Questions, call or e-mail Deborah Dik at 616-340-6200 or deborahdik@yahoo.com

Canstruction

2010 Canstruction Call for Entries

Canstruction, a charity committed to ending hunger, believes that one can make a difference. By joining together and building a sculpture, you can help stop hunger. The sculptures raise awareness of hunger in Grand Rapids and the cans will be donated to the Salvation Army's Booth Family Services. The challenge is to design and build structures made entirely from canned foods within a 10' x 10' x 8' space. It starts with one can.

Who:     Creative teams of architects, engineers, contractors, designers,

            students, and others! Any business, student, or individual that would like

            to participate as a creative member or sponsor member.

What:    Design and build structures made entirely from canned foods.

When     November 19        Informational Meeting

             December 15       Entry Forms Due

             March 2              Canstruction Build

             March 3              Judging and Awards Reception

             March 4-7           Public Exhibition

             March 7              Decanstruction

Where:   West Michigan Home & Garden Show

             DeVos Place, Grand Gallery

Why:     To benefit The Salvation Army's Booth Family Services

How:     Complete entry form below.  Entry fee is $100, made payable to

            "Kendall College of Art and Design"

             Mail to:   17 Fountain Street, NW

                          Attn:  N. DeKraker

                          Grand Rapids, MI 49503

Q?        Email us at cannedrapids@gmail.com or go to www.canstruction.org.

           Click on Participating Cities/Grand Rapids

Complete rules and regulations will be emailed upon receipt of entry form. Teams are responsible for acquiring canned food.

Canstruction Call for Entries

Canstruction Rules and Regulations

2009 Canstruction/Canned Rapids

As many of you know, AIA Grand Valley teamed with Kendall College of Art & Design, Miller Canfield, and the Salvation Army in order to create the first ever Canstruction competition in Grand Rapids.  This event was also known as Canned Rapids and garnered much local media attention, as well as (and more importantly) providing a significant amount of canned goods to the Salvation Army food bank.

This year’s Canstruction was intended to be a fun and innovative charity competition among local designers, students, architects, and contractors.  The event included a total of five teams which completed five sculptures--created exclusively from cans and other packaged food products. 

These five teams included three local AIAGV firms--Paradigm Design, Integrated Architecture, and Fishbeck Thompson Carr & Huber.  These firms provided the cans for their designs through donations and diligent work while also spending countless hours planning, designing, and constructing their concepts.

The AIAGV board would like to specifically thank these firms for their participation in this event and for their steadfast support of those less fortunate and those in need during these tough economic times. It is through actions like these that we, as architects, can make positive contributions to our communities and become the citizen leaders that our region needs.

This is also an opportunity for all of our members to see the hard work of these three firms, who stepped up and delivered.

We hope that many of you will see this work and decide to join this project next year, when we hope to double the number of teams and, ultimately, the number of cans donated. 

This year we collected over 13,000 cans from these five teams, and the AIA Grand Valley was a big part of that.  So, again, many thanks to these three companies and their commitment to the profession and the community.

Fishbeck Thompson Carr & Huber

Integrated, JDH, and Pioneer

Paradigm