Canstruction 2009

What is Canstruction?

Canstruction^® is the most unique food charity in the world! A foundation of the Society for Design Administration (SDA), Canstruction^® is a design/build competition currently held in cities throughout North America. Teams of architects, engineers, and students mentored by these professionals, compete to design and build giant structures made entirely from full cans of food.

The results are displayed to the public as magnificent sculpture exhibits in each city where a competition is held. At the close of the exhibitions all of the canned food used in the structures is donated to local food banks for distribution to emergency feeding programs that include pantries, soup kitchens, elderly and day care centers.

Miracle on the Hudson

Paradigm Design, Inc. created a sculpture using over 1,500 cans. Using the assortment of canned goods we innovatively recreated one of the biggest news stories of 2009, the “Miracle on the Hudson.” Paradigm’s team worked diligently on the design and layout of each can’s placement to ensure the representation of this “miracle” would be as adequately depicted as possible.

Like most of America, we were inspired by the heroic actions of Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger. The backdrop of the Manhattan skyline is made of over-sized cans of kidney beans, pizza sauce, and pasta sauce. This gave us the ability to maximize our donation and emphasize the scale of the buildings. Our plane is made primarily with cans of potatoes and tuna. Our goal was to coordinate the cans with the actual colors of Flight 1549. What proved to be our greatest challenge was achieving the round shape of the plane and giving the impression of it floating in the Hudson. The end result proved to be a success with the team winning three awards: Juror’s Choice, Structural Ingenuity, and Public Choice.

We donated the food in honor of Captain Sully and the crew of Flight 1549 and celebrate with the families of the passengers and crew.