40 Foot Tall Wedding Cake Pavilion by Artist Joana Vasconcelos

wedding cake pavilion

The Waddeson Manor House and Gardens is hosting a major new commission this summer: a pavilion unlike any other. The 40 foot tall pavilion, inspired by a traditionally ornate wedding cake and clad in decorative ceramic tiles is by one of our favorite artists, Joana Vasconcelos.

Wedding Cake Pavilion

The 50 yr old Vasconcelos has worked with ceramic tiles several times before, often using traditional methods from her home country of Portugal. Her stunning swimming pool made of 11,366 hand-painted and glazed tiles crafted using 100 year old traditional Portuguese methods was featured previously on our blog.

“Wedding Cake” will be opening this summer at The Dairy at Waddesdon Manor, home to the Rothschild Collections of paintings, sculpture and decorative arts.

waddeson wedding cake pavilion IIHIH

The major new commission by the Portuguese artist stands 40 foot tall (12 metres) and is a sculptural pavilion in the form of a traditional three-tiered wedding cake, its exterior is clad in decorative, sculptural tiles.

Wedding Cake pavilion ceramic tiles

Five years in the making, the Wedding Cake is an intricate and richly sensory experience – glazed in pale pinks, greens and blues, with sculptural ornament and complete with the sounds of trickling water and twinkling lights.

Vasconcelos' sketch of the Wedding Cake pavilion
Vasconcelos’ sketch of the Wedding Cake pavilion

Part sculpture, part architectural garden folly, it is an extraordinary structure which celebrates festivity and marriage. The exuberant Baroque buildings and highly decorative ceramic traditions of Lisbon, where Vasconcelos lives and works also inspired the design of Wedding Cake.

Artist Joana Vasconcelos (center) with an example of the tile exterior from "Wedding Cake"
Artist Joana Vasconcelos (center) with an example of the tile exterior from “Wedding Cake”

At Waddesdon, it will stand in a grove of trees alongside the 19th-century Dairy, built by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild to entertain and charm guests at his famous house parties.

images courtesy of the artist.
information courtesy of ART DAILY 

We are so looking forward to seeing the finished pavilion!

WADDESON