This is Trainline's destination guide to The Gingerbread City! The famous futuristic miniature city was displayed at Somerset House between December 2019 and January 2020. Built by 100 of the UK’s leading architects and designers for the Museum of Architecture charity, there were seven zones – and the theme was sustainable future transport.
All of The Gingerbread City's buildings were hand-crafted from gingerbread, sweets and confectionery – and in many cases, teams of architects and designers spent days or even weeks on their contributions to the streetscape.
So, to mark their achievements and to continue on the theme of sustainable transport, we’ve collated a complete guide to all 100 of the sites – each a little work of art – and link all of the architects together who have championed a sustainable transport future in this project.
So, let's explore...
1. Research and University District
2. Cultural Quarter
3. Sustainable Quarter
4. Gingerbread Waterfront
5. Castle Hill
6. Connected Quarter
7. London Quarter Island
8. The Transport Theme
The Gingerbread City in London included high-rise buildings, office blocks and apartments, a university, stadium, tram station, urban farm, park and ferry terminal, five bridges, cycleways and pedestrian paths. There were reinterpretations of well-known landmarks like ‘Buttersea Power Station’, ‘Gingerbread Modern’, ‘Sugarset House’ and the London Eye as well as a large-scale boat and moving cable car and hot air balloon. There was even a model railway, which for a couple of weeks, ran a model train provided by the team at Trainline!
Based on a masterplan developed by Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design, The Gingerbread City championed sustainable design ideas and innovation on a miniature scale.
The Gingerbread City is an annual exhibition, in 2019 in its fourth year. Organised by the Museum of Architecture team, its aim is to connect the public with architecture in an exciting way and spark important conversations around cities and how we live in them. The cities let visitors peek inside sectional buildings, understand how city planners interact with natural landscapes and be inspired by the creativity and dexterity of some of the UK’s top architects and designers.
Learn more about the Museum of Architecture.
If you work as an architect or designer, do get ready to register your interest in building the Gingerbread City 2020 from this coming summer!
All images on this destination guide are (c) Museum of Architecture and Luke O Donovan 2019.