intense contemplation and cathartic relief from the claustrophobic decent inwards. It focuses ones attention on the monument at its centre which resembles the archetype of a tetrapylon: the four sided gate of Greek antiquity which marks a crossroad. Carved as a singular stone mass from the ground, the crossroad occurs both in its own right and as an unexpected continuation of the labyrinth as a whole. The void it frames is intended to be as disorienting as possible using symmetry in 4 different axis, plus a pool of water to provide additional vertical reflection. When present in the core of this space the crossroad removes all sense of bodily relations to the outside world, save for an awareness of the descending journey, and its corresponding anticipated ascent back out. As such it creates in this moment an unavoidable encounter between the individual and the present, marking the crossing of an invisible future and past. With all other context having been erased, what remains is pure interiority; interiority of form, space, and self.
Fig 049. Cross section through the courtyard andinner most wall.