This year, eight teams of local architects and allied design and engineering professionals put their design and building skills to the test as they creatively “CANstruct” dynamic 3D structures – each made entirely of several thousand cans of food, which will be donated to Hawai‘i Foodbank in AIA Honolulu’s 21st Annual CANstruction® competition at the downtown branch of Central Pacific Bank. Since its inception, AIA Honolulu’s CANstruction® event has gathered 787,005 pounds of canned goods – enough food to make 712,826 meals, and more than $110,000 for the Foodbank.

Build Day (professionals; not open to the public): Sept. 12 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Display and Public Voting: Sept. 14 to 18 (People’s Choice Award)

AIA Honolulu’s CANstruction® competition finds a new home at Central Pacific Bank Atrium, Downtown Branch. This year’s CAN creations will reflect the theme, “CANtennial: Design of the Decades!”

Get ready for a feast for the eyes as teams of architects transform ordinary cans into extraordinary sculptures! In honor of AIA Hawai‘i’s 100th anniversary, the 2026 Canstruction® theme invites teams to celebrate a century of creativity, culture, and design. CANtennial: Designs of the Decades challenges each team to bring an assigned decade to life by reimagining an iconic object, place, movement, or moment from that era, entirely out of canned goods.

From the bold beginnings of the 1920s to the innovations of today, this theme highlights how design reflects its time while contributing to a collective legacy built over 100 years.

The CANstructures illuminate a brighter, hunger-free future— one built entirely from canned goods! They stand as both a donation to Hawai‘i Foodbank and a celebration of creativity, hope, and community resilience. Each year, AIA Honolulu teams unite to show how Hawai‘i’s design and construction industry embraces this signature event, highlighting the generosity that sustains and strengthens our island communities. 

Architecture firms and allied design partners competing this year include:
Lowney Architecture & Swinerton Builders
G70 & Hawaiian Dredging
HDR, RLB, and BASE Engineering
RMA Architects, Inc.
RAV Productions and PHAD Home Appliance
WhiteSpace Architects and Iwamoto Engineering Consultants, Inc.
Bowers + Kubota Consulting, EnPro, and Hensel Phelps
Design Partners Incorporated and Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii, Inc.

Members of the public are invited to participate in CANstruction® by voting for their favorite canned-food structures. Completed structures will be on display for People’s Choice voting from Monday, Sept. 14 through Friday, Sept.18.

The public can vote at https://www.aiahonolulu.org, or by scanning the QR Code at each structure. For People’s Choice voting, each vote is a donation to the Hawai‘i Food Bank ($1 = 1 vote). The CANstruction® structure that receives the most votes will be named People’s Choice Award winner.

Over the past 21 years, CANstruction® has raised 787,005  pounds of critical canned food and more than $110,000 for the Hawai‘i Foodbank. Each year, the Hawai‘i Foodbank and its network provide food assistance to one in six people and one in four children in Hawai‘i are facing hunger.

For more information, visit the AIA Honolulu website at www.aiahonolulu.org.