In The Soulful House: Stories of Beauty, Belonging, and the Spirit of Home, architect Jeffrey Dungan pens a love letter to his portfolio.
Ahead of the September 01, 2026, release, aspire caught up with Dungan to discuss the path that led to his second book.
Kelsey Mulvey: What was the inspiration behind The Soulful House?
Jeffrey Dungan: The book grew out of conversations with people who would walk through one of our finished houses and ask, “Why does this feel the way it does?” The answer kept sending me back to a word that doesn’t quite belong in typical design conversations: Soulful. I’d also loved the arduous, sometimes painful process of writing my first book, The Nature of Home, and after seven years, I felt I had something new to say.
KM: How does The Soulful House reflect your identity as a designer?
JD: This book isn’t really about what I’ve built; it’s about what I believe. The projects are there to illustrate the ideas, but the ideas are the point. Anyone who cares about the places we inhabit, whether they’re an architect, a designer, or simply someone who loves their home, will find something in it that speaks to them.
KM: The book is full of personal essays. What did you discover about your process while putting those thoughts into words?
JD: Writing forces a different kind of honesty than drawing. I discovered that many of the things I do instinctively have deeper roots than I’d consciously recognized. Putting it into words made me realize that so much of what I do is really an attempt to stir certain feelings in people.
KM: We know it’s hard to play favorites, but is there a project in the book that’s especially close to your heart?
JD: Our own home, which closes the book. I named it Villa Lindsey, partly to give myself a little distance, because designing for yourself has a way of getting in your head. Your house says something about you, whether you intend it to or not. That weight matters more than most people realize.
KM: What do you hope readers take away from this book?
JD: Permission. A quiet permission to want more from the spaces around them. Not more square footage or more expensive finishes, but more meaning, more emotion. I hope the book gives people the courage to slow down, ask harder questions, and hold out for something that actually moves them.
Photography by Adrian Gaut.
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