Imagine Venice, the city of canals, at Christmastime — twinkling with lights and dressed in garlands. Now translate that into gingerbread and gumdrops. That's exactly what hundreds of architects, designers and engineers came together to do — build the Italian city made up of more than 100 small islands out of Snickers, Mars bars, Jellybeans, cereal, gummy bears and more. And, of course, sheets and sheets of gingerbread.

The air smells sugary and sweet as the competitors arrive. CannonDesign, a global design firm, is one of 52 teams checking into Gingertown, D.C. — a design-and-build competition created in 2006 by David M. Schwarz Architects here in the nation's capital. And it has since expanded to other cities.