BY: MEGAN MILSTEAD
OCT.9, 2007
Forget Legos. Miami University architecture students play with cans. Members of Miami’s chapter of The American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) are participating in a food drive competition called Canstruction.
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.”
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 are donated to local food banks. Since its inception in 1992-93, Canstruction has donated 10 million pounds of food to the needy.
As the only student group competing against three professional architecture firms, the event provided valuable contacts for Miami’s architecture students.
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.”
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.
Dayton AIA waived Miami’s $100 entrance fee and was very helpful throughout the project.
Wende Morgan-Elliott, chair of Dayton’s Canstruction event, said the committee decided to waive the fee to help 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.”
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.”
The team used nearly 3,500 cans, most 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 its 39-cent cans. The students had to go to the store, pick out what cans they needed, and then place an order with Aldi.
Morgan-Elliott said that for this competition the cans would be donated to the Miami Valley Food Bank. The Canstruction committee took a tour of the food bank to learn how it works and what the community needs. Food banks are especially low on food around the holidays, which made the timing of Canstruction especially beneficial.
Linda Crouch-Roepken, associate executive officer at the Miami Valley Food Bank, said Canstruction is a large donor to the organization.
“Canstruction is really important to us,” said Crouch-Roepken, “Last year it brought in about 40,000 pounds of food to our center.”
Some of those donations go to the “Good to Go” program, which each Friday gives backpacks of food to children who may not have food to eat through the weekend. Children return the backpacks on Mondays, to be refilled for the following week. The kids also receive a jar of peanut butter a month, Crouch-Roepken said.
“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 till Monday.”
With that in mind, she said many groups, including Miami’s, use cans of Spam, Vienna sausages and soup for Canstruction—since all contain foods that children can easily open, fix and eat on their own.
As for the actual construction, Roeth said Miami’s team had eight hours Tuesday to assemble its sculpture at the Dayton Art Institute, which hosted the competition. The finished projects will be on display until tonight at 9 when an awards ceremony will be held.
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. According to Canstruction’s Web site, winners from each local event compete internationally with slide photographs of their projects.
Miami architecture students had to follow many rules as they built TouCAN Sam. Rules limited their materials and dimensions, and restricted them to five team members building at a time. Rules also warned that some judges might penalize teams who used non-nutritional foods, such as soda and Pringles cans.
Building their structure went very smoothly for Miami’s team, Roeth said.
“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.”
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 Miami students did well. Other participating teams and the judges—several of whom are Miami alumni, including Morgan-Elliott, were enthusiastic about Miami’s team.
As for the results, Morgan-Elliott could only say one thing about Miami’s team: “I think they’ll be pleased.”
The members of Miami's team surround their TouCAN Sam creation. TouCAN Sam is lying on his back.
photo contributed by Brett Roeth
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