Architects can plan houses, of course. But is that also true if all components are made of gingerbread? A pre-Christmas crafting event in the KZA kitchen brought surprise to light.

For one afternoon, employees and children worked together on their models. They cut walls and roofs from gingerbread slabs, glued them together with frosting, searched for the appropriate decoration. Smarties, wine gum and dominoes gradually migrated onto the house (or directly into the mouth). A saddle and sketch paper landed on the table, too, of course.

In the end there were buildings in all variations – but also a whole series of other objects. An attempt to categorize the results:

• • The „classic“ gingerbread house: Especially popular with children. It captivates with its details – from ornaments to snowflakes to faces made of chocolate wreaths.

• The Tower: Still closest to the subject of buildings in the broadest sense. Following the pagodas of her homeland, our Chinese colleague Mozhu Wang has slightly modified the house principle and constructed a tower. A variant without a lot of bells and whistles.
• The Sphinx: An idea away from the classic gingerbread houses, which could not be implemented as planned in the end. The Sphinx became a dachshund … at least the „creature“ had a similarity to the beloved pet and therefore got ears as well.
• The whale: It emerged from the remains at the end of our action. Particularly noteworthy is the sophisticated system by which it is held together from the inside – frosting is superfluous.
• The KZA gift: It was supposed to be a building model … but the project failed because of the complicated statics. In the end, all the components were stacked on top of each other, glued together with frosting and brought to an attractive Christmassy shape with a colorful bow. The emergency solution for the loved ones in spite of all mishaps.

And apropos hurdles: whoever plans a similar action, should keep three findings in mind:

1. When building a house, the cement mortar – in this case the frosting – must have the right consistency. Otherwise even the most stable house will collapse.

2. Gingerbread absorbs no tensile forces – a reinforcement of elastic material (for example, wine trimmings) is therefore highly recommended.

3. Producing high-quality finished parts is not that easy: gingerbread plates from the local oven are always thinner at the edges than in the middle, and this can have disastrous consequences. For problems of all kinds you can therefore follow the general principle: If something goes wrong, it’s the gingerbread’s fault!