This Model City Made Entirely From Gingerbread Is Going On Display In London

Laura Reynolds
By Laura Reynolds Last edited 53 months ago

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This Model City Made Entirely From Gingerbread Is Going On Display In London
© Luke Hayes

A scaled-down city made entirely of gingerbread is on display at Somerset House this Christmas.

Gingerbread City is an exhibition by the Museum of Architecture, and the biscuity buildings are the works of various different teams of architects, engineers and designers, who go head to head to be crowned the winners. Think British Bake-Off but without Noel's shirts, or any soggy bottoms (hopefully).

© Luke Hayes

The exhibition challenges them to use their baking skills as much as their town planning credentials, in a bid to get the hungry general public interested in architecture.

So detailed are the buildings that you can even peek inside them (no nibbling) to see how they're constructed.

© Luke Hayes

Transport is the theme of this year's competition, with the crunchy creations showing innovative new ways of moving around densely-populated cities (might we suggest our baking-themed tube map as a starting point?).

© Luke Hayes

Participants this year will include Foster + Partners, PDP London, PLP Architecture, Turner Works and Phase3. Between them, they've designed Wembley Stadium, The Gherkin, Chelsea Barracks, 22 Bishopsgate and Pop Brixton, so we've got skyscraper-high expectations. You can see the results of previous years — including castles, cathedrals and even a viaduct — here.

© Luke Hayes

See Gingerbread City on display at Somerset House for four weeks over Christmas — and if it gets your creative juices flowing, sign up for a gingerbread house making workshop. It may not be a whole town, but Rome wasn't built in a day.

Museum of Architecture's Gingerbread City is at Somerset House, 7 December 2019-5 January 2020. Tickets are £9 and can be bought in advance. While you're there, take a twirl on the Somerset House ice rink.

Last Updated 17 October 2019

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