"Be a good neighbor."
It isn't the sort of phrase one expects from an architect whose work spans continents. But for Jeffrey Dungan, it may be the clearest expression of his design philosophy.
Whether he's designing a home in Mountain Brook, Nova Scotia, or the Dominican Republic, Dungan begins the same way: by paying attention. Before drawing plans, he studies how a place has learned to build—its climate, materials, traditions and rhythms.
"You don't show up to the black-tie party in a beach shirt," he says with a laugh. "The architecture should fit in."
That instinct lies at the heart of The Soulful House: Stories of Beauty, Belonging, and the Spirit of Home, Dungan's second monograph. While his first book introduced readers to a body of work rooted largely in the American South, this new collection reflects an increasingly international practice, with projects stretching from California and Canada to Great Britain and the Caribbean.
"I had something different to say," Dungan says. "Maybe in the same Southern dialect, because I am Southern and I'm proud of it. But with new experiences, new places and, I hope, more maturity."
The projects may be geographically diverse, but they share a common discipline. Dungan is less interested in creating houses that command attention than houses that feel inevitable.
"I don't want people to look at our work and think, 'Wow, they work with wealthy people,'" he says. "If that's the message, we've probably failed."
Instead, his architecture begins with context. A house should belong to its landscape as naturally as it belongs to the people who live there. Building traditions matter—not as nostalgia, but as accumulated wisdom. Climate dictates construction. Materials are chosen because they make sense where they are.
Of course, fitting in doesn't mean disappearing.
"I always want our houses to be special," Dungan says. "I always want to have a little zinger in there...something that gives you a memory."
That tension—between restraint and expression—became one of the central ideas explored in The Soulful House. Dungan writes candidly about the discipline of editing, of resisting the temptation to include every good idea simply because it's available.
"I can't say everything," he says. "I have way more ideas than should go into one house."
The observation extends beyond architecture. Writing the book, he admits, was every bit as demanding as designing the homes within its pages.
"I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking."
In the process, he arrived at a realization that surprised him.
"What I'm really after," he says, "is emotion."
Perhaps that's why Dungan's houses resist easy categorization. They're recognizably his, yet never repetitive. They respond first to place, then to people, and only then to style.
After all, beauty alone isn't enough. A soulful house should do something more difficult: it should make you feel at home.
The Soulful House: Stories of Beauty, Belonging, and the Spirit of Home by Jeffrey Dungan will be available September 1 and is published by Rizzoli.