The thesis mainly focuses on defining and redefining the essence of designated heritage architecture under the framework of the grounded theory. Heritage architecture essence manifests in chosen building’s value, characteristic and potentials, which are the foundation for continuity and change aimed at guaranteeing its future life.3 However, unlike other graduation studio, in which architectural research as the starting point of design, the conclusion from the heritage research serves as a guide book that determines designers’ choice throughout the design circle. The guide book is non-universal that it will be revised through the design process in order to have a better compatibility with the building. From this point of view, the research process of the thesis should be able to be continuously defined and redefined. Compare to other qualitative approaches, in the grounded theory research, “it is assumed that the object of study is not fully explained ‘on the first take’; rather, repeated observation, data collection, and structuring the data into a working explanatory framework are all part of an iterative process that leads to an emergence of a theory.”