Creativity & Goodwill: A Canstruction Retrospective
WHAT IS CANSTRUCTION?
Founded in 1992, Canstruction is a global non-profit that consists of more than 200 city chapters, each organizing various building competitions. These competitions are definitely attractive for those in the A/E/C industry, but Canstruction chapters have also helped organize competitions for high schools, collegiate STEM programs, and other organizations.
These building competitions have some unique rules. Building materials are limited exclusively to canned foods but some limited supporting elements can be used, so long as the canned goods remain unhampered.
The record-breaking canned-food structure on display at Walt Disney World in 2010.
Once the structures are built and displayed, they are taken down and the food is donated to local food banks, chosen by either the participants or the organizing chapter. Over the years, Canstruction events have collected and donated a staggering 82 million pounds of canned goods to various food banks.
With nearly 30 years of history, Canstruction has gained notoriety in the A/E/C industry, attracting many firms who take part in their functions. In addition to the numerous city events, Canstruction hosts an annual international competition involving over 135 cities.
In 2010, Canstruction partnered with Disney to break the Guinness World Record for the largest canned-food structure by creating a structure in the likenesses of Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto. In total, 115,527 cans (totaling roughly 70,000 meals) were used in the design and distributed to food banks in Miami, Atlanta, and Central Florida.
OUR FIRST STEPS
Getting involved with Canstruction was easy enough. Once we contacted our local chapter, we received an application to participate in the Pittsburgh chapter’s annual competition. Our application was quickly accepted, and the Pittsburgh chapter provided all participating teams with the theme, “Send Hunger to the Land of Make-Believe.” With this theme to help us focus, we immediately started designing our structure!
For our first competition, we brainstormed ideas, picked our favorite option, sketched and planned the design, modeled the design using our Revit software, and then build it once as a test in-office. Following this trial run, we made some minor modifications before building it again at the event location, where it stood for a couple weeks on display.
Our first ever Build Day team with the final structure!
The design we selected was structurally conservative but visually striking. At 68-cans tall, 22-cans wide, 4-cans deep, our design was adorned with the loving face of Mr. Rogers in the pop art-style of Andy Warhol – clearly a ‘Pittsburgh’ design.
Using tuna cans with varying labels, supplied by a local Trader Joe’s store, we achieved the ideal pallet for our design with an orange face with pink shadowing, royal blue and white hair, and the recognizable red cardigan, all on a turquoise background.
Mr. Rogers didn’t disappoint and won three awards: Juror’s Favorite, Best Use of Labels, and Can Spirit (most cans used in the design).
FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET…
This past year, we participated again in Canstruction Pittsburgh’s event. This time around, the theme of the event was “Neighbors helping Neighbors.” Our planning committee held regular meetings, but compared to Mr. Rogers, our final design eluded us for some time. We liked the idea of trying to illustrate the idea that being a good neighbor is the simplest way of being a “hero,” but we were split between two thoughts: the fantastic but popular image of heroes as superheroes, and the fact that anyone can be a hero through charity and compassion.
Whether it's one of our buildings or a creative idea, you have to start from the bottom! The initial sketch of our ‘Neighborhood Souperhero’.
After some deliberation, we decided to merge both ideas into what would become our project mission: “Being a hero is not just reserved for movies and television,” team member and Business Assistant Dawn Baker wrote for our project submission. “Each and every one of us can be a food superhero to our neighbors!”
Once we finalized the wording, the next step was creating an artistic representation. As structural engineers, ‘artistic’ is not generally a descriptor we use when talking about our work, and although we often make design decisions that qualify as ‘creative,’ making a superhero out of cans was going to be a significant challenge.
Our team fashioned an initial sketch of our structure to get a handle on the scale and color palette before going further. Once we had a good idea of what colors were going to be used in our project, we moved on to the ‘field research’ phase where team members went to different grocery stores to research cans that we were considering purchasing.
FROM 2D INTO 3D
Once we had our cans selected, we had our drafting department build a model of ‘Canman’ in AutoCAD, measuring each can to recreate them within our 3D modeling software. We now had the initial sketch, the 3D-modeled cans, and after some brief work from a willing volunteer from our CADD/BIM department, a computer rendering of ‘Canman’.
A look at each layer of ‘Canman,’ with each circle representing a can with a label of matching color.
A quick sidenote to our readers - this was easier said than done! Designing steel beams and connections is fairly simple for us as this is what we do on a daily basis, and because these structural elements are standard building materials that we can easily include in our modeling designs. Multiple food cans of varying dimensions? Well, it took more time than we originally anticipated.
Our model was comprised of 19 layers of cans for the body and 5 layers of pudding cups for the head. Because each can weighed a little more than one pound each, our structure was going to be both figuratively and literally a ton of cans.
The next step was performing a test build. We were concerned about the design’s weight in the middle of our office floor plan, so we built ‘Canman’ in two halves, about ten feet apart. We discussed potential structural improvements, tore down the structure, and prepped for Build Day. To ensure the design’s integrity, we decided to use quarter-inch plywood every four layers to support the structure, and the construction of different portions of the structure were assigned to team members.
With all of the preparation before Build Day, our team wasted no time in constructing our very own “Souper Hero” that was two months in the making. The final product was an eight-foot-tall, human-shaped collection of cans. With a bright red suit, a flowing blue cape with ‘412’ boldly embroidered on his cape, and a golden ‘C’ emblazoned across his chest, ‘Canman’ was a larger-than-life work of art.
For one week in May, our creation watched over the lobby of The Mall at Robinson before all 1,626 cans and 48 pudding cups worth of a superhero were disassembled and donated to the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank.
The completed project and the team that built it! Our Build Day team rotated members throughout the day, and we’re thankful to everyone who helped put ‘Canman’ together!
Once the judges deliberated, we were given the “Best Meal Award,” largely due to one of the judges loving Chef Boyardee. Sometimes, it is just as important to know what the decision-makers want as building an impressive structure!
Looking to the future
Having participated in a couple of competitions so far and thoroughly enjoying our time, we find it easy to sing the praises of Canstruction as a tremendous charitable organization that gives organizations an outlet to creatively give back to the community.
For the 2020 competition, we had registered, brainstormed, and designed our build prior to its unfortunate but understandable cancellation. Though we (and all of the other teams) were happy to donate our registration fees to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to assist in their efforts during this time, we most definitely look forward to participating in next year’s competition.
We hope to see you on the Build Floor, and may the best canstructor win!