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Gingerbread City 2023

2023 2022 2021 2020 Resources

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. Among the many bakes, this year’s city is packed with references and homages to some of Toronto’s modern architectural landmarks including Ontario Place, City Hall, and Cloud Gardens. For 2023, we also have the return of Kids’ Main Street, the whimsical thoroughfare filled with cafes, ramen shops, and so much more designed by the youngest city-builders in the family.

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? We have once again partnered with The Maker Bean Café where a selection of these edible creations are on display through to January 12, 2024. Drop by from 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM on Saturday, December 16 for Meet the Makers, to meet some of the talented gingerbread architects behind this year’s showcase and learn about their creation process.


Call for 2023 Entries

In-Person Exhibit

The Maker Bean Café
1052 Bloor St W, Toronto

December 13, 2023 – January 12, 2024
Mon-Sat: 8:30AM – 6:00PM, Sun: 10:00AM – 5:00PM

Please note that The Maker Bean Café will be closed December 24-26 and on January 1.

2023 Creations

Beth Sholom Synagogue

Jocelyn Squires

The Beth Sholom Synagogue, completed in 1959 just outside of Philadelphia, is Frank Lloyd Wright's only synagogue. I am fascinated by the use of light in sacred spaces and FLW carefully crafted a space in which no detail of the outside world is visible to the congregation, creating a powerful connection with the sun and sky. This was a challenging space to build as there are no internal columns and the "glass" had to perform as structure!
Gingerbread, isomalt, royal icing, Jolly Ranchers, and cold hard tenacity
Candy Coated Citadel

Kurt Kraler

This delectable gingerbread creation is inspired by the modernist Yorkminster Citadel, located at 4300 Yonge Street, near Highway 401. Built in 1956, this distinctive A-frame building has several triangular dormers with floor to ceiling glazing. For the gingerbread recreation, roof shingles were created with Shreddies, the stained glass windows with melted Jolly Ranchers, and the roof ridge lined with red licorice. A light dusting of icing sugar gives the impression of fresh snow.
Gingerbread, royal icing, Jolly Ranchers, Shreddies, red licorice, icing sugar
Christmas Greenhouse

Will & Jenny Huggon

Our gingerbread model was inspired by our love or gardening and love of the holidays. Part of our inspiration was our micro cut flower farm in our backyard.
Everything in our model is edible (except for the fairy lights). It’s gingerbread and royal icing with gelatin sheet windows. The Christmas trees are ice cream cones piped with icing.
Cloud Gardens

Michelle Bullough, Shanze Shahbaz, Yara Ragab, Anna Samoilova, Sara Shemirani, Trevor Whitten

This gingerbread recreation of the Cloud Gardens conservatory and plaza is a delectable homage to an urban landscape that it one of our favourite weekday outdoor lunch spots. We aimed to capture the essence of this space, and the relationship between urbanity and nature. Our submission encapsulates the vibrant spirit of a summertime retreat in the cozy sweetness of wintery gingerbread. Please do not enjoy this gastronomically.
Gingerbread, wafers, Rice Krispies treats, rice paper, pasta, shredded coconut, icing
Cloud Gardens Conservatory

Rob Shostak

An oasis in the heart of Downtown Toronto, Cloud Gardens consists of a tropical conservatory, fronted by a series of ramps and terraces, and backed by a tapestry monument to construction workers. Throughout my studies at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design I had the opportunity to learn under Dean George Baird and Barry Sampson. While influential on how I personally perceive the built environment, they shaped Toronto, the profession, and the discourse of architecture, cities, and culture. With Barry’s passing in December 2020, and George’s in October of this year, I sought to create a tribute to them through this landmark project. __ The Governor General’s Architectural Award winning Cloud Gardens Conservatory was designed by Baird Sampson Neuert Architects, the MBTW Group, and artist Margaret Priest.
Fallingwater

Vince Wang

My submission is a gingerbread interpretation of Fallingwater House, the original architectural masterpiece designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Inspired by this iconic structure, the design intent is to capture the essence of Fallingwater's distinctive cantilevered structure seamlessly integrated with organic nature and flowing water. My goal is to evoke a sense of delight and wonder through the whimsical medium of a gingerbread house, marrying sweetness with a touch of sophistication.
Rice crispy, pretzels, graham crackers, fruit by the foot.
Fort York Visitor Centre

Kearns Mancini Architects

We created an interpretation of the Fort York Visitor Centre designed by Kearns Mancini Architects and Patkau Architects. Considered the ‘birthplace of Toronto,’ the Fort is home to one of the oldest collections of fortifications in Canada, dating back to the War of 1812. The design provides an opportunity for visitors to be immersed into the profound history of the site as they ascend to the Fort Commons to a final prospect overlooking the site and the city beyond.
Gingerbread cookie, royal icing, isomalt and food coloring
Gingerbread House

Arcadis Transit Group

A gingerbread house decked out as a cozy home amidst the festivities of the winter season. Assembled with lots of cheer, laughter and sweetness on a cold winter evening in Toronto, our group of designers and architects leaned into the coziness of the season and glittered-up the windows, doors with multi-coloured candy trims. The front pine tree is plush with snow tops and Christmas lights as are the side hedges lit with candy flame lights. A snowman waits to greet at the front door. Alas, a visitor has found an alternate entry into the home via the chimney but is having some difficulty. It is peculiar how he leaves no tracks on the freshly fallen snow on the pitched roof nor interrupts the marshmallow mounds of snow collected over days past. No one worries much about his escapades for he is known to bring good tidings and great cheer. Ho Ho Ho - Happy Holidays to One and All!
Gingerbread, frosting, sprinkles, and various candies galore.
Gingerham Building

Students from Lakeshore Collegiate Institute

A gingerbread and isomalt rendition of the Halifax Central Library featuring stacked rectangular volumes of isomalt.
Halisnack Central Library

Thomas Guignard

A gingerbread and isomalt rendition of the Halifax Central Library featuring stacked rectangular volumes of isomalt.
At the corner of Queen Elizabeth Cake St. and Sweet Spring Roll St. in Halisnack stands the new Central Library. Baked in 2014 by the famous Danish butter cookie bakery Schmitt Hammer Lassen, the library is an impressive stack of isomalt volumes that are said to resemble a heap of books waiting to be read. Like their glass, steel and concrete counterparts, the floors of the Halisnack library are connected by a light well crisscrossed by stairs and walkways.
Gingerbread, isomalt, royal icing, buttercream icing, powdered sugar
Ontario Place

Joël León Danis

This year my submission is a celebration of Ontario Place and it's special integration of innovative buildings and landscapes. It includes edible renditions of the iconic Cinesphere and pods (made entirely of cookies and sugar with no hidden structural elements) as well as representation of Michael Hough's many landscape elements including berms and hills covered in trees to shelter the interior waters and buildings, a variety of shoreline treatments (rocks, straight edges and soft slopes), and varying scales of bodies of water.
Gingerbread, royal icing, isomalt, cheerios, hazelnut water cookies, and peppermint snowmen.
Toronto City Hall

Calum Tsang

This is a gingerbread model of Toronto's City Hall. The real building was opened in 1965, and replaced the old city hall situated next to it. Designed by Finnish architect Viljo Revell, it won a design competition with over 500 entries. As the real building features smooth curved towers and significant use of textured concrete, the goal of this project was to reduce the model enough to remain easy to bake yet evoke those two elements.
Materials: Gingerbread & icing
Tommy Thompson Park Entrance and Pavilion

DTAH

It’s nearing Christmas eve and the elves are ever so tired of toy making. So, they took a walk to rest their weary souls. Arriving at DTAH’s multi-award-winning Tommy Thompson Park Entrance and Pavilion, the walkway was lined with candy canes and candy corn marking the entrance to an enchanting gingerbread pavilion, elegantly nestled into the sweet sugar landscape! They admired the untwizzled trees and glazed icing berms, but those weren't high enough to look out to the city. They needed to get higher. Maybe if they climbed the rice crispy gabion to get on the roof. THE ROOF. Oh that beautiful, laminated roof. So big. So cantilevered. How? How was it structurally sound? A Christmas miracle no less. They looked back to Toronto and thought: how wonderful it is to gather in public space—specifically the ones designed by DTAH.
Materials: Gingerbread, cookies
A model of building made of gingerbread featuring 5 storeys and industrial looking mullioned windows.
Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St.

Cara Benjamin-Pace, Newcomer Kitchen

A model of building made of gingerbread featuring 5 storeys and industrial looking mullioned windows.
This building is a community of mission driven organizations with a focus on building a better world. CSI has welcomed and supported our organization and everyday we come home to work
Gingerbread, boiled sugar for windows and seams, icing sugar for snow

Kids’ Main Street

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Returning as part of this year’s TSA Gingerbread City is Kids’ Main Street, a mixed-used streetscape featuring over 50 façades (architect speak for the front of a building) designed and built by children, ages 2 to 14, during a series of in-person workshops held throughout December, where children and their families learned about city building through the very delicious medium of cookies, icing, and lots of candy. The delicious results are captured in the scrolling streetscape above. Click on the arrows on the bottom right of the image to go full screen and scroll to see all the wonderful detail done by these gingerbread architects! 

A special shout out to our amazing gingerbread architects: Felix, Daniel, Cole, Earl, Barbie, Nico, Neel, Maxim, Leisha, Kross, Lucas, Ada, Agnes, Alina, Arun, Brittany, Dana, Edward & Adam, Ekam, Eliza, George, Adam, John, Juliana, TSA Staff, Owen, Pendar, Tristan, Taj, Max, Benjamin, Pablo, Diahla, Jaz, Netta, Elka, Zeke, Mouse, Oscar, Dena, Anon, Kouhenoor, Patrick, Noorjahaern, Galen, Sasha, Simrit, Miles, Emily, Rafaella, Malka, Nicola, Zoe, Emma, and Susan. 

 


In-Person Exhibit Hosted By

Kids’ Main Street Supported By