Team Rob Paulus Architects developed a design for Tucson’s first Canstruction® competition in September 2010.  Along with Epstein Construction, Robinette Architects, Avila Concrete, and Tom Powers Architects, the team stacked about 2100 cans of Fry’s kidney bean cans—almost one ton of food—to be donated to the Tucson Community Food Bank after the installation.

“Have a Heart” was inspired by “There is always Hope of Fruit,” part of the Doug Nielsen exhibit “Thanks For Being With Us” on display at the Tucson Museum of Art in the Fall of 2010.  The heart shape is iconic, sensuous and curvy yet full of emotional energy.  Our challenge was to build our curving heart with the simple ubiquitous can shape that would cantilever out at each level to create compound curvature with straight lines.  We chose a Fry’s red kidney bean can as our building block that just so happened to be a good food for the heart–high in fiber with no cholesterol!  Our Canstruction® installation, besides being a fun sculpture for our team to create also represents the increasing need for everyone to “Have a Heart” and give a little back.

Thank you to Fry’s Food of Southern Arizona in ZONE 5 for donating 100 cases of canned food to Tucson’s first Canstruction®, and for the Tucson Museum of Art for hosting the installations.