December 2, 2025

Gingerbread City returns for 2025!

The London 2025 Gingerbread City is now open to visitors in Coal Drop’s Yard at King’s Cross. The Museum of Architecture’s Gingerbread City is a celebration of place that gets thousands of people who may not normally spend much time thinking about the built environment to engage with the challenges of creating good places that best support how we live, work and play.

This year’s theme, The Playful City, celebrates the power of fun, curiosity and good design to make our cities happier, healthier and more connected for people of all ages. From colourful, interactive public spaces to rewilded rooftops and buildings that invite movement and joy, architects are reimagining what “play” means as part of our built environment.

This year Tibbalds have constructed part of a Gingerbread New Town - based on one of the large-scale masterplans that Tibbalds are working on. Our focus both in the projects, and in the gingerbread, is to make new places to live and work that offer the richness and mix of the existing places we all love spending time but that also offer new thinking and consider the positive impact we can make on the quality of resident’s day to day lives.

Our city plot imagines what it might be like to live in this garden community through the eyes of Layla – a 10 year old girl making her way to school through safe, playable streets, meeting up with her grandad and having space to spend time with friends in an urban environment that supports nature and people. The model includes Layla’s school, the community space that she goes to for art club, the later living that her grandad lives in, homes that some of her friends live in and the community garden where multi-generational residents meet up and listen to stories. We think it’s possible to create places that are really great places to live, where everyone is encouraged to play along the way and have really enjoyed bringing this to life.

The Playful Gingerbread City showcases the imagination and creativity of our whole team, exploring playful ideas and innovative concepts - all through the delightful, unexpected medium of gingerbread and other edible goodies.

Tibbalds has also assisted the Museum of Architecture in the production of activity packs to support young people’s workshops at the Gingerbread City again this year. These seek to inspire children and young adults to think creatively about how we can integrate and include opportunities for play within our built environment and what the barriers are to playable and safe environments for all.