs=None,
         )
 
     def test_ensure_image_exists_no_build(self):
@@ -481,33 +481,7 @@ class ServiceTest(unittest.TestCase):
             forcerm=False,
             nocache=False,
             rm=True,
-            buildargs={},
-        )
-
-    def test_ensure_filter_out_empty_build_args(self):
-        args = {u'no_proxy': 'None', u'https_proxy': 'something'}
-        service = Service('foo',
-                          client=self.mock_client,
-                          build={'context': '.', 'args': args})
-        self.mock_client.inspect_image.return_value = {'Id': 'abc123'}
-        self.mock_client.build.return_value = [
-            '{"stream": "Successfully built abcd"}',
-        ]
-
-        with mock.patch('compose.service.log', autospec=True) as mock_log:
-            service.ensure_image_exists(do_build=BuildAction.force)
-
-        assert not mock_log.warn.called
-        self.mock_client.build.assert_called_once_with(
-            tag='default_foo',
-            dockerfile=None,
-            stream=True,
-            path='.',
-            pull=False,
-            forcerm=False,
-            nocache=False,
-            rm=True,
-            buildargs={u'https_proxy': 'something'},
+            buildargs=None,
         )
 
     def test_build_does_not_pull(self):