Creative Placemaking from Gingerbread City Inspires the Next Generation

Now in its sixth year, The Gingerbread City brings the expertise and baking abilities of over 100 leading architects, land-scape architects, engineers and designers to create urban landscapes created in Gingerbread. 

Created by Madeleine Kessler Architecture and Tibbalds Planning and Design, The Gingerbread City masterplan is based on real-life master planning principles and spread across 5 climate zones. It explores questions around connections between buildings, social settings and their surrounding environments. 

We travelled to the miniature islands of the Continental, Temperate, Tropical, Desert and Polar climates, and discovered intriguing worlds of aromatic structures made of gingerbread, icing, candy canes, frosting and a ton of sugar and spice. While the entire exhibition is a triumph in architectural baking, with many structures worthy of making it to the finals of the Great British Bake Off, we have selected our highlights that particularly caught our eye.

Continental

This is the climate with its baking hot summers and icy cold winters, heatwaves and blizzards, a climate of extremes. 

LIQUORICE LIBRARY - by UHA London

We really enjoyed these colourful literary labyrinths and breakout spaces. The Liquorice Library and waterside cafe, with its internal courtyard, presented molten qualities and as the architects UHA put it on the Gingerbread city website, ‘a low-carbon diet!,’  

We were left wondering “what book would we like to read there?”

Our other highlights:

Cotton Candy Collage - by BDP
Ice Stadium - by Foster + Partners
Pick and Mix Park - by House of Kin

Temperate

A climate we know well in London, with wide ranging conditions, cool and wet winters, the Gingerbread City planners are used to factoring in rain! 

CITY SLICE
Public Hall and Visitor Attraction - by Ron Arad Architects x WSP

We enjoyed this sweet treat with its bold colours, dripping surfaces and gravity defying sculptural qualities. According to its creators, Ron Arad Architects + WSP, this building “celebrates the architecture of the edible, showing the visual delight of the ingredients.” It  becomes more than a building merely modelled using dough and chocolate.

Our other highlights:

Fudge Farm - by Allies & Morrison
Liquorice Train Station - by AHMM
Museum of Marshmallow - by Kevin Kelly Architects

Desert

A dry climate where water and greenery are in scarce supply, presenting a challenge to build thriving communities of people, animals, and plants.

PARFAIT PALMERAIE
Candy Coloured Superadobe Domes - by Aterre Studio

We enjoyed its bold, candy coloured luminous domes. Built along the traditional lines of a kasbah, Parfait Palmeraie is an eco community oasis set within the desert. 

According to the architects Aterre, a Biophilic Design Studio, “the desert is a sensuous sculptural landscape and naturally lends itself to traditional construction techniques and organic shapes inspired by biomimicry and the very surrounding environment.”

Our other highlights:

Cherry Kasbah - by Purcell
Poor Playground - Poor Collective 
The Productive Land - Embed Collective 

Tropical

From rainforests to tropical beaches, this is a lush and colourful climate where landscapes are bountiful and the city is warm and humid. 

Paddy Hills Floating Farms and Aquaculture
Agricultural buildings and productive landscape - by Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design

We loved this vibrant floating farm concept and the attention to detail of its coastal landscape. Designed to be resilient against coastal flooding, with floating allotments, raised huts and a network of interconnecting bridges. According to the architects Tibbalds, a multidisciplinary practice of urban designers, planners and architects, “it protects this farming community from rising water levels and the changing climate.”

Others we liked were:

Supertree Gumball Gardens - by Zaha Hadid Architects 
Pineapple Place - by Studio Egret West
Pop rock - by Hopkins

Polar

A climate of dangerously low temperatures and little to no daylight during many months. It is important that forms are built with sturdy materials to reduce deterioration, keeping heat in.

Emergency Eggflip
Arctic frosting research station - by hcl Architects

The geometric gingerbread structures of the Egg research pods and its intrepid community of penguin explorers stood out boldly in the Polar City. Soaring above the icing-bergs, and according to the architects HCL, “displays marvellous views and brings awareness to the research needed to save this precious frosted kingdom.”

Our other highlights:

Lakeshore warming hut and shelters - by Bamber Miller Architects 
Malt Log Cabin - by ScottWhitbyStudio
Ice formation - by Zaha Hadid Design ZHD & Joy Patisserie 

Have you been already? What's your favourite? 
We’d love to hear your thoughts, message us on Instagram!

Haven’t been yet? Then definitely go along to this food for thought experience and vote for your favourite online. Gingerbread City is currently running between 3 December – 2 January 2022 at 6-7 Motcomb Street, SW1X 8JU.

Visit their website for more info.

Thank you for reading!

If you enjoyed this article, check out the other articles on our blog on related topics such as placemaking, branding, marketing and storytelling!