As a child on his family’s farm outside of Birmingham, Alabama, Jeffrey Dungan never dreamed he’d grow up to design houses—especially not in such exotic locales as Costa Rica and Nova Scotia. But he had always enjoyed drawing and was pretty good at math, and when a high school guidance counselor suggested he study architecture, it seemed as good a profession as any to pursue. He submitted his portfolio to the architecture program at Auburn University, and to his surprise, was invited to learn alongside the likes of Ray Booth, Will Meyer and Gray Davis. Yet his early experiences on the farm never left him.

“I realized it was inside me—the earth and the trees and the wind and the grass,” Dungan tells host Dennis Scully on the latest episode of The Business of Home Podcast. “Those things had seeped into my spirit and my cortex and how I think and what moves me. … It struck me that this is what matters to [me]. … How can we design something that fits into the earth in such a way that when you’re done, the earth almost thanks you for it.”

He went on to establish a Birmingham-area practice that has become synonymous with homes that seem to grow out of the landscape, and as a result, resonate with his clients on a deeper level. Many of those projects appear in his new book, The Soulful House, which was just published by Rizzoli. “Maya Angelou said, ‘People will forget your accomplishments, they’ll forget what you said, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel.’ And boy is that not the truth,” Dungan says. “I’m trying to create places that move us in some ways—in our spirit, in our emotions—and that can connect us with the divine. Our world has gotten so chaotic, so loud and so crazy, that I think even more today than at any time in history we all need it. And I’m just crazy enough to think that we can do it.”

Elsewhere in the episode, he discusses why client communication is more important than ever, how he rewards his team for working efficiently, and how he has structured his firm for the future.

Crucial Insight: Designers often get tripped up on billing strategy, Dungan included. He’s found a way to streamline the process by comparing five years of spreadsheets, tracking billable hours per project and devising a simple ratio of square feet to time, rewarding his employees for efficiency. “If you deliver a service, you are selling your time—ask a lawyer,” he says. “The fact of the matter is there are only so many hours in the day. I only can sell so much of myself, and that goes for everyone that works here. Becoming as efficient as you can be is really important. You can’t incentivize something that you can’t measure.” Yet he cautions against using speed to cut corners. “Speed is a disease; speed will get you killed. [It] will make you make mistakes. It’s not about sweaty money. There is some efficiency that you’re going to take a hit [on] because of the design that we do, or the complexity, or the client can’t make up their mind.”

Key quote: “The cool thing about architecture that’s different from any other art form is that you move through it. For me, it’s about the experience for that amount of time that I’ve got you. I want to do a few things with you: I want to give you a hug, a greeting. I feel like even my words fail to capture it, but you know it when you feel it.”

This episode is sponsored by Loloi and Resource Furniture. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The Thursday Show

Host Dennis Scully and BOH executive editor Fred Nicolaus discuss the biggest news in the design world, including the shocking rise in renovation costs, bankruptcy for Designers Guild, and what happened to mushroom leather. Later, Alabama–born New York designer Richard Keith Langham joins the show to talk about Birmingham’s 20th-anniversary Antiques at the Gardens.

This episode is sponsored by Joon Loloi and NKBA. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.