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Dogtrot House Celebrates the Frugal Elegance of Australian Public Campsites

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A sublimely simple plan informs the Dog Trot House by Dunn & Hillam Architects.

The brief: to design a holiday home for a family, that would have the informality of a campsite.

They wanted everything they loved about camping except the need to pack up at the end of every holiday.

The name comes from the design, houses divided into two free standing structures with an open passageway between to connect them.

The idea is that the open, shaded passageway in the center is a place a dog can trot on days when it’s hot.

The dogtrot passageway between the public and the private spaces is shaded by the overhanging roof.

You can almost smell the hot dry air of the campsite perfumed by Pines and Eucalyptus.

There is something of the public campsite’s great room in the anonymous materials and deadpan design.

The simple but hardwearing materials palette includes locally sourced hardwood, fibre cement boards and concrete.

The lean anonymity of these materials verges on the mundane.

A no-nonsence big commercial kitchen seats ten easily.

“The Dogtrot House is a permanent campsite,” say the architects. “It celebrates the frugality and elegance of shelter, it is a house for the carrying out of family life in the elements, it is a house that is everything you need and nothing you didn’t. It is humble, poetic and without pretence.”