This thesis considers the design of a combined industrial printing and publishing house as a semi-public institution. The site is in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The institution includes a bookstore, archive, studio, book conservation facility, and guest rooms, in addition to printing and publishing. Research included relevant literature, an applied course in typography, and a working visit to Gaspereau Press. The way program elements are brought together and overlap relates to the formal strategies of spatial organization in typography. The design as a setting for human activity relates to the relationship between text and content in the activity of reading. The simultaneous presence of the practical and the creative in the practice of architectural design is also explored in relation to typographic practice. The intention is to clarify both the object of design and the practice of design in comparison to both aspects in typography. This then further clarifies the relation of the program to the built work.