It's that time of the year when architecture turns sweet and even amateurs can try their hands at designing and baking the most extravagant buildings with gingerbread.
At Westfield London and in New York City (25 Fulton Street, The Seaport, Lower Manhattan) there is a special winter wonderland with hundreds of gingerbread buildings created by over 100 architects, designers and engineers.
The Gingerbread City event is not just a visually striking candytown, though: this year it was inspired by climate change and by a specific theme – water in cities.
The humble traditional Christmas gingerbread house has been given a makeover and redesigned to offer a vision of the future in which we can plan and construct cities that are responsive to water needs and safeguard this essential resource.
The city of the title is actually divided in five distinct climate zones: Desert Landscape, Urban Floodplain, Canal City, Frozen Landscape and Underwater + Floating City.
There's a bit of everything in these climate zones, from train stations and bridgeways to canals, thermal springs and research centres, linear parks and skyscrapers, from market squares and terraced houses to biophilic buildings, visitor centres, rooftop gardens, markets, museums, schools and parks, art galleries and even islands that can adjust to rising water levels and are designed to be made from repurposed industrial materials found from ex-industrial zones.
On the event's Instagram page you may discover some of the models accompanied by the original sketch that inspired it and by a short presentation of the architectural studio that made the building.
At the Gingerbread City event in New York highlights include the Sweet Temptations Urban Farm, designed and built by the team at RKTB, a studio focused on designing affordable housing, public schools, and adaptive reuse projects. The studio conceives architecture as a social art with a responsibility for improving the lives of all people.
Their project consists in a urban-farm building and public canopy-covered space. The farm building's form is inspired by terrace farming, with the canopy flowing from it like mist off a mountain, cascading over a public market and eatery.
In London, some of the houses are built by famous architectural studios such as Zaha Hadid's, that actually went a bit over the top with a structure that looks a bit like a culinary nightmare from a '70s recipe book.
Entitled BubbleBurst Bonbon Museum, their gingerbread construction is based on a collection of continuous spherical and effervescent volumes that create an interconnected world of exhibition spaces forming the museum.
Architects and urbanists Allies and Morrison came up with a fabulously detailed Bakewell Bridge in the Canal City zone that provides a lovely crossing, continuing the bustling streetscape of the Canal Quarter with a busy mix of shops, workplaces and homes.
Quite a few projects are linked with animals: MiraHiVE, is a parametric animal watching tower and platform that floats above the waterside in the Urban Floodplain zone.
Designed and built by the team at Artes London (an international design studio comprising architects, designers and master planners with a mission – reflecting the rhythm of nature while embracing the pulse of technology, and respecting the cultures they inhabit), the platforms are connected via walkways and cycle lanes that span across the water.
Another example of a structure inspired by animals is the delicate Sea Turtle Heritage Centre by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) characterized by geodesic domes clustered on the ocean seabed.
The centre's main goal is to educate visitors about the depleting coral, endangered turtle species and human impact on the marine environment.
In the sugary landscape of Gingerbread City there are also modern conglomerates and fairy tale-like villages.
Nutmeg Terrace baked by Elliott Wood Partnership, a design-led consultancy offering structural and civil engineering, digital, transport and sustainability services for the built environment, is a series of unique terraced houses designed to work with the active floodplain from the river below.
Sustainability is brought to the forefront by raising the residential housing so that they are not affected by the flood water and in turn limiting the effect on the river and the biodiversity below.
Those who love a cute fairy tale will not resist the cute penguins living at Frosty Fin Harbour, a charming "fisher-guin" village nestled amongst icy cliffs and lulled by the rhythm of gentle waves.
Situated in the Frozen zone, designed and built by the team at BM3 Architecture, this structure is cute and bustling with life. Its inhabitants gather around the "Snowflake Inn", the main community attraction, nestled among adorable fishing huts.
Love underwater adventures? Check out the Underwater & Floating zone where you will discover the Frosted Wheat Subsea Retreat.
Nestled in a pristine underwater environment and uniting inhabitants from above and below the sea, Morrow + Lorraine's eco-lodge is designed to provide a tranquil haven for those suffering from eco-anxiety.
There's also a team of 3rd Year Architecture students (Jayne G; Priya H; Anthony H; Alexi R; supported by the Lancaster School of Architecture), among the participants and they are thinking big with the Twinkle Treat Power Station.
The design provides the opportunity to create a sustainable power source by utilising the rivers currents whilst simultaneously offering multi-purpose public spaces.
Taking its form from the natural landscape, and following the curves of the river, the circular foundations support a fluid superstructure that responds to the threat of flooding.
Inspiring for artists, architects, designers and baking fans, these cities of the future are colourful, cute, humorous, modern and sustainable, and make you realise the world would be a better place if we redirected our energies from hate, wars and conflicts to something more constructive.
Now, here's a concluding thought: while we've seen fashion experiments with gingerbread, can we envision a mini-gingerbread runway featuring edible garments and accessories? Perhaps a possibility for the upcoming year? Hopefully, I'm feeling ginger-bready excited about it.
