For a day or two in December, the architectural imagination migrates its medium, and the workaday tribulations of CAD, Revit and Grasshopper give way to the tactile, aromatic pleasures of cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon. From Toronto’s KPMB to the Rockwell Group, Morris Adjmi and Robert A.M. Stern, designers across North America have embraced the romance of the season, bringing an exacting eye to the gingerbread architecture of gumdrops, frosting and candy canes.

Beyond the sheer novelty of seeing architectural icons and contemporary buildings in gingerbread form, the fusion of professional design culture and a popular holiday pastime also yields thought-provoking results. For instance, last year’s Gingerbread City exhibition in New York — featuring designs by the likes of Cooper Robertson and Arquitectonica — was organized around the theme of coastal resilience and rising sea levels, translating ambitious sustainable thinking into a readily digestible medium.

Here in Toronto, KMPB’s recent Gingerbread Build for the City — organized in support of Red Door Family Shelter — saw architects, designers and developers build landmarks worthy of the title of “8th Wonder of the World.” And while the submissions included takes on recent global marvels like The Shard and Marina Bay Sands, Stantec’s entry celebrated Ontario’s own Niagara Power Plant, elevating a familiar piece of civic infrastructure into an exalted new context. It beckons us to see it all with new eyes.