Canstruction is a charity event and exhibition where teams of architects, designers, engineers, and contractors compete to create colossal sculptures made out of canned goods and other nonperishable food items. Founded in 1992, Canstruction’s mission is to highlight the issue of hunger across communities, collect food for distribution to thousands and to showcase the creativity of the design industry.According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 13.1 million children under 18 in the United States live in households where they are unable to consistently access enough nutritious food necessary for a healthy life. For more than two decades, the design community in Boston has united through a creative medium that provides canned food for charities fighting hunger in Massachusetts. In 2015, Canstruction Boston donated 82,310 pounds of food from the participating 25 teams, which is the equivalent of more than 63,315 meals meal servings. In the past 20 years, Canstruction Boston has collected more than 800,000 pounds of food, which has provided over 675,000 meals to those in the Greater Boston and surrounding areas.This year's theme is Journey into Space!

Members of the public will have the opportunity to vote online for their favorite works through the Canstruction Boston Facebook page at facebook.com/CanstructionBoston from October 9, until 1:00 pm on October 12. After the sculptures are dismantled, all the canned goods, supplied by the teams, will be donated to the Merrimack Valley Food Bank in Lowell, Massachusetts.

A total of 27 teams are taking part in this year’s edition. Participating firms:

• Ai3 Architects
• Adams + Beasley Associates Custom Builders
• Ann Beha Architects
• Architectural Resources Cambridge
• CannonDesign
• Core States Group
• Cosentini Associates, Inc.
• CUBE 3 Studio
• Gensler with ARUP (Joint Venture)
• Goody Clancy
• HDR, Inc. with NEU/Chi Epsilon Chapter (Joint Venture)
• HFA | ALLEVATO
• Nitsch Engineering, Inc.
• Payette
• Prellwitz Chilinski Associates
• Phase Zero Design
• Sasaki Associates, Inc.
• Silman
• Simpson Gumpertz + Heger, SMRT Architects & Engineers with Columbia Construction (Joint Venture)
• Stantec
• Steffian Bradley Architects
• Symmes
• Maini & McKee Associates
• Tappe Architects
• Tsoi / Kobus & Associates
• Wessling Architects
• WSP / Parsons Brinkerhoff with The S/L/A/M Collaborative (Joint Venture)

2015 Canstruction Boston winners:

Best meal (friend of the food bank) – Tocci Building Companies | CAN You Dig It? | 4,569 cans

Best use of labels – Gensler | The Mask | 2,832 cans

Structural ingenuity – BR+A | Feed Tamagotchi’s Heart | 5,540 cans

Juror’s favorite – The Grateful Bean(ie) | Goody Clancy | 2,905 cans

Honorable mention – Sasaki | Yes we CAN! | 7,243 cans

Director’s choice – Prellwitz Chilinski Associates | Making Strides | 4,036 cans

People’s choice – Lavallee Brensinger Architects | Join Your Favorite Duo in the Fight Against Hunger | 3,171 cans

View all of the structures on the Canstruction Boston Facebook page.