Organizing 5,000 people to make a collaborative piece of art using half a million cubes of sugar sounds like a recipe for disaster, but Irish sculptor Brendan Jamison pulled it off for Sugar Metropolis, a model city crafted using ordinary sugar by a swarm of volunteers. Think of it as one of the few pieces of art that can expand your mind and give you type 2 diabetes at the same time.

Jamison got the idea of using maltose as a muse in 2003 when he was working on a stop-motion animation that called for candy. He experimented with different kinds of sweets and eventually realized that sugar cubes, with their regular dimensions, pristine color, and brick-like structure, made them the perfect choice to build with. "Once I started working with sugar, all of sudden the possibilities seemed endless," he says.

What started as a lark has become Jamison's trademark. He's created sugar installations for galleries across the world and was recently commissioned to create a tooth-rotting replica of the famous door at 10 Downing Street, which is currently on display at the English Prime Minister's residence. Americans, imagine a replica White House composed of apple pie displayed at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and you've got a sense of how widely Jamison's art has spread.

>In total, 5,000 patrons participated, turning 5 million calories into art.

A specially formulated adhesive is used to keep the cubes connected, though Jamison limits its use to non-visible faces so that the individual cubes remain visible in his confectionery castles. "I deliberately do not apply any adhesive on the outer surface of the sugar bricks so they can continue to glisten with a magical fairytale quality." Finished pieces are displayed behind glass to protect them from sticky fingers and insects.

After mastering the esoteric art of sugar craft, Jamison wanted to share the fun with others. Jamison was asked to create a scale model of the Tate Modern art museum for an arts festival, but instead of displaying a finished piece under glass, he decided to put on a show. "I demonstrated to the general public how to build free-standing sugar cube sculptures and even though it was only on a very small scale, this was effectively the genesis for what would later become Sugar Metropolis."

The positive response emboldened him to scale up the project. The first Sugar Metropolis was a sprawling, room-sized construction made from 500,000 sugar cubes at the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts in Northern Ireland. 50,000 people watched everything from tiny arcades to miniature ziggurats emerge from mountains of sugar piled on the museum's fine parquet floor over a period of four weeks. In total, 5,000 patrons participated, turning 5 million calories into art.

This is a substantial achievement, both in aesthetic and tonnage. Half a million sugar cubes weighs approximately 2,756 pounds. That's 1,451 bags of sugar, or put another way, those empty calories weigh more than a fully loaded Mini Cooper. In more castle-friendly terms, Sugar Metropolis is equivalent to 1,148 swords, 68 suits of plate armor, and weighs more than all of Henry VIII's wives combined.

Jamison works with a group of collaborators led by Mark Revels (pictured), Mary McCaffrey, Lydia Holmes, and David Turner.

"The beauty of a project like Sugar Metropolis is that it attracts people of all ages, from young toddlers to teenagers, adults and pensioners," says Jamison. "The democratic approach means it becomes an artwork that belongs to everyone."

Jamison hired a team of sculptors to staff the gallery throughout the entire run of the exhibit and assist budding artists. The sculpting team instructed the participants on how to stack the bricks most effectively, directed them to areas in the room that required attention, and ensured that there was always an overall direction and rhythm to the installation while preserving the unique ideas visitors brought.

"Some members of the public built new designs on their own, other collaborated with friends and family, and others built on top of existing buildings," says Jamison. "This was particularly exciting as it created wonderful hybrid architectural styles."

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Jamison is fielding requests to replicate the experience at galleries around the globe and for the participants. "It is such a therapeutic material to work with," says Jamison. "The multi-sensory aspect of it means that people don't just see the sculptures, but can also imagine the taste of the sugar crystals dissolving on their tongue."

Want to take part in the next phase of Sugar Metropolis? Jamison is raising funds on Kickstarter to help bring the Sugar Metropolis to New York City—Harlem's Sugar Hill district to be specific.