Canstruction 2006

Yesterday, I took part with our office team in the annual AIA Dayton 2006 Canstruction event. This is an event held around the nation by the American Institute of Architects to raise money, and food for various charities such as local food banks.

Our team from Lorenz Williams used over 11,000 cans to construct a Rubic's Cube with Keith Haring paintings on each side. It measured over 8 feet wide and 8 feet tall. We were not sure if the images would read, but as it turns out... they do. We couldn't raise enough cans (probably would have doubled or tripled our donation) to make the whole thing solid, so there are columns on the inside (all made from cans). Its pretty sturdy though, I was sitting on the upper layer, and it felt completely stable. It took our team the whole 8 hours (we actually finished with 12 minutes to go) to finish it... and we actually ended up with left over cans at the end.

The day went without mishap for our team, however, not every team was so lucky. One team built a car at a drive in... and with about an hour to go, their 6 foot tall wall of cans acting like a screen fell over. Luckily, they got it rebuilt in time. There were 7 teams total, and over 30,000 cans that will be donated to the local food banks next week. The event was held at the Dayton Art Institute, which were really awesome, and took care of us very well.


Thanks Matias for the photos.