Last month, the wonderful B/A team got together to participate in the 6th annual AIA Gingerbread Build-Off! The design was inspired by Roy Lichtenstein’s House 1 at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. with a tribute to traditional gingerbread houses on the back.

Photo from: Panoramio

Like any design project, this required multiple models to test for durability, techniques, angles, materials, and more. It took many nights baking gingerbread and several trips to various stores to find the right materials. We even used samples from our materials library!

The site required more work than anticipated. We initially wanted to use M&M’s for the site, but we did not like the appearance of the curves—even recessing them into the fondant did not help. We then found mini rainbow chocolate covered chips! They still presented us with issues: their mini size and mix of assorted colors added some extra work. If we wanted to use the mini chips, then we needed to sort the required colors before the day of the event. It was such a tedious but necessary task! After that, we were ready for the build-off!

Check out some pictures from our attempts (click the images for a closer look). And look out for Part 2: The Build-Off Day!