The competition raises money for charity and the winning team is the team who raises the most money; LDA did not win the grand prize. However, they did win a special award for the best rendition of government center!

I CADed the building using SolidWorks with Google Streetview open on my second monitor. With Ben Peters’ help, we 3D printed it and cast a silicone mold around the 3D printed part, giving us a two-part mold for the chocolate!

However, tempered chocolate is very viscous; I couldn’t get it to flow into the two-part mold. The splotchy buildings pictured above are the ones that I did not manage to temper properly.

After several attempts with open faced molds, I switched to using chocolate candy melts, which don’t taste as good, but are designed to make melting and hardening chocolate easier. Next time, I will start with an open-faced mold and skip straight to candy melts.

Molded Chocolate Building

Architects take gingerbread competitions seriously. The firm LDA, here in Kendall Square, decided to submit their recreation of Government Center, but it features the curved Sears Crescent building. How could they make an edible, curved building? 3D printing, silicone molding, and casting chocolate [obviously!].
With mold making help from Ben Peters, I made them this chocolate building.

ClientFavor for an architect friendMy RoleWith mold-making advice and help from Ben Peters, I made the silicone molds and tempered and poured the chocolateYear2016StatusCompletedCategoryAward Winning, Hobby, Rapid Prototyping