At Cherry Creek Mall, art was built to be destroyed.
A giant pink flamingo made from peach cans and a sandcastle built from beans were among eight sculptures made entirely from canned food at this year’s Colorado Canstruction competition. From designs to dinner plates, every can will be donated to help feed Coloradans experiencing food insecurity.
Canstruction is an international design and architecture competition hosted in cities across the world. In Colorado, the event is organized by We Don’t Waste, which will distribute all 20,000 cans to their nonprofit community partners.
One in seven Coloradans experiences hunger, according to We Don’t Waste. Canstruction’s sculptures bring into public view an issue that’s not always visible.
“Our goal with this event is to inspire awe in viewers and make them pause, even just for a moment, to consider their neighbors experiencing food insecurity,” said Caroline Hissong of We Don’t Waste. “So much of this work happens in loading docks behind businesses, out of sight of the community, so putting it front and center helps us educate the community about the necessity of food recovery.”
This year’s build theme was summer.
Maggi Massad-Paradeis’s team, a collaboration between architecture firm HKS and engineering firm Walter P Moore, spent roughly four hours assembling their giant pink flamingo pool float. The iconic symbol of summertime doubles as a complex engineering challenge.
“Every day, we design buildings and spaces that improve how people live, work, heal, and learn,” said Massad-Paradeis. “Canstruction gives us a chance to apply those same skills of creativity, planning, collaboration, and structural thinking to something that directly benefits our community.”
There’s an artistry behind building something towering and temporary. It starts like any design project. Ideas are brainstormed, concepts are sketched, and digital models and can calculations follow.
Finding the right cans, balancing the circular shape with structural stability, and even weather posed a challenge. While preparing support layers in a teammate’s backyard, a sudden windstorm sent paint and carefully cut templates flying. Under the flamingo’s neck is an extra cluster of cans to reinforce one of the sculpture’s most structurally demanding areas.
2,900 cans later, their flamingo came to life.
“Once build day arrives, everything comes together surprisingly quickly but only because of weeks of planning beforehand. It’s equal parts architecture, engineering, logistics, teamwork, and a little bit of controlled chaos,” said Massad-Paradeis.
For Massad-Paradeis, the project is personal. After spending nearly a decade working at the Houston Food Bank, Canstruction allowed her to combine her passion for design with community impact.
Joseph Muller, a software engineer and longtime volunteer with CABPES, was similarly drawn to the event. His team of 10 adults and 15 students built a flat, mosaic-like sculpture featuring Colorado’s state bird, the Lark Bunting, and the state fish, the Greenback Cutthroat Trout.
Plugging reference photos into a pixelation program, they came up with a rough color palette and estimates for the sculpture’s dimensions. From there, a spreadsheet helped the team visualize and adjust individual pixels and create a 3D model incorporating overhangs and layer-by-layer schematics.
2,200 cans and four hours later, their blueprints manifested into a full-sized sculpture.
Food insecurity is steadily rising, Hissong said. Their Mobile Food Markets have seen a 20% to 60% increase in attendance depending on location. Summer can be especially challenging for families as children lose access to free and reduced-cost meal options.
The impact begins after the exhibit ends.
“The sculpture was never just about creating something beautiful—it was about making a statement and serving a greater purpose,” Muller said. “Knowing it would eventually be dismantled so the cans could be donated to help families gave the artwork a second life. Its greatest impact wasn’t how long it stood, but how many people it inspired and ultimately helped.”
“In most of our work, the finished product is the destination,” said Massad-Paradeis. “With Canstruction, the sculpture is really just one part of the story.”
Knowing the flamingo would be dismantled made the project even more meaningful, she said. It wasn’t just about creating something beautiful. It was about creating a positive impact.