SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (WKEF) – Springfield-Clark CTC students are participating in a gingerbread house competition.
Springfield-Clark Career Technology Center students studying culinary arts, engineering and architectural design team up to build realistic gingerbread houses that put about a month's worth of planning into practice. Graduates from the culinary arts program and the engineering and architectural design program were divided into six different groups to create plans and a model for each home.
“It's kind of nice because they really have to think outside the box, just like you would if you were building a real house, because of the way angles meet and things like that. “Everything needs to be supported,” said chef David Hay, a culinary arts lecturer.
Hay and Eric Barge, associate professor of engineering and architectural design, said students typically come up with ideas for large, multistory homes with long walls. They quickly learned that it was difficult to make long walls that could support the weight of a large roof out of delicate gingerbread. That was certainly the case for a group that wanted to recreate the house from Disney Pixar's “Up.”
“Gingerbread is very fragile after baking. So you have to be able to make it thick enough and cut it so that it doesn't crack when you place it and with all the weight on it,” said Mathias Conner, an engineering and architectural design student.
Another group took inspiration from Spanish architecture and built what they called “Santa’s Summer House.”
“We decided we wanted to go for something different, like a lot of winter themes, but we thought we should just go for something summery. Why not?” said Morgan Furnas, a senior in engineering and architectural design.
“Santa's Summer Home” was complete with replica terra cotta roof tiles made from a 3D printed mold, a swinging garage door, and windows made from a sugar substitute that looks like glass when it hardens. Another group went with a winter theme and built a log cabin with icicles and a smoking chimney made of Rice Krispies and gummy bears. Students said the kitchen was a little chaotic at times. People would disagree and plans would change.
“Working with someone that maybe we've never met before is pretty difficult because we don't know what they like, they don't know what we like,” said Kyleigh Fugate, culinary arts student.
But through the intensive, months-long planning process, the houses will now be on display and the student body will vote on their favorites. They will be stored in a safe place and released at the end of the school year to serve as final projects for engineering and architectural design students. This was their biggest year yet and teachers said the best part was giving their students the opportunity to work together and learn from each other in seemingly unrelated programs.