CANStruction 2006

14th Annual Design/Build Competition

To benefit City Harvest, NYC's top architecture and engineering firms created 42 brobdingnagean structures made of thousands of cans of food (plus single-serve applesauce containers, boxes of pasta and bags of candies). These astounding structures are also helping raise public awareness to the fact that we could contribute in feeding the needy in our own little way. That is - one can at a time.

Aptly called CANStruction, this charity's ultimate goal is to end hunger. All the cans used in this exhibit will go straight to the local food banks.

All in good fun and armed with a few cans of Light Chunk Tuna, I dropped by NY Design Center to ogle and cast my vote for my favorite structure. This year's winning entry will be honored with the People's Choice Award and the results will be posted at www.sdanyc.org.

There were a few mythical creatures like Perkin Eastman's bat-like dragon (left) called "Dragon of CAN-a-lot" and HOK Architects' sea serpent (right) called "Make Hunger A Myth".

There were also some of the more common animals like Arquitectonica's hungry-looking croc (left) called "A croc-CAN-diles lament", and STV's herculean frog (right) called "CANphibian". Other animals/bugs that graced the show were a couple of ladybugs, an ant, a snail, a white rabbit, and a golden lion made entirely of Bumblebee's Solid White Albacore.

These jumbo sushi entrees - left is by Desimone Consulting Engineers PLLC simply titled "SUSHI" and the one on the right by NELSON called "CANifornia Roll" was enough to make me salivate.

At least one showroom outshone (literally) the exhibit. Earth Tech presented this cornucopia called "Plenty to Share" inside Metropolitan Lighting Fixture Co. (located on the 5th floor). Omg, the super hi-end chandeliers on display made the whole room glow.
This beaut crystal ball alone (above, right) carries a price tag of$11,985.00!
(How many hungry people will that amount feed?).

Of course, the exhibit would not be complete without paying some homage to NYC. This apple (left) was presented by Handel Architects LLP and given the title: "The Big Apple Says: "Slice Hunger to the Core!".

So, who did I vote for? Well, I'm a sucker for cutesy stuff so my ballot went to Arup's mammoth horse (right) called "TroCAN Horse".

New York Design Center is located at 200 Lexington Avenue (between 32nd & 33rd Street) and the exhibit runs from November 9 - 22, 2006.

Price of admission? One can of food will get you in.

LINKS:
http://www.nydc.com/
http://www.canstruction.com/indexi.html