Canstruction 2012: Building Awareness and Breaking the Rules for a Good Cause

Every year for the past 20 years, teams of architects and engineers descend upon the Winter Garden at World Financial Center to do what they do best—build impressive structures. Using only unopened cans of food, some creative planning and lots of ingenuity, two dozen teams spend a single night turning more than 100,000 cans into pop art for charity. City Harvest collects the cans afterward to help feed 1.5 million hungry New Yorkers.

The 2012 Canstruction competition was postponed in November because of Hurricane Sandy, so 2013 marks the first time two Canstructions will take place in one year. The award gala on February 4 introduced another first—a new award category that was the inevitable result of two decades of one-upmanship in a field of creative innovators and crazy-smart problem solvers.

Click the images below to view a slideshow of the Canstruction teams and their structures.

In the World Financial Center's Winter Garden. Photo by Risa Korris.

by Arup, winner of "Best Meal Award." Photo by Kevin Wick Photography.

by GACE Consulting Engineers. Photo by Kevin Wick Photography.

Gilsanz Murray Steficek LLP. Photo by Risa Korris.

by CetraRuddy. Photo by Kevin Wick Photography.

by Gensler/WSP Flack + Kurtz, winner of "Best Violation Award." Photo by Kevin Wick Photography.

DeSimone Consulting Engineers at work. Photo by Risa Korris.

by Gilsanz Murray Steficek LLP. Photo by Kevin Wick Photography.

Photo by Risa Korris.

by Gruzen Samton-IBI Group. Photo by Kevin Wick Photography.

Photo by Risa Korris.

by Leslie E. Robertson Associates, winner of the "Jurors' Favorite Award." Photo by Kevin Wick Photography.

Skidmore Owings Merrill LLP. Photo by Kevin Wick Photography.

Photo by Risa Korris.

by STUDIOS Architecture, winner of the "Structural Ingenuity Award." Photo by Kevin Wick Photography.

Over the years, judges have noticed more and more ancillary materials make their way into the structures, which are supposed to be made of only cans. Each year, the teams get more brazen with bending the rules, and the resulting structures get more impressive. “It’s exciting every year to see the teams build structures that seem to defy the laws of gravity and amaze even themselves,” said Annie Tan, Canstruction chair.

Continue reading about Canstruction and more on the NYC-ARTS website.