Photos courtesy Richard Lautens

BA Consulting's "Venetian Can-al" took the Structural Integrity award at last year's Canstruction competition in Toronto.

At the 2008 Canstruction event in Toronto, Halsall KPMB took the Juror's Favourite for its apiarist structure, "Yes Bee Can."

The award for Best Use of Labels went to Diamond and Schmitt Architects Incorporated (DSAI) for "Rub a Dub Dub" at the 2008 Canstruction competition in Toronto.

The Toronto Canstruction competition has brought together local design professionals to create soup-can sculptures in the name of obtaining food for the Daily Bread Food Bank.

Earlier in the week, teams representing universities and architecture/engineering firms created projects of various shapes and sizes, using non-perishable foods. The average project takes eight to 12 weeks and thousands of donated cans, which eventually go to the charity. (Last year, more than 44,000 kg [97,000 lb] of food came in.)

The structures are on public display until November 7 in the TD Tower, TD Waterhouse Tower, Canadian Pacific Tower, Royal Trust Tower, Ernst & Young Tower, the Design Exchange, and Simcoe Place.

Presented by the Society for Design Administration (SDA) Canada and supported by the Consulting Engineers of Ontario and the Design Exchange, Canstruction is celebrating its 11^th year in Toronto. While only six teams took part in its first edition, this year 21 structures are expected, according to Helen Kabriel, a principal at Diamond and Schmitt Architects Incorporated (DSAI) and a co-chair of the event.

"Designers embrace the challenge of coming up with something interesting, structurally sound, meaningful, and delightful, all for such a good cause," she told Construction Canada Online.

The original Canstructions were held by Denver, Co., Seattle, Wash., and New York City SDA chapters in 1992—there are now more than 130 individual competitions scheduled to take place during the 2009/2010 cycle. This list includes not only the Toronto competition, but also impending events in Regina and Calgary.