Canstruction
Canstruction is a global charity event where architecture and engineering firms compete to build large-scale sculptures entirely out of canned food that are later donated to local food banks.
When I worked at an engineering consulting firm, BA Group, Canstruction was the most important team-building event of the year. It took months of preparation and coordination, and the entire company came together for brainstorming sessions and the build night.
In 2014 and 2015, I led the BA Groups team and won awards both years, including the international 'Best Use of Labels' award in 2014.
Our 2014 entry, "A Queen's Feast," was awarded “Best Use of Labels” in Toronto and went on to win “Best Use of Labels” at the international competition.
It featured a three-sided mural of Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria, and the Princess of Wales, inspired by the graphic style of the street artist Shepard Fairey. The subject matter was a nod to the Victoria Day holiday, which took place around the same time as the competition.
THE PROCESS
It starts with the whole company getting together in the boardroom to shout out suggestions.
From the larger group, a small team forms to design and plan the project. Fundraising letters are sent out to raise money, and the team goes can shopping for canned food.
The team initially attempted a cottage scene with a Muskoka chair, pine tree, and sunset. We spent endless hours searching for just the right cans, and test building our initial concepts, but we just couldn't make it work.
With time running out, we needed a new idea and fast.
A Queen's Feast was my suggestion. The team had just had a failed test build and was sitting around at a loss for what to do. I thought, What if we did a different sort of mural image: a portrait! With Victoria Day coming up, the week of the competition, why not do a Queen's face? Queen Elizabeth is exceptionally recognizable, so we started there...
I found source imagery and mapped out how we might make it work using Photoshop to posterize the image and AutoCAD to break it down into can-sized shapes.
I used the colours of some of the cans we had already planned to use for the failed sunset idea.
As a team, we used AutoCAD to map out exactly where each can would go for the three portraits.
These plans, pictured below, were used by the team as a blueprints to build the project.
The image below is an enlargement of a portion of the plan used be build Queen Victoria's face.
