Gingerbread City 2021

The Toronto Society of Architects’ Gingerbread City is a fantastical metropolis where you can eat the walls and taste the lamp posts. Our showcase is as diverse as our city, with the only rule being that all elements must be edible. Back for a second year, this year’s city is filled with unique creations built by architects, bakers and clever place makers including flavorful student residences, tasty Victorians, and freshly baked parks! You will even find some edible renditions of our city’s most recognizable landmarks and delicious inspirations from cities far away.

Ready to explore? Click on the images below to take a closer look at these edible creations, see additional content including pictures, animations, and descriptions, and learn more about their design.

Want to see some of these creations in person? This year we have partnered with The Maker Bean Café where a selection of these edible creations are on display — both at the storefront window and inside the café through to January 4, 2022.


Support this Program

In-Person Exhibit

The Maker Bean Café
1052 Bloor St W, Toronto

December 18, 2021 – January 4, 2022
Mon-Sat 9:00 AM – 6:30 PM
Sun 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM

2021 Creations

Berczy Park

GEC Architecture

Inspired by the strong geometry of the small local park in Toronto surrounded by Front, Wellington, and Scott streets, this gingerbread creation reflects the sense of community and importance of taking a break in our bustling, fast-paced lives. The gummy bears are seen to gather, walk, sit on benches, and explore the varying topography offered in the park, seeking relaxation in the busy city. The most memorable element of the park-- the unique fountain-- is represented in the centre of this arrangement as a place of conversation, admiration, and play.
Materials: The prominent flat-iron building sits neatly at the corner of the triangular park, with its unique wall mural evident on the facade in piped icing. Though the active, restless city is a place that many of us call home, the importance of maintaining healthy leisure time is not to be ignored. Berczy Park, a small yet beloved place, humbly reflects this message.
Bob’s House

Charmain Wong

Bob's House is a place that is full of colour, silliness, and lots of comfy spaces to sit. The rainbow roof and groovy turf are sure to put you in a good mood. Down a tranquil path of chocolate rocks, you will find a bench to sit and chat with friends, or perhaps do some people watching. There's a fire-pit in the back made for warm conversations, and even a nice back porch where you can drink tea and watch the sun set into the horizon.
Gingerbread, Royal Icing, and sour ribbons for the roof, candy rocks for the path, candy canes, other assorted licorices and hard candies for landscaping and house decor.
New College Residence III

Joël León Danis

"Reflecting on the theme of home, my submission for this year’s showcase is my first home in Canada – the University of Toronto’s New College Student Residence 3 at Willcocks and Spadina. I lived there for 3 years (first on the second floor and then up on the sixth floor) and it was my home base as I explored Toronto and started a new chapter of my life.
Designed by Saucier + Perrotte architectes and opened in 2003, the non-edible version provides a home to approximately 300 students every year, as well as community spaces in the lower floors. The aerial courtyards have always been my favourite spaces providing a clever interpretation of the typical academic courtyards that are common across UofT but in a more compact and denser form. Home might mean many things and change throughout your life, and this student residence was an important part of my story and for many of my friends who I met there!
Sugar Cube House

Kurt Kraler

Inspired by the infamous "Cube House" designed by Ben Kutner and his partner Jeff Brown, this confectionary creation seeks to reinvent the traditional gingerbread house form.
Gingerbread, Melted Sugar, Royal Icing, Holiday Smarties, Peppermint Pinwheels, Candy Canes
First a Home…

The Sweet Group: Quance, Tossell & Barnes

"The social determinants of mental health and well-being are captured in ‘ A home, a job, a friend’. It all starts with a safe, secure home, and then builds with friendship and purposeful activity. Our gingerbread vignettes illustrate these concepts, and honour the shelter and support provided by the Red Door Shelter."
We followed the gingerbread and icing recipes linked in the TSA website. The cookies are deliciously spiced and tooth-breaking. Other than the lighting and base, all parts of the assembly are edible if first dunked in coffee. The window screening is rice paper wrappers.
Though I'm now a decidedly downtown-dwelling person, I grew up in deepest Etobicoke, where side split houses are common. My submission is modelled after the house in a 1973 painting entitled "North American Success Story" by Canadian artist, William Kurelek. Though nearly fifty years has passed, owning the suburban house remains a powerful badge of financial success and economic security.
Gingerbread, sugar cookies, corn syrup icing, royal icing, chocolate teenys, homemade marshmallow
Toronto is Home

Pamela and David Bruneau

We built a gingerbread replica of Viljo Revell's Toronto City Hall.
Gingerbread, royal icing, sprinkles, gumdrops
The Beacon

Sandra F. Smith Architects

This Bay and Gable home is a unique style to Toronto and evokes memories of family and home. Here the door is always open to those in need and the interior glow of the house provides a beacon of safety. A home to honour and support the incredible work at the Red Door Family Shelter.
Gingerbread, crushed mint glass, Rice Krispies - holiday edition, edible rice paper, jolly rancher, pastillage, wafer and royal icing trim
I'm fascinated with library architecture and have been travelling the world and taking photographs of libraries for over a decade. Last year when I moved from Toronto to Québec City, I immediately set about to discover the libraries of my new home town. One of my favourites is the Monique-Corriveau library, in a former modern church by Jean-Marie Roy. It was converted to a library by Dan Hanganu and Côté Leahy Cardas architects in 2012. I hope this gingerbread interpretation relays how much I like the design of both the original church and its new life as a library!
Gingerbread, royal icing, buttercream icing, candy glass, sugar star decor, pretzel sticks.
Family Decor

Elsa Lam, James Mallinson & family

Much to the disappointment of his architect-father, our four-year-old insisted on a "traditional" gingerbread house. We focused on bringing our collective creativity to the decorations. Five collaborators (mom, dad, son, niece, and sister-in-law) contributed, each taking charge of one of the facades.
Gingerbread, smarties, candy canes + SO much leftover Hallowe'en candy
"Creating something new always means dealing with the already existing. Old and new start a dialogue, compete in their functionalities, aesthetic and spatial appearances. Qualities of the new are revealed by direct relation to the old, just as peculiarities of the old emerge through the newly created. Contrasts discover qualities. To emphasize its specific density and porosity, we added smoothness, transparency and lightness of gelatine to the gingerbread. Its deep brown tone is contrasted by the sugar’s whiteness. The curves of the two semi-elliptical basic forms contrast the angularity of the traditional house. Thus, our design takes up fields of tensions: With a new, functional-aesthetic definition of gingerbread architecture, which establishes a factual design with playful ease, the traditional gingerbread house is raised on a pedestal - carried, but also self-confident – emphasizing a redefinition of gingerbread architecture accompanied by our respect for the traditional shape of the gingerbread house. We are Capsicum: Medi Stober, graphic designer Anette Quast, sociologist Axel Mertsch, designer Peter Kranzhoff, urban planner"
Thus, our design takes up fields of tensions: With a new, functional-aesthetic definition of gingerbread architecture, which establishes a factual design with playful ease, the traditional gingerbread house is raised on a pedestal - carried, but also self-confident – emphasizing a redefinition of gingerbread architecture accompanied by our respect for the traditional shape of the gingerbread house. We are Capsicum: Medi Stober, graphic designer Anette Quast, sociologist Axel Mertsch, designer Peter Kranzhoff, urban planner"
Home isn’t always about place, but people. My best friend and I grew up outside of Canada but now call Toronto home. We went to architecture school together, and an early and powerful memory was travelling together to Brasília to see this church. My background is in lighting design and I was struck by the magical atmosphere in the Santuário São João Bosco, suffused with this blue and pink light. I keep that memory close to me and I associate it with my friend, who makes me feel at home wherever I am.
Red Window

Jasmeen Bains, Danielle Charlton, Audrey Fung, Grace Yang

As a group of landscape architects, 'home' for us is really about connecting to nature and the elements. We thought about where we felt most at peace and relaxed and a picture of a cabin came to mind. We were particularly inspired by cozy A-frame cabins nestled on rock outcroppings and among conifer trees - this was an image that the four of us, who grew up in western Canada or holidayed in northern Ontario, could envision.
Gingerbread, Pocky sticks, bread sticks, candy, chocolate, icing
Tastes like Home: Busy Street

MOSS SUND Architects

Make a Donation: Red Door Family Shelter

Gingerbread City is a completely free event meant to bring joy and make you smile! If you enjoyed these entries and want to support this initiative, we encourage you to make a donation to this year’s showcased organization: Red Door Family Shelter.

A Toronto based charity, Red Door Shelter has provided emergency shelter and support for women and children affected by domestic abuse, families experiencing a housing crisis, and refugee claimants with nowhere else to turn. Funds donated to the Red Door Family Shelter will directly contribute to their work in providing emergency shelter and critical support services to families seeking assistance. From ensuring that their clients receive access to counselling, immigration, childcare, and medical services, to providing assistance in securing safe, permanent accommodation, the shelter gives residents the resources, support, and time they need.


Donate Here

In-Person Exhibit Hosted By