Members of the American Institute of Architecture Students show off their Canstruction.
Forget Legos-Miami University architecture students have upgraded to building with cans.
Members of Miami's chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) are participating in a food drive competition called Canstruction.
According to Canstruction's Web site, teams of architects, engineers, and, in some cases students, compete in cities across the country to build structures out of full cans of food. At the end of each exhibition, the cans from the projects are donated to local food banks. Since its inception in 1992-93, Canstruction has donated 10 million pounds of food.
Brett Roeth, co-president of Miami's chapter of AIAS, contacted Dayton's chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) this summer to see if there were opportunities or projects for Miami students to work on. Because Dayton doesn't have an architecture school, its chapter is responsible for Miami's AIAS students. Canstruction was just what they were looking for.
"We're really trying to get our name out there this year," Roeth said. "And we are a service-oriented organization so it fits with our mission."
As the only student group competing against three professional architecture firms, this event has provided valuable contacts for Miami's architecture students, said Wende Morgan-Elliott, chairperson of Dayton's Canstruction event. Because of this, Dayton AIA waived Miami's $100 entrance fee and was very helpful throughout the project.
Morgan-Elliott added that the committee wanted to create a positive experience for the students.
"We wanted to make sure it wasn't a huge burden on the students," Morgan-Elliott said. "We were really excited for their interest and I think for their willingness to help the community."
The students also started the project a month or two later than the other teams.
"It's kind of interesting because (the professionals) have even less time to work on this than we do," Roeth said. "They've really treated us as equals and it's been really cool. We can hopefully make some connections for speakers and tours to firms."
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J.E. Elliott, faculty adviser to AIAS, agreed that projects like Canstruction could benefit students in the future.
"It's kind of just one of those odd things for an architecture student to do," Elliott said. "It's also an opportunity to connect with professionals in AIA. It's also an opportunity to exercise their design chops."
He added that Canstruction has provided students with an experience outside the traditional Miami educational setting.
"(Canstruction) has deadlines that are similar to things they work for in studio here, but because this is a project with a lot of public exposure it's a different work environment," Elliott said.
According to Roeth, every Canstruction project has a theme, and for Dayton's event it was "CANtoons," which relates to cartoon characters. Miami chose to create Toucan Sam, the mascot for Froot Loops cereal.
"We were trying to think of cartoon characters and we didn't want it to be something someone else would do," Roeth said. "And it's relatively easy to build."
Though the nine-member team has worked on the planning aspects of the project for almost 10 hours, Alex Libengood, the Web master for AIAS, has spent nearly 10 hours himself on the design.
By using a design program called AutoCAD, Libengood created a plan for how the team would actually construct Toucan Sam.
"So far I've designed the sculpture we're making," Libengood said. "The concept idea came from the whole group but I designed what cans will go where."
The team used nearly 3,500 cans, all donated by Aldi Grocery Store in Hamilton.
Briana Markham, director of store operations for Aldi, received a letter from AIA asking companies to participate in Canstruction by donating products.
"We donate to causes from time to time," Markham said. "It really sounded like something we were interested in doing since the cans are donated (to a food bank) after the project."
Markham decided that Aldi would donate 3,000 of their 39-cent cans. The students had to go to the store, pick out what cans they needed, and then place an order with Aldi.
Markham said that Aldi is open to more projects like this in the future.
"This particular project seems like a beneficial project for the community," Markham said. "Obviously you have the construction side of things and the project side of things, but just the fact that at the end the cans are donated to the people in the community that need them."
Morgan-Elliott said that for this competition the cans would be donated to the Miami Valley Food Bank. She said the Canstruction committee was taken on a tour of the food bank to give them a better sense of how the food bank works and what the community needs. Food banks are especially low on food around the holidays, which made the timing of Canstruction especially beneficial.
Morgan-Elliott said the Miami Valley Food Bank has a program that gives backpacks of food to children Fridays, who may not have food to eat through the weekend. The child returns the backpack Mondays and it gets stocked again for the following week.
"The backpack program is a great opportunity to use flip-top cans that can be used by a child," Morgan-Elliott said. "It's really to keep their bellies full until Monday."
With that in mind, she said many groups, including Miami's, used cans that contained Spam, Vienna sausages and soup-all foods that a child could easily open, fix and eat on their own.
As for the actual construction, Roeth said the team had eight hours Tuesday to assemble their sculpture at the Dayton Art Institute, which is hosting the competition. The finished projects will be on display until Tuesday, Oct. 9 when an awards ceremony will be held.
He said that while there aren't any actual prizes, the teams could win honors and plaques. Some of the awards include "Best Use of Labels," "Judge's Favorite," and "Best Meal," which takes into account what the cans actually contain.
The awards ceremony will be held at 9 p.m. Tuesday night at the Dayton Art Institute. Roeth said winners from each local event go on to compete internationally with slide photographs of their projects.
Before and during building there were many rules participants had to follow. According to the rule guide, some of them included materials and dimension restrictions, while others said to only have five team members building at a time. One rule warned that some judges may penalize teams who use non-nutritional foods, such as soda and Pringles cans.
Morgan-Elliott said there are currently bins set up at the art institute for people to donate food, as well as a place where they can make monetary donations so the food bank can buy more expensive food items.
Roeth said that overall, the actual building of their structure went very smoothly.
"It went really well," Roeth said. "But we did have to make a run for about 25 cans because we were a little short on one color."
Roeth said the other teams' designs included Yoda (The Force Against Hunger), Yogi Bear (Don't Feed the Bears), and The Great PumpCAN from Charlie Brown.
"I thought we had the most appropriate and interesting character," Roeth said.
Morgan-Elliott agreed that the students did well. There was a lot of enthusiasm from the other teams participating and the judges-several of whom, including Morgan-Elliott, are Miami alumni.
As for the results, all Morgan-Elliott could one thing about Miami's team: "I think they'll be pleased."
The team will find out at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9.
BOX:
Dayton Art Institute project display hours: 1 0 a.m.-4 p.m. Fridays-Sundays, and Tuesdays
Canstruction Web site: www. canstruction.org
Miami's student participants:Dustin BrugmannKyle DunningtonRyan FinchAlex LibengoodJim MacMillanHaley PeckhamBrett RoethAmanda StacyMissy Stover
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