At stake in this thesis is how architects engage with multiple histories, and the material expression of this entanglement. This thesis makes its design project out of an existing sugar union in Crockett, California. It draws upon the material histories of sugar, lumber, and labor embedded in this building to produce a generative relationship with the past. Ultimately, a material method is developed that can be applied to historic buildings beyond this project.

By embracing multiple entangled histories, we as architects gain new rich possibilities to engage the histories of a place. Through unordinary material methods we can inspire public curiosity and provoke reflections, even re-evaluations of the historical foundations of our discipline. With such techniques, we can draw upon the many aspects of the past—not to preserve it, but to critically engage with how we got here and how we move forward.