The Canstruction is an amazing annual design competition and it is the most unique food charity in the world. The Canstruction challenges teams of architects, engineers, and contractors to build sculptures made entirely out of unopened cans of food. The large scale structures are placed on display and later donated to an organization called City Harvest, that will distribute the cans to those who are in need. There are many different locations around the country that the Canstruction competition is taking place, but the one that our group went to was inside Brookfield Place in New York City. My group visited the Canstruction exhibit because we thought that it would be very interesting to see an exhibit of structures that are completely made out of canned foods. As soon as we arrived, we realized that in front of each sculpture, there is a sign that has the names of the architects and builders on it. These signs also had the designer’s “mission statement,” which explained why he or she had decided to make the structure in the shape that they did and how they were trying to make a difference in solving hunger. The sculptures also had fun and creative names such as “WashingCAN Monument” and “Cookie CANster.” These names all related to the shape of the sculpture. For example, the “WashingCAN” Monument sculpture was a mini-Washington Monument that was made completely out of cans and the “Cookie CANster” was the cookie monster made of of canned foods as well. All of the sculptures were pretty symbolic and many of them had ribbons taped to them that read awards such as “Juniors Favorite” and “Most Cans Used.” At the exhibit in New York City, there were many different sculptures, including pac man, toy story, the Golden Gate Bridge and many more. As we were walking through the exhibit, we learned that some of these structures had enough cans in them that they could feed around 5,000 New Yorkers. After we visited the Canstruction competition, our group realized that having a “mini Canstruction competition” would be an extremely fun, educational and interactive teach-in activity. Overall, this fieldwork made me feel inspired because I realized that the hundreds of designers and architects that participated in the Canstruction competition worked so hard and diligently to create a symbolic sculpture that was made completely out of canned foods.
