After an absence in last year’s competition, Industrial Brand teamed with Best Buy Canada Ltd. for Canstruction 09. After months of designing, planning and visiting to grocery stores, the design was finally executed over the two day build on April 25th and 26th. Based on this year’s theme: “From Caveman to Spaceman: Throughout History”, we decided to build a honeybee because of it’s importance to man and role in food chain. Integral to the world’s food production through pollination, honeybees have made their way into the news due to their recent decline in population. With this in mind we concluded that the honeybee best represented the event’s theme while communicating the message of hunger as a global problem.
After deciding on the bee, we drew up concepts for the structure keeping in major aspects of the figure right down to details such as the direction of the antennae. Working closely with David, our team architect, we developed a CAD rendering that would assist is in visualizing the bee both in preparation and during the weekend competition. Throughout the research and development process, the Best Buy and Industrial Brand employees scoured local grocery stores for in search of the perfect can for the bee’s various parts. What sounded like a simple process evolved into a detailed study in packaging and in the process we all have become experts on canned food.
On day one of the build, started work early to prepare the templates and collect the various sundries. Five hours, 30+ cardboard templates and 500 construction paper circles later, our team made their way down to the event the begin the build. The team arrived at 2:30 to the new Vancouver Convention Centre, where everyone was briefed on the details of the build and rules of the Canstruction. A collective sense of urgency soon over came all the participants as the build commenced at 3pm. We broke up into teams, working on different parts of the bee and the flower. It was an exciting time worked to build a solid foundation while all the teams work just as methodically, layering cans on to create their structures. At then end of day one the bee’s body and petals were complete. For the most part we were on time however the wings, and petals were proving to more time intensive than we expected.
Despite the aches and early start time, day two saw members from Industrial Brand and Best Buy cooperate like we had known each other for years to complete the build with 30 minutes to spare. With three crews working like clockwork, dedicated to completing the wings and leaves, a team of four worked on the body continuing their mastery of no-name tuna and bamboo shoots. By the end of the day everyone was exhausted and physically drained but buoyed by the feeling of accomplishment and a job well done. The bee was done, built out of tuna, bamboo shoots and coffee, using a combined total of 9,500 containers of food.
In a matter of 24 hours, 28 separate teams transformed palettes of canned food into spaceships, roller coasters and lovable cartoon characters. Part of the magic of this weekend was observing the combined efforts of the participants who were all creating these amazing in the name of battling hunger in the community. It was a big moment walking into the new Convention Center at the end of the competition and walking around the exhibition floor marveling at all the creativity and work put into each entry.
Canstruction runs from April 26 to May 3 at the new Convention Centre. Admission is by donation and proceeds go to support the Vancouver Food Bank. Hope to ‘bee’ seeing you there. Stay tuned to the Industrial Brand for the Canstruction 09 micro-site casestudy and build time lapse by our friend Todd Smith.
We would like to recognize the work that Janice Podmore, the Canstruction organizing committee and the Vancouver Food Bank for putting on this great event. A special thanks to Shafiq, Mike and the team from Best Buy Canada Ltd. for their gusto, elbow grease and unwavering support. Thanks to David, our team architect, who committed his evenings to working with us to develop a solid CAD model from which to work from. If not for his late hours working working with CAD, this would have been a very difficult build. Thanks also to Steph, Todd and Janeen who came early and stayed late to lend their support throughout the weekend. And finally thanks to the team at Industrial Brand who helped make my first Canstruction, a memorable and rewarding experience.
Photos from the build can be see in this Flickr group. Check out a time lapse of the build on YouTube here.
Tags: bee, best buy, Canstruction, greater_vancouver_food_bank, industrial-brand
Kevin Broome (April 29th, 2009)
The theme was “Caveman to Spaceman” and you didn’t go with the “Caveman Frozen in an Iceberg” idea? Shopping mall mannequin with fake hair glued to its body in the middle of a pile of water bottles!! This could have been the year for it.
Seriously though, the bee looks great guys. Nice work.