Architect Dennis Thompson is renowned for pushing sustainable building techniques to the forefront of Santa Barbara design since the 1980s as a partner in the firm Thompson Naylor Architects. But he’s aiming for a younger set with his latest project: the children’s book Dogs Build a House, which he just published with illustrator John Haugse.
“I wanted to give children and adults a sense of what it’s like to get a house built, which can be a difficult, trying process with a lot of people involved and unpredicted problems along the way,” said Thompson. “I also wanted to give the architect a chance to save the day!”
After years of success in building modernist creations around Santa Barbara, Montecito, and Carpinteria, Dogs is Thompson’s maiden voyage into the less complicated waters of children’s lit, but it’s not his first writing attempt. “Years ago, I had an idea for a crime novel with an architect as the detective hero,” Thompson said. “I quickly realized that it was beyond my capabilities.”