Sweden's festive gingerbread competition

Baking and decorating the family gingerbread house is a quintessential moment in Sweden’s yuletide festivities. Reflecting the importance of connection, “together” was chosen as this year’s gingerbread house competition theme.

The Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design, ArkDes, runs this competition annually, nurturing a festive interest in these important creative forms. While taking the gingerbread genre to new levels, ArkDes teacher Sara Sandell says the contest grounds architecture in people’s experience.

Sara Sandell: "Architecture can feels a bit advanced and hard for people, but everybody have a relation to, to houses and architecture. So it, I think, gingerbread houses is a way to, to make it fun. And it’s a tradition that a lot of people do yearly at home, they bake together, family and friends. So this is a way to do it in a, in a grander scale."

Speculation continues whether the tradition, stretching back to the latter part of the 19th century, evolved from the Brothers Grimm conjuring gingerbread houses in our imaginations through their tale of Hansel and Gretel.

Colourful confectionery adorns today’s gingerbread creations, and ArkDes insists competition entries only contain edible components. This challenges and rewards creators for lateral thinking.

Sara Sandell: "A lot of things go into baking. The, it’s planning and thinking ahead how you want pieces, materials, how they work together. So it’s a lot of things that, that, that goes with architecture in the design but also it’s, it’s fun, and everybody loves gingerbreads houses, right."

The contest features three categories, showcasing the skills of architects, designers and professional bakers in one, children under 12 in another, and amateurs with a love of baking in the third. An expert jury selects winners for each category, while a fourth, publicly voted prize is selected by exhibition visitors and awarded to the people’s favourite.

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