Based on the issues that large-scale sites have around content, navigation and user understanding, a radical approach was needed.

The tree had failed. I realized it’s just basic growth theory… when one part of something gets too large to sustain, it begins to decay.

Or maybe it was like the rat king, and it got so intertwined it became an abomination. (Thank you 30 Rock: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_king).

So I found my approach:

An ambitious piece that was based on chapter 11 of the Tao Te Ching.

We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.
(The site can be formless, provided it has a strong center.)

We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.
(The site is nothing but an empty structure, it is only as good as what it contains.)

We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.
(The technologies we use exist to drive the site, they are not the reason the user is there.)

We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.
(The site works only provided others find their success within.)

Needless to say, it was overly-ambitious for the Automotive industry, but I still love it.