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
Located in a rural landscape, Dogtrot House pays tribute to a format of vernacular housing in the Southeastern US that reflects a connection with the outdoors. Our clients’ desire to be surrounded by both family & nature in their home called for a new adaptation of this once-ubiquitous typology into a more flexible layout tailored to their lifestyles.
Photo retrieved from Library of Congress
The design for the house centers around an indoor-outdoor breezeway, a 100-foot-long continuous space for gathering that is oriented to allow natural ventilation for most of the year and frame an unobstructed view of a pond on-site. Four low pavilions, each housing a basic domestic function, surround and support this common area of the home.
Photos by Keith Issacs
A 20-foot-high cathedral ceiling of Southern Yellow Pine shelters the breezeway, which features a blackened steel stair leading to an open plywood loft. Dark earthen tiles ground the space and provide a visual & tactile connection to the landscape.
Photos by Keith Issacs
All throughout the house, there are clear sightlines out to nature. At both ends of the breezeway, the gable roof extends outside the home to create shaded porches that draw the living space out into the expansive surrounding landscape.
Photos by Keith Issacs
Nature is welcomed here into the rituals of daily life. A crop of treetops, a sliver of tree trunks, a swatch of sky provide unique encounters that form a constantly changing relationship between one’s place within and the environment outside. Each space of the home is designed with flexibility in mind to adapt to the clients’ changing needs as they grow into their home as a family.
Photos by Keith Issacs
The breezeway contains a central utility bar composed of a floating stair, custom oak table & storage, powder room, and fireplace. Together with a scattering of red steel posts and weaving concrete arcs, this collection of architectural elements loosely choreograph how one might inhabit these shared spaces without fully defining enclosed rooms, creating a harmonious experience of architecture and nature - what exists now and 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)
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)