The inaugural ‘Canstruction’ Cornwall competition raised over 12,000 cans of food for the Agape Centre.
The cans were delivered to the Agape Centre on May 2 and the food is already filling the food bank shelves at a time of year when donations are very low.
The six participating teams came up with a design, purchased hundreds of cans, and then built the structures in less than 12 hours.
The winners of the Canstruction Cornwall 2016 design and build competition are:
People’s Choice Award: ‘Spiderman’ by Cornwall Rotary Interact Clubs
This structure was voted the public’s favorite by donation. It was a pretty tight race, and this award category really brought out the competitive side in our teams. In total, the structures collected more than $1,300 for the Agapè Centre, and the winning structure raised $350. This structure was a perfect fit with the CAPE weekend that took place at the Benson Centre during Canstruction.
Structural Ingenuity: ‘Spiderman’ by Cornwall Rotary Interact Clubs
Presented to a design that contained little props, only permissible materials, and has a high level of difficulty and skill. It was particularly impressive, since it was built by our youngest team, made up of high school students, a few of their teachers, and mentors, along with an engineer. It was also the largest structure.
Jurors’ Favorite: Episode VII: The Cans Awaken: The BB-ATE Droid by Professional Engineers Ontario, Upper Canada Chapter
Presented to a structure that was creative, grabbed attention at first sight, was an outstanding design, and made a lasting impression on our panel of judges. It had a creative play on words for its name and description, and even incorporated a projector light into the structure.
Best Use of Labels: Episode VII: The Cans Awaken: The BB-ATE Droid by Professional Engineers Ontario, Upper Canada Chapter
Presented to a structure that utilized each label to form every detail of the structure. They took great care to position their labels precisely. And while this detail was not shared with the judges, it should be mentioned that this team actually had to change their food order after their design was complete because the food company changed the colours on many of the labels they originally chose.
Best Meal: A Local Pint – BEERgon Canstruction Team by Bourgon Construction
Presented to a structure that contained nutritional ingredients, and particularly lots of great protein. This team took care to think about what food would be beneficial to the food bank. The structure itself was an homage to a local small-batch brewery that uses food sourced locally. And it’s interesting to note that one of the members of this team is actually a volunteer at the Agapè Centre’s food bank.
Honorable Mention – Kids’ Favorite: ‘KIN der garden’ by Kinsmen Club of Cornwall
This structure was special because many of our volunteers at the voting table talked about how much the kids in particular loved this structure. It was right at their level, they loved the colours, and the smiley faced details taped to the cans.
Honorable Mention – Community Innovation: ‘Seaway Bridge’ by WSP/Architecture 49
This structure deserves special recognition for tying in the community aspect of this competition. This team engaged the community they work with, and secured sponsors to help purchase the food cans. Then, they incorporated their supporters into the structure by painting and pasting their sponsors’ logos onto the trucks included on their structure. Their design description was also beautifully written to capture the importance of community, connections and bridging gaps.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this first year a success: teams, sponsors, volunteers, community partners, and everyone who came out to vote.
