A temporary city has sprung up in London made entirely from Gingerbread
The Gingerbread City 2022
Luke Hayes © Luke O Donovan ©
This is the sixth year of a project that brings together the skills of some mighty clever bakers, 100 leading architects, engineers and urban planners. Madeline Kessler, Urban Planner of the project offered architects a choice of climate zones to work in. Polar, Temperate, Continental, Desert and Tropical – their task ‘to show what a sustainable future could look like’. She explains, ‘we offer plots which have specific dimensions and height restrictions. What’s so exciting is that really don’t know what the designs look like until set up begins and we see Gingerbread City come to life’.
The annual gingerbread fest is the brainchild of Melissa Woolford, founder of the virtual Museum of Architecture, a charity dedicated to finding new ways for the public to engage with architecture and to encourage entrepreneurship within architectural practice to stimulate learning, collaboration and action. MoA is actively addressing the climate crisis through its programming. It provides opportunities for architects to collaborate with other industries and communities to be better informed about the places and people for which they are designing. Melissa shares;
“I am so excited to un- veil this year’s Gingerbread City and be able to showcase so many brilliant ideas for how to tackle the challenge of building for different climates. By bringing all these ideas together Museum of Architecture hopes to inspire meaningful conversations around how we can act to help save our planet.”
Luke Hayes © Luke O Donovan ©
From 3rd December for a month you can visit the pop up on Motcomb Street in Belgravia. Tickets are £10 – do buy tickets in advance so as not to be disappointed!
How the cookie is crumbling this year!
Liquorice Library (UHA) – in the continental zone, designed using CLT with glulam beams this library has a low-carbon diet and contains over 1500 books and 84 visitors
Mille-Feuille Square (PRP) – residential complex designed to adapt to London’s changing temperate climate with vertical gardens, aquaculture pods and green- houses
Santa’s Wagon Wheel Workshop (Arup) – Santa’s workshop was once on the ice but now it is surrounded by desert. Reindeers are replaced by camels and Santa is in Speedos!
Glacier Mint Plaza (Chapman Taylor) – landscaped waterfront plaza in the polar zone with ice-skating, saunas, hot tubs and cable car
Cotton Candy College (BDP) – university campus dedicated to achieving a circular economy in the continental zone
Bio-Doughm (Stride Treglown) – a new self-sufficient community in the polar zone Fish_Do (If_Do) – an arctic harbour powered by renewables
Willy Wonka Wetland (Alexandra Noble Design) – a new eco-system for London, protecting against floods, droughts and pollution
Micelium Splash (Barr Gazetas) lido and reservoir – using mushrooms and myceli- um as primary materials, the pond collects, filters and purifies the water
Parfait Palmeraie (Aterre Studio) – eco-community using desert permaculture tech- niques to recycle water
Meringue Market (Gustafson Porter + Bowman) – sustainable agriculture providing a fair income for all inhabitants in the tropical zone
Super Tree Gumball Gardens (Zaha Hadid Architects) – tropical vertical gardens made in collaboration with Brik Chocolate
Liquorice Train Station (AHMM) – solar panels, wind turbines and rain water har- vesting in the temperate zone
Treat Tops Nature Reserve (Group 19 x Spark Structures) – look out points in re- wilded tropical nature reserve
Museum of Marshmallows (Kevin Kelly Architects) – a tribute to the most unlikely building material in the temperate zone
Fruit Loop Farm (Outerspace) – harnesses scarce rainfall in the desert zone with a goal to ‘close the loop’ on waste
Exhibition: The Gingerbread City 2022
Location: 6-7 Motcomb Street, London SW1X 8JU
Nearest station: Knightsbridge Underground
Tickets: from £10 via thegingerbreadcity.com
