Sweet but socially sensitive: A homelessness-themed gingerbread house competition

For a gingerbread house building competition, the Swedish Museum of Architecture challenges participants to work confectionary magic with sugar, flour and a liberal pinch of social awareness.

Fri, Dec 10 2010 at 10:54 AM

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Green Design, Christmas

A gingerbread house that's part of the Swedish Architecture Museum's annual gingerbread house competition.

Images: Swedish Museum of Architecture

This year, the Swedish Museum of Architecture, in collaboration with the Stockholm City Welfare Mission, has launched a gingerbread house building competition that aims to raise awareness about homelessness in Sweden.

(By the way, it looks like game-changing eco-architect/baker Michelle Kaufmann has stepped away from the prefab gingerbread scene again this year. It only makes sense, given that Kaufmann was creating confectionary replications of homes that are now owned by Blu Homes, the firm that purchased the assets of MkDesigns after it was shuttered in 2009.) However, there are others constructing meaningful gingerbread houses elsewhere this holiday season. Read on:

Sure, most of us don't automatically think “Sweden,” or any Scandinavian country for that matter, when thinking of nations whose citizens struggle with poverty and homelessness. This just goes to show that homelessness — and awareness of homelessness — truly knows no geographic bounds.

The theme of the competition, “‘I’m Home now’— on feeling at home or rootless,” asks entrants — divided into three categories: architects/professional bakers, children under 12, and “everyone else who bakes "— to consider the following while creating their own unique “Pepparkakshus:”

This year’s theme is about something that is central to all of us. We build and care for and love our homes. We see our homes as a human right. Yet there are many people who do not have a home or who have been forced to leave their home and to search for a new one.

Head on over to the contest homepage to view all 95 contest entrants. Although online voting is now closed to the public, the winners will be picked on December 12 with all of the socially aware gingerbread houses remaining on display at the Swedish Museum of Architecture until the 9th of January.

Do you make gingerbread houses during the holidays? If so, do they ever incorporate environmental and social issues?

Via [Below the Clouds] via [Inhabitat]

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