3938 APEG Mar.Apr Edit.indd - APEGBC

f eatures
Teams
Build an
End to Hunger
at Canstruction® 2008
Over the course of one Friday aft ernoon
in late February, 120,000 thousand
cans of non-perishable goods
were carefully placed, stacked, balanced,
and coerced into position
by teams of seasoned professionals
and enthusiastic amateurs, forming
sculptures of beloved cartoon
characters, imaginative landscapes,
and literary scenes ranging from the
Bible to Harry Potter. In its sixth year,
Canstruction® Vancouver brought out
the best in the 21 participating teams
with its theme of “Books and Bytes.”
Canstruction® is an international
design/build competition that challenges
teams to build structures
entirely from cans of non-perishable
food that are later donated to charity.
Originally founded in 1992 by
the Denver, Seattle, and New York
chapters of the Society for Design
Administration, Canstruction® now
takes place in over 100 cities across
North America. Canstruction® celebrates
the generosity and creative
force of the community, and the
design challenge is a particular draw
for engineers.
“We treated this as a mini-project,”
says Tim Bennett, co-captain
30 MARCH/APRIL 2008 INNOVATION
of Fluor Canada’s team. “We had
a procurement team to fi nd cans
and make sure the labels were the
right colour, a prefab team to help
with templates and props, and
three design teams.” The Fluor
team’s charming representation of
Pac-Man going aft er a few ghosts,
“Byte the Blues From Hunger,”
took home an Honourable Mention
award, which advances them to the
national competition taking place in
May. Although it was their second
year competing, the Fluor team still
encountered a few challenges.
“Pac-Man weighs over a tonne,”
Bennett says. “I know because I
had to load his cans into my car,
in many different trips!” With such
substantial weight, and measuring
over two metres tall, safety was
a concern. Bennett and his team
designed the structure with 3D
Microstation and undertook stability
testing to ensure there wouldn’t
be any structural failures on build
day or during the exhibition. “It’s
a sphere, but the weight distribution
is not symmetrical, so weight
distribution had to be carefully
designed and tested,” says Bennett.
DAVE ROELS
Byte the Blues From Hunger
by Fluor Canada.
Megan Archibald
“One of Fluor’s core values is safety,
so we tried to treat this like one of
our projects.”
Of the 21 teams, ten comprised
APEGBC members—a testament to
the generosity and creative spirit of
engineers and geoscientists. Levelton
Consultants earned the Structural
Integrity award, the Engineers’
Choice award, and the People’s
Choice award for their depiction of
an Orca whale, “A Breach in Hunger.”
Amec took home the Juror’s Favourite
award for “CAN Pooh Reach the
Honey?” and Stantec/PCL won recognition
for Best Th eme for “History
of CANmunication.”
Th e Greater Vancouver Food Bank
Society, however, was the big winner
at this year’s competition. In addition
to the 120,000 cans of food used by
the teams, food and cash donations
from visitors to the event brought in
an additional $20,000. “Th is competition
is a great community event,”
declares Bennett, “and is also a great
team-building event for companies.”
Canstruction® team recruitment
begins in late fall for the 2009 competition.
More information is available at
www.canstructionvancouver.com. v