BLACK FOREST GATEAU

These drawings are from a time in the design of the arcade when the final aesthetic had not been truly defined. The concept had materialised, the manner was formed, but the colour and the shape had not yet settled. With all of this weighing on my mind, I began to draw, creating little cupcakes of ideas - miniature versions of later decisions. The Arcade was too large a battle as yet, but if I formed a maquette - or a little sister, hopefully that would lead me somewhere along the way.

FINISHED GATEAU

This is as far as I got before feeling that I had to put these colours and shapes into a physical context. What I ended up with is the distilled representation of all the psychologies and sociologies I had been wrestling with - but without a place.

Looking at the finished gateau, I suppose it wants to be in a forest, approached by a winding path, along which there are clearings of various sizes. I could suggest that the Arcade is that forest, the platforms are those winding paths. Perhaps the gateau did in fact confirm to me what the Arcade wanted to be - I had already transformed it into a forest, at the foot of the mountain, with winding paths and small clearings - what it needed was a house at its core.

Though the final forms of the various houses inside the finished design may not share an exact aesthetic with the gateau, I do think there is still a family resemblance.

CUPCAKES

TESTING THE BASE

TESTING THE FILLING