About 200 Leadership by Design students in the Fay Jones School of Architecture built designs out of donated cans and other food items during the fourth annual CANstruction event on Nov. 12 in Vol Walker Hall.
(Photo: Submitted)
Using cans of ravioli, pork and beans, carrots, chicken
noodle soup, pumpkin and kernel corn, their designs took myriad shapes.
Fifteen teams of Fay Jones School of Architecture students
constructed a Christmas tree, house, space shuttle, slice of pie, Operation
game, Tetris pattern, football stadium, turkey — even a Razorback. These first-year
students in the Leadership by Design class were competing in the fourth annual
CANstruction event on Nov. 12.
With their teams spread across the second floor gallery of
Vol Walker Hall, about 200 students carefully arranged cans and other food
items into their predetermined designs. They had just 30 minutes to complete
their structures.
Students collected canned food and other dry goods for the
event. In addition to cans, they used dry goods like bags of rice, pasta and
flour, and boxes of pasta, brownie mix and instant oatmeal. Many food items
were donated by Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart and Harps Food Stores.
Prizes were awarded for most cans, best overall design and
best use of labels. The overall design winner was the team that formed a tree
with fall leaves, laid out horizontally on a bench and named “Come Hungry, Leaf
Happy.” The team that erected a space shuttle used the most cans, with 375.
Teams who created a Rubik’s Cube and a Christmas tree tied for best use of
labels. The Christmas tree, built flat on the floor, was made from cans of
ravioli and green beans and bags of kidney beans, with cans of chicken broth arranged
at the top for the star.
Judges for this year’s event were Jane Gearhart, wife of UA
Chancellor G. David Gearhart; Jeannie Sugg, wife of UA System President B. Alan
Sugg; Mandi Salov, adjunct professor of ceramics at the UA; and Billy Fleming,
Associated Student Government president and a landscape architecture student.
Though it took them just a half-hour to fabricate their
masterpieces, students disassembled them much quicker soon after the winning
designs were announced. They carried the food to four pickup trucks waiting
outside to take the haul to the food pantry at the Cooperative Emergency
Outreach. A total of 3,831 canned and packaged food items were collected this
year.
This event was the service project for the Leadership by
Design class, which prepares students in the design programs of architecture,
interior design and landscape architecture for the rigorous and time-consuming
education. First-year students are grouped with upper-level mentors for the
semester-long course to address issues of time and stress management,
strategies for balancing school and life, and opportunities to get to know
others within the design disciplines.
The project began four years ago when Judy Brittenum,
associate professor of landscape architecture, wanted the students to
participate in something fun and design oriented while also serving the
community. After some research, Brittenum and her colleague in the course,
Laura Terry, associate professor of architecture, discovered the CANstruction
project was a national charity event sponsored by the Society for Design
Administration.