Architects and Designers Bake the Gingerbread City of the Future

For the third year in a row, U.K.–based architects, designers, and engineers, have come together to create an edible city for the Museum of Architecture's Gingerbread City exhibition in London. This year's edition, hosted by the Victoria and Albert Museum, revolves around the theme of "imagining the future city," according to the exhibition's website. Designed based on a masterplan by London-based Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design, this year's miniature city is made entirely of gingerbread and features more than 60 structures, including a movie theater, a museum, a sports stadium, high-rise office blocks, botanical gardens, and riverside houses.

Exhibition highlights include the "SugarLoop" highline by London-based Apt; the "Exploration Pavilion" (built using a combination of robotic technologies and traditional baking methods) by Foster + Partners; a homeless shelter with a community cafe, work space, and local shops, by London-based Holland Harvey Architects; the "Bakewell Bridge"—a tribute to cultures around the world—by London-based Hopkins Architects; elevated green spaces and artificial waterfalls by NBBJ's London office; and Zaha Hadid Architects' opera house inspired by the firm's signature designs. Other participating firms include Hawkins\Brown, Arup, Bell Phillips Architects, and Seven Architecture, all based in London.

“We need to be looking forwards in terms of how we make our cities better for all that live and work in them,” said Tibbalds director Hilary Satchwell in a press release. “It has been really exciting this year to set the Gingerbread City 2018 theme around how our future cities might work. For Tibbalds this isn’t about some dystopian vision about the future but about how real places can work for all of us and how we can live in well designed, attractive, and lively places—and ideally that are a bit more long lasting than these gingerbread ones!”

The Gingerbread City Exhibition will be on view until Jan. 6, 2019, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.