Now on show at the V&A Museum, the Museum of Architecture’s Gingerbread City is billed as an architectural feast of city planning and includes the work of architects, engineers and designers. The mini edible city is fully-lit and includes everything from a cinema, library and school to a city farm, museum, sports stadium and botanical gardens, skyscraper offices blocks and riverside homes.
The show runs from 8 December 2018 to 6 January 2019 and aims to connect the public with architecture by letting them view inside sectional buildings and helping them understand how city planners interact with natural landscapes, said Melissa Woolford, founder and director of the Museum of Architecture.
Based on a masterplan developed by Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design, Gingerbread City champions sustainable design ideas and innovation on a mini scale. Exhibition highlights include a futuristic high line called SugarLoop by Apt - a green corridor with an elevated and twisted platform with light rail, cable car, cyclist and pedestrian routes.
Foster + Partners built a complex-shaped pavilion with the help of a robot. Holland Harvey Architects designed a contemporary homeless shelter with community cafe and affordable workspace to draw attention to the 7,500 people sleeping rough on the streets of London.
Hopkins Architects made a Bakewell Bridge, while LSI Architects created the Hot Cross Pub and micro-brewery with ‘grow your own hops’ green walls. PDP London’s ‘Curdzon Cinema’ uses hydroponics to power the screen, Candy Peaks by PLP Architecture is an air purifier and Crystal Towers by NBBJ elevates green spaces high into the sky with its layers of vegetation and artificial waterfalls.
Other designers included Stanton Williams, Stride Treglown and Zaha Hadid Architects, which created an opera house design inspired by layering and stacking.
Gingerbread City is an annual exhibition organised by the Museum of Architecture, which invites architects, designers and engineers to celebrate the festive season by creating an entire city from gingerbread.
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