The Vancouver collective Creative Room is holding a newly-formed annual Gingerbread Competition and Charity Auction, tasking architecture firms to put their design prowess into houses made of gingerbread. The houses are then auctioned off to the public, with this year’s proceeds going to benefit Architecture for Humanity.

Bidding ends on the 10th, and you can see the entrants here.

-Via Core77

So you have built your backyard bomb shelter, but what to hang on the walls? From areas with dangerous natural disasters to full-on war zones, ever building in the heat of battle could likely use a layer of X-Flex. As the video demonstrates, a single sheet is sufficient to keep a wrecking ball from knocking down a concrete block wall. And for the paranoid homeowner: yes, they are even developing a standard commercial version for ordinary citizens.

Best Of What’s New 2009: Bombproof Wallpaper Test from PopSci.com on Vimeo.

-Via Dornob

-Via The Big Picture

“Jason Santa Maria asked the Communicating Design class he teaches at SVA to create currencies inspired by local New York neighborhoods. The students randomly drew boroughs out of a hat and were then told to research that area, drawing upon it’s culture. The results were pretty awesome with students coming up with some pretty creative ideas.”

Read more at the college’s blog or check out their Flickr page.

-Via Kitsunenoir

-Via Max Wanger

I went to Firehouse Subs right next to Tech today and they have this awesome new soda machine that has over 100 flavors.

-Via Behance

“What do you get when you mix the older films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet with the gothic creativity of Tim Burton? I think it would roughly add up to the amazing sculptures of Stephane Halleux. These amazing sculptures are crafted from bits of leather and all kinds of off found objects, things that from another time that have been put together to create these little beauties. It’s crazy how much attention and detail go into these, and they all look they should be characters in some kind of crazy steampunk, stop-motion movie set in a Triplet of Bellesville universe.”

-Via Kitsunenoir

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season–Chocolate Oranges :) They’re in stock for the season once again.

Covers for classic books designed and illustrated by Mikey Burton for his thesis.

An integrated branding campaign based around the illustrative reinterpretation of classic book covers directed toward junior-high-school students. You can check out more of the bits and pieces here. Done while at Kent State.

-Via Csebastian