DÆDELUS WORKSHOP
Quarry site for the Labyrinth

Type: Studio Project
Role: Project Architect

Team: Don Lawrence

FOURTH YEAR DESIGN: THE COOPER UNION 1996-1997

This project started out with two given parameters. The first, an inverted random New York City grid block to be used as the site and the second, a program for a community.

With the ensuing project I wanted to explore the idea of the mythic and ritual in modern urban life. Inspired by the story of the mythical inventor Daedalus, I set out to create a construction outpost for the craftsmen responsible for building the Minotaur’s labyrinth.

I started off by immersing myself in the stories surrounding the mythic hero. Then with several studies in ultra-cal (sculpture’s cement) model and charcoal drawings I attempted to convey a sense of the spaces that I had imagined. The resulting project was a 14”x24”x24” ulta-cal model that depicted the quarry site and workspaces for the inventor and various craftsmen.