A design for the Labyrinth at the Cretan Palace of Knossos.

The Labyrinth associated with the palace of Knossos does not exist in the physical realm, but exists in many other forms: myth, drawings, history and narrative. The labyrinth 'idea' emanates from the Knossos palace itself; from both its physical attributes and the daily activities recorded in history.

In this dissertation I am concerned with creating a design for the Labyrinth which embraces the ideas common to labyrinths, while responding to the site of the palace of Knossos. It is not my intention to reconstruct the palace in an historical or archaeological manner, nor to posit my design as the definitive Knossos labyrinth, but to create a worthy addition to the palette of references from which future labyrinths are drawn. This is only one way to put together the jig-saw puzzle of stories and stones which constitute the palace of Knossos.

Labyrinths share common characteristics of a dualistic nature. In the Labyrinth I have designed, symmetry, regularity and order actually protect the centre and its contents. The labyrinth asserts chaos in the presence of apparent order. This duality is dependant on one's viewpoint: Deity or Minotaur.