Joining the fight against hunger in Philadelphia for a second year, the city’s architects, engineers, and contractors are teaming up to create giant structures completely out of canned food in the second annual Canstruction, a unique design/build competition sponsored by the Associates Committee of AIA Philadelphia under the auspices of the Society for Design Administration.

In Philadelphia, the structures, with clever names and city-based themes such as the Benjamin FrankCAN Bridge and UnCANny LOVE, are placed on view in the Rotunda of the Shops at Liberty Place, 1601 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, from April 12 – 20, 2008. Canstruction will begin with an intense, 12-hour build night. When the competition is over, the food is donated to Philabundance, the region’s largest food bank, which provides 22 million pounds of food annually to those in need in the Greater Philadelphia area. During the run of the exhibition, the public is also invited to contribute canned foods. In 2007, Canstruction raised 45,000 cans of food.

“This competition puts the spotlight on hunger in America, a problem which many do not realize exists, and allows us to support a great organization striving to end it,” says Angel Davis, Assoc. AIA, chair of the Canstruction Committee. “At the same time, Canstruction showcases the best and brightest in Philadelphia’s design community. It’s amazing to watch what our teams can do with nothing more than full cans of food and their ingenuity.”

A foundation of the Society for Design Administration, Canstruction is held across the nation each year, turning public spaces into sculpture gardens. Since its inception, Canstruction has seen over 10 million pounds of food donated to food banks local to the competition cities. Teams are given just 12 hours to defy logic and gravity as the create structures out of thousands of cans.

Philabundance is the region's largest food bank and hunger relief organization. Working with over 600 neighborhood organizations in both Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey, Philabundance fights hunger and malnutrition principally by collecting and distributing food to people in need.