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London museum features gingerbread 'city of the future'

LONDON — Architects have swapped traditional building materials for sugar and spice to create an edible gingerbread city of the future at London's Victoria and Albert Museum, to show that urban planning can be fun and tasty.

The annual exhibition, which runs from Dec. 8 to Jan. 6, showcases buildings by architects, designers and engineers who were asked to create a sustainable and inclusive city of the future.

More than 60 structures have been baked and the city features a cable car made of licorice, and cycle lanes and pedestrian routes made entirely of sugar.

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"So all the materials are mostly edible. There might be some internal structure a little bit in there, as well, to help, especially with the towers, helping them stand up because they're quite tall. I think the tallest one is about 86 centimeters high. So, yes, there's a little bit, there's a little bit of help in there but most of the materials, everything you see, is edible. So, sweets and gingerbread and all kinds of biscuits and everything," said Director of the Museum of Architecture, Melissa Woodford.

Among the gingerbread structures on display is a pavilion designed by Foster and Partners that was built by a robot, a first for the exhibition.