The popular Gingerbread City holiday exhibition has returned to London’s Museum of Architecture featuring some tasty designs from top firms organized into five “mini-cities” master-planned for the second consecutive year by Madeleine Kessler Architecture.

Each of the small cities represents global polar, temperate, continental, desert, and tropical climate zones. The museum’s founder Melissa Woolford told AJ in a preview of this year’s show that put forward “‘many brilliant ideas for how to tackle the challenge of building for different climates,” adding: “By bringing all these ideas together, Museum of Architecture hopes to inspire meaningful conversations around how we can act to help save our planet.”

The exhibition runs until January 2nd in the museum’s 6-7 Motcomb Street space in Belgravia. Let’s have a look at the competing teams with a selection of enticing photos. (h/t to AJ for the project descriptions.)

Liquorice Library (UHA) — "in the continental zone, designed using CLT with glulam beams this library has a low-carbon diet and contains over 1500 books and 84 visitors"

Mille-Feuille Square (PRP) — "residential complex designed to adapt to London’s changing temperate climate with vertical gardens, aquaculture pods and greenhouses"

Santa’s Wagon Wheel Workshop (Arup) — "Santa’s workshop was once on the ice but now it is surrounded by desert. Reindeers are replaced by camels and Santa is in Speedos!"

Glacier Mint Plaza (Chapman Taylor) — "landscaped waterfront plaza in the polar zone with ice-skating, saunas, hot tubs and cable car"

Cotton Candy College (BDP) — "university campus dedicated to achieving a circular economy in the continental zone"

The Ice Stadium (Foster + Partners) — "a 'concept that emerges from the ground and is in total harmony with its surroundings'"

Frosted Fortress (Corstorphine &  Wright) — "inspired by an iceberg, our Frosted Fortress is semi-submerged under water due to rising sea levels with unflooded areas salvaged to become an arts venue"

Bio-Doughm (Stride Treglown) — "a new self-sufficient community in the polar zone"

Fish_Do (IF_DO) — "an Arctic harbour powered by renewables"

Willy Wonka Wetland (Alexandra Noble Design) — "a new eco-system for London, protecting against floods, droughts and pollution"

Micelium Splash (Barr Gazetas) — "lido and reservoir – using mushrooms and mycelium as primary materials, the pond collects, filters and purifies the water"

Parfait Palmeraie (Aterre Studio) — "eco-community using desert permaculture techniques to recycle water"

Meringue Market (Gustafson Porter + Bowman) — "sustainable agriculture providing a fair income for all inhabitants in the tropical zone"

Super Tree Gumball Gardens (Zaha Hadid Architects) — "tropical vertical gardens made in collaboration with Brik Chocolate"

Liquorice Train Station (AHMM) — "solar panels, wind turbines and rain water harvesting in the temperate zone"

Treat Tops Nature Reserve (Group 19 x Spark Structures) — "look out points in rewilded tropical nature reserve"

Museum of Marshmallows (Kevin Kelly Architects) — "a tribute to the most unlikely building material in the temperate zone"

Fruit Loop Farm (outerspace) — "harnesses scarce rainfall in the desert zone with a goal to ‘close the loop’ on waste"