Questions and answers

The voting period opens on November 29, 2024 and lasts until and including December 11, 2024.

You vote via ArkDe’s website, so you don’t have to be at the museum to be able to vote.

For ArkDes, the gingerbread houses are a great way to get you thinking about how houses and cities are made. By building gingerbread houses, you get to think about construction, functions and aesthetics – just like architects and designers do. It’s a fun way to approach something that is usually both difficult and complicated, but important to everyone.

The Gingerbread House exhibition has been organized by ArkDes since 1990, which means it has been running for over 30 years. In 2023, the exhibition was paused because ArkDes was closed for rebuilding.

At arkdes.se you will find information about previous gingerbread house exhibitions. Click on the link to get to the exhibitions.

Yes, everyone is welcome to participate in the exhibition and competition! It will be especially exciting when children, professional bakers, architects and amateurs show their creations side by side.

To allow as many people as possible to participate in the exhibition, each person or group can only submit one entry. It is fine for multiple people to work together to bake a gingerbread house. A group, class, family, etc., can collaborate to build a gingerbread house together.

There are three categories to compete in:

• Architects, designers and bakers
• Up to 12 years
• Everyone else who bakes

A winner is selected in each category by a jury. In addition, the Audience Award is awarded to the entry that receives the most votes from the public.

Gingerbread House is an exhibition about engaging with architecture in a playful and undemanding way. At the same time, the built environment is made up of many different elements, and building with gingerbread dough gives you great opportunities to use your imagination and create new forms and exciting solutions. We don’t disqualify entries that don’t look like traditional houses, but we particularly welcome entries that are clearly something that is usually designed by architects in real life.

ArkDes will not reject entries containing non-edible items for the exhibition itself. However, the jury will evaluate the houses based on several categories, with edibility being one of the most important.

When I submit my entry, ArkDes will assess the safety of any technical elements. If the technology is deemed unsafe, it will be removed. Please note that there are no outlets available to power the technology – it must be battery-operated.

It’s up to you whether to use technology in your gingerbread house, but it may reduce your chances in the competition, and there’s a high risk that the technology may not work when the exhibition opens the week after submission.

To ensure fair judging and that all entries have the same starting point, entries remain anonymous until the voting is complete. This means that if you are participating in the competition, your entry cannot be shared in external media until the competition is finished.

Logos, names of political parties and slogans are not allowed on the houses. Neither are contributions that could be perceived as part of a political campaign or debate. If you are unsure, please contact us at pepparkaka@arkdes.se.

Yes, when you register, you can indicate that you want to collect your house when the exhibition is over. ArkDes reserves the right to throw away the gingerbread houses when the exhibition is over unless otherwise specified.

What fun! Here you can find information about group tours for teachers or those who want to book a group.