Westminster enters Museum of Architecture Gingerbread City exhibition recreating part of Cavendish Campus

This year’s theme for Gingerbread City is the Recycled City, which challenged the team of students to re-imagine and repurpose a building. The team chose the Tower Tavern structure, part of the University’s Cavendish Campus. Students Beatrice Iordache, Brikena Haxhiu, Kristelle-Liis Ahone, Kristina Veleva, Rafaat Ahmed, Radhika Sapariya and Yixuan Liao were assisted by Dr Maja Jovic, Assistant Head of the School of Architecture and Cities, in thinking through how to realise their vision and decorate it with appropriate seasonal flourishes.

Maja Jovic had a prior interest in Tower Tavern as a piece of Westminster’s history and one of the spaces that are left behind but part of Westminster’s story. For the University’s first entry, the team needed a space that fits the annual theme, showcases the University’s values and commitment to sustainable and regenerative thinking as well as thriving communities, but also would forgive different levels of familiarity with baking.

Working with a diverse team with different schedules meant that the team had to balance their commitments and availabilities, so they started with a site visit that solidified Tower Tavern as a choice. Then, they went back to the drawing board to edit the design and coordinate their efforts accordingly. Most of the structure was built individually by students who all brought pieces together and assembled them together on campus. The final building process included carols and leftover treats for morale and energy boosting, the chef suggesting his favourite gingerbread recipe, security helping the team find a dry and quiet place for storage and last-minute re-thinking for creative ideas on how best to help the biscuit retain structural integrity – not unlike any other design process.

Photo credit: Luke O’Donovan

Students came from a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the University of Westminster, such as Art and Visual Culture MA, Master of Architecture MArch RIBA Part II, Fine Art Mixed Media BA Honours, Interior Architecture BA Honours, Architecture and Environmental Design BSc Honours and Architecture BA Honours.

Maja Jovic said: “Project management doesn’t get any sweeter than this! Leading this team of skilled and enthusiastic students from different courses across our University from the design to build stage was a treat (all puns intended). I’m sure we made our presence known with a trail of icing sugar and sticky hands on Marylebone Campus, but Westminster’s first gingerbread structure is sitting proudly amongst other architectural icons. I hope the act of re-thinking Tower Tavern as a hub of creativity, socialisation and good practices of responsible design was informative for our students, as it was certainly inspirational for me as an educator. We look forward to reaching new heights next year, though it might be a sugar rush talking.”

This work is part of the Quintin Hogg Trust-funded project titled Facing the Public led by Professor Pippa Catterall, Professor of History and Policy at the University.

She said: “It was wonderful to work with such a talented and artistic group of students and I am so delighted with the result. It really showcases the quality of the work here and looks too good to eat too!”

The Gingerbread City exhibition can be visited at the Gaumont, Chelsea until 29 December 2024 and full details can be found on their website.

This exhibition directly contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 4: Quality Education and 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure. Since 2019, the University of Westminster has used the SDGs holistically to frame strategic decisions to help students and colleagues fulfil their potential and contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and healthier society.

Learn more about the Architecture, Interiors and Urban Design courses at Westminster.