Owned by the Rothschild family, the sprawling 600 acre Waddesdon Estate is near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. We have been helping the estate with various cost management services and have assisted them with this ambitious new commission. Wedding Cake – a 12-metre-high sculptural pavilion in the form of a three-tiered wedding cake, clad entirely in ceramic tiles – is a major new work by celebrated Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos. The pavilion is open to the public in mid-June and will be on display until October this year.

Almost five years in the making, Wedding Cake was commissioned by the Rothschild Foundation for Waddesdon, prompted by the relationship between visionary collector Lord Rothschild and Vasconcelos. Part sculpture, part architectural garden folly, Wedding Cake is an extraordinary, enormous, fully immersive sculpture which combines pâtisserie and architecture. It offers an intricate and richly sensory experience – glazed in pale pinks, greens and blues, beset with sculptural ornament and complete with the sounds of trickling water and a site-specific lighting scheme. Wedding Cake is Vasconcelos’ most ambitious commission to date, described by the artist as “a temple to love” that celebrates festivity and marriage.

Equals have provided cost management on the project, helping the client with the contract documents and delivered post-contract cost management services on this unique project through to completion.