A building is designed from a set of initial intended needs and uses. Yet, a building is a construction of its time and values that will stand for future generations long after the client and architect have faded. Therefore, an architectural intervention has a responsibility to the greater whole, the city.

The subject of the thesis is the design of a house in Wilmington, North Carolina. The concern of the design is not the building as an object. The design is a proposal in architectural terms of what is necessary to render concrete the possibilities of a specific location that will serve our ever-changing daily needs, uses and desires with dignity. The proposal is based on an investigation of the fabric of place into which the building will be woven. That fabric consists of the natural landscape and the human interventions that have transformed it throughout its history.