Clos Dionysus : an allegorical essay in transformation

Abstract

Ritual and mythology, for ancient cultures, was the cornerstone of society.It provided significance and meaning to daily life by explaining natural phenomena as well as sociological ordering systems. It, above all, connected man with the spirit world; it transformed his reality to eternity; it delivered him from his daily existence to a world of freedom, of self-awareness. The supposition that architecture is the physical manifestation of universally time-honored rituals and mythologies, here, acts as a point of departure, a hypothesis to be proved. Through the experience of a winery, an archetype whose rituals are rich and provocative, man shall momentarily render himself free of this world and enter a place and time that resonates with the memories.