Adventures in Candyland: seven astounding gingerbread houses

The Chicago Tribune recently asked four local architects to submit designs for gingerbread houses, then had pastry chef Kimberly Schwenke turn the blueprints into sugary piles. While we thought the results were a little less than magical—this rethink of Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye is the most eye-catching of the lot—the competition inspired us to seek out other edible edifices. The results are weird, delicious-looking and, in at least one case, a force of gentrification in gingerbread villages.