Dogtrot House
Type: Residential - Single-Family
Location: Hillsborough, NC
Size: 3,400 SF
Status: Completed 2023
Team: Studio Becker Xu - Architecture & Interiors
Lysaght & Associates - Structural Engineer
BuildSense - Construction
Leo Gaev - Metalwork
Xylem Inc - Millwork
Photo retrieved from Library of Congress
Located in a rural landscape, Dogtrot House adapts historic vernacular into a habitat emphasizing shared spaces for modern living. This single-family house is composed of primitive forms that assemble to frame spaces for gathering amongst moments of repose, expanding domesticity into the outdoors while welcoming light & air within.
Photos by Keith Issacs
Taking cues from its climatic context, the home is organized around a linear breezeway that opens onto shaded porches at both ends. The breezeway is at once an indoor-outdoor room, a chamber for ventilation, and a portal toward an expansive view.
Photos by Keith Issacs
An open cathedral ceiling of Southern Yellow Pine, dark earthen tiles, board-formed concrete walls, and red posts recalling the North Carolina clay compose a palette that is an ode to the elemental. A utility bar, featuring blackened steel stairs, custom oak table & storage, powder room, and fireplace, activate the breezeway while supporting the open plywood loft above.
Nature is welcomed here into the rituals of daily life. A crop of treetops, a sliver of tree trunks, a swatch of sky form a constantly changing relationship between one’s place within and the environment without.
Each space of the home is designed with flexibility in mind - aptly scaled and easily configured for eating, playing, working, or resting - to grow and adapt along with its inhabitants.
Photos by Keith Issacs
A spatial composition in the round, Dogtrot House is an assemblage of materials & forms that reflect an ecological diversity of place and unexpected encounters in space to create a harmonious experience of architecture and nature - what exists now with what came before.
Photos by Keith Issacs
Publications: Architectural Record Featured Houses (July 2024)
Dwell Home Tours (Nov 2024)
Dezeen American Houses (Dec 2024)
PLAIN Magazine (Jan 2025)
NC Architecture Unconventional Projects (July 2025)
Exhibitions: UNC Charlotte HOUSE(ing) Symposium (Nov 2024)
Awards: NCModernist George Matsumoto Prize - Third Place Jury Award (2024)
NCModernist George Matsumoto Prize - First Place People’s Choice (2024)
Other: AIA Third Thursday: Emerging Voices (May 2024)
USModernist Modapalooza NC Tour (Sept 2024)