Now in its seventh year, the Gingerbread Design Competition is a fun and tasty way to highlight the delicious talents of Boston firms, to challenge the designers to explore a new medium, and to raise funds for the BSA Foundation’s community design programs and the Community Design Resource Center (CDRC).

Throughout the month of December, BSA Space was filled with Gingerbread “houses” interpreting the theme: “Rep your arch' style,” enabling participants to create Gingerbread structures interpreting their favorite architectural styles. From the Louvre in Paris, France to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, each one of the gingerbread creations was able to convey the novelty of its subject. The structures attracted an immense amount of foot traffic through the gallery during the holiday season.

This event also serves as a unique fundraiser in that all “votes” for the designs are made via donations. Bids of any amount were accepted online at gingerbread.architects.org. The creation that gathered the greatest amount of donations by the December 18^th reception got to take home the coveted Golden Spatula. The structure that gathered the greatest number of bids—of any amount—was also declared victorious of the Golden Whisk. Despite strong competition up to the final hours, LDa Architect & Interiors’ A Sweet Way to Live Small pulled ahead with the largest amount of donations winning the Golden Spatula, and designLAB Architects’ We Louvre Modernism received the Golden Whisk with the largest number of bids. Congratulations!

This year’s celebrity judge, Anthony Sparandara AIA, Principal of ASK Design/Build, awarded the Golden Rolling Pin at the reception for the Gingerbread Reception. The Golden Rolling Pin was awarded to studioMLA Architects’ (Ginger)Bread-celona Pavillion by Mies Graham der Rohe.

The voting ended at midnight on December 31, and raised over $3,500 for Community Design programs of the BSA Foundation and the CDRC. With $1,485 across 32 donations on their Hobbit inspired hill A Sweet way to Live Small , LDa Architect & Interiors raised the most money at the end of the exhibition, securing themselves the second annual “MVG” win, or Most Valuable Gingerbread.

This good fun supports serious work. Community design programs of the BSA Foundation provide design assistance to neighborhoods and community organizations in need, and work to bring neighborhood voices into larger design and planning processes. In the recent past, the BSA Foundation has been involved in projects in Roslindale, East Boston, Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan, working on issues from climate resiliency to healthy schoolyards to affordable neighborhood housing.

Thank you to this year’s participating firms for their inspired baking (in alphabetical order):

• ACENTECH
• BSA Staff
• designLAB Architects
• LdA Architect & Interiors
• Olson Lewis + Architects
• Phase Zero Design
• studioMLA Architects
• TBA Architects, Inc.