Canstruction Closes Monday – Don’t Miss the 26 Amazing Canned Food Sculptures!

Twenty six giant sculptures made entirely from canned food have taken over the <a href="http://www.worldfinancialcenter.com/">World Financial Center</a> in downtown New York City. Built for the 19th annual <a href="http://www.sdanyc.org/canstruction/" target="_blank">Canstruction</a> charity exhibition. For the event, teams of architects, designers, and engineers are tasked to build a <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/canstruction/" target="_blank">sculpture</a> made solely from full cans of food that will be donated to <a href="http://www.cityharvest.org/" target="_blank">City Harvest</a> to feed the hungry. The teams, which ranged from <a href="http://www.som.com/" target="_blank">Skidmore Owings and Merrill</a> to <a href="http://www.erhsnyc.org/" target="_blank">Eleanor Roosevelt High School</a>, will be judged on how well they used the labels in their design and how creatively they used the cans as building blocks. Hit the jump for an exclusive look at the amazing designs, including giant converse and some angry, angry birds.

CetraRuddy's created a giant cross-walk sign out of cans - an image very recognizable to most New Yorkers. The theme of this design was "STOP Hunger START Sharing."

This giant Converse shoe caught our attention with its clever ode to the classic footwear.

Amongst the many Canstruction sculptures of bridges and buildings were quite a few Angry Birds!

Conceived by the Society for Design Administration, the goal of <a href="http://www.sdanyc.org/canstruction/" target="_blank">Canstruction</a> is to to showcase the design and building industry while increasing awareness of hunger issues and collecting thousands of pounds of food to feed the needy in New York City.

<a href="http://inhabitat.com/new-photos-canstruction-sculptures-made-entirely-from-cans/" target="_blank">Last year's exhibit</a> raised more than 68,000 pounds of food that helped feed more than 70,000 New Yorkers through City Harvest. Visitors are encouraged to bring canned goods to donate to the cause, and this brought the total amount of food collected in 2010 to a whopping 88,000 pounds -- the goal this year is to double that number!

Skidmore Owings and Merrill created a "Town Upside Down" to highlight the food shortages caused by natural disasters. Oftentimes, a disaster comes and goes and while many of us can easily move on with our lives, there are still thousands of people who need help obtaining their everyday needs, like food.

Our favorite sculpture is definitely the Brooklyn Bridge by Skanska USA. The structural engineers put their skills to good work and created a 13-foot long replica of the bridge that is actually suspended.

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To create the base of the bridge, the Skanska team used cans with pull tabs lids so strings could be woven through to act as the suspension cables.

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We also loved the "CANtainership," complete with the off-loading crane, built by Halcrow, Inc.

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The idea behind CANtainership is that we can use the contents of container ships to help stop worldwide hunger by using the ships to move nutritious food supplies to desert isles and urban metropolises.

DeSimone Consulting Engineers recreated everyone's favorite iPhone game with the "Cangry Bird," built from 3,500 cans of tuna, crab, shrimp, sweat peas, and pasta.

The team from Eleanor Roosevelt High School, which was the first high school ever to participate in Canstruction, built a bowling lane to "strike out hunger."

The team of students was lead by Yeou-Jey Hsu, the music teacher at the high school. During build-out night, they had to make minor modifications to their design because several cans got damaged en route to the WFC, causing a bit of a tuna and sardine explosion.

Dattner Architects built a tree with a long network of roots, aptly titled "Root Against Hunger." The colorful sculpture's 5,436 cans will help feed 4,090 New Yorkers.

Teams are allowed to used supportive pieces like cardboard cutouts or tape on the top and bottom of the cans, but the labels need to be kept uncovered.

On the left, "Shedding Light on Hunger" by Leslie E. Robertson Associates, traces the life of a candle as it burns down. On the right is "NepTUNA the HippoCANpus Against Hunger" by Gilsanz Murray Steficek LLP.

Gensler and WSP Flack + Kurtz created "Loaded Dice" made from 8,950 cans of food.

The odds can be stacked against hungry Americans, but with "Loaded Dice" there is no gamble. A full meal awaits inside every time.

Built by Gruzen Stamton and the IBI Group, "OR-CAN: Link to Fight Hunger" is a Quick Response Code that provides a link to Canstruction's website where visitors can make donations to the cause.

"Time to End Hunger" by Langan Engineering and John Fotiadas Architect was built with tuna, salsa, tomato sauces, and bread crumbs.

"Time to End Hunger" is made with 1,950 cans of food.

CetraRuddy created a giant version of a sign well-known to New Yorkers, entitling it "STOP Hunger START Sharing."

The torch on the left, called "We CAN EnLIGHTen the World" was made from 2,410 cans of tuna fish by Severund Associates Consulting Engineers, and the boot on the right, titled "Stomp Out Hunger," was made by GACE Consulting Engineers.

"CAT 5 to the RESCUE" was built by Parsons Brinckerhoff with cans of peas, peaches, beans, corned beef, and carrots.

"The Moudis Touch" by Ted Moudis Associates is a play on the Greek myth of King Midas, whose touch turned everything to gold.

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