Building Out of Place

Abstract

The Skagit River Delta is defined by agrarian culture and farming’s relationship to the land. However, history shows the recurrence of extreme flooding, and campaigns of consolidation have embedded a pattern of separation: the river has become the prisoner in the myth of absolute protection. At both the territorial and human scale, this thesis explores a new logic for the delta that is based on adaptation. This new pattern proposes to reactivate the natural processes linked to the river and engage them as the origin of materials in the design of a Grange.