The Gingerbread City 2019


Fun exhibition at Somerset House of a city made of gingerbread for Christmas.

This is an annual show by the Museum of Architecture but it’s the first time I’ve managed to get to it. It brings together architects, designers and engineers to create an imaginary city. The first thing to strike you as you go into the room is the smell, a real fragrance of Christmas, and the second is the scale of it.

I love the details of this piece with some recognisable buildings such as Battersea Power Station but also some fantasy pieces. I also liked the way it included houses as well as large public and commercial buildings.

What was lost was some of the points about planning and the built environment which it was trying to make. If you stopped to read the introduction it explained the different zones in the city. I was also a bit confused by the boards around the room which I guessed were promoting the companies who had been involved and their ethos. I wonder how many people just marvelled at the installation without taking in any of the points it was trying to make or register the names of any company involved. Still it was Christmas and who doesn’t love a gingerbread house!

Closes 5 January 2020


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