This past weekend, Payette participated in CANstruction Boston 2019, and our submission took home the prize for Director’s Favorite! The annual competition offers architects, engineers and students a chance to both flex their design skills and give back to the community. Sculptures built with non-perishable food products, fill the gallery spaces of the Boston Society of Architects (BSA) as well as both Atlantic Wharf lobbies. The Boston chapter of CANstruction has steadily grown since its founding in 1995, and Payette has participated every year since 2000.
The theme for this year’s event was “Around the World,” and while many teams interpreted the theme of ‘Around the World’ with maps and globes, we abstracted the concept into modes of transport. We had floated the idea of a blimp, sailboat and airplane before settling on two ideas: a submarine or the Daft Punk Helmet. The concept of the submarine was transformed and won our internal office vote when we decided to turn it into the famed Yellow Submarine.
Our Beatles-inspired structure used a total of approximately 1,900 cans. We primarily used tuna cans for a higher fidelity of curvature in section and to make the structure more horizontal. In order to create such a large cantilever at the tail, we used taller cans spanning between multiple layers vertically to act as columns while the central tower and front act as counterweights.
All food items used in our structure will be donated to the Merrimack Valley Food Bank along with all the other cans after the structures come down. The structures will be on view until October 25th. The total can count this year is 80,166 cans!
A big thank you to everyone that helped make this structure possible:
Casey Mahoney, Parke MacDowell, Parry Heavlin, Alex Zink, Melissa Allen, Liz Cooney, Justin Miller, Shreeya Shakya
Cape Cod Community College’s Frank and Maureen Wilkens Science and Engineering Center is a net-positive energy building designed to transform the heart of campus.
The project approaches sustainability through a holistic and global approach, implementing a range of moves including passive solar shading overhangs, air-source heat pumps, high performance materials with low embodied carbon and the expansion of the range of thermal comfort and lighting power density. Combined with on-site photovoltaics, the project achieves net-positive energy use.
The project’s thermally modified wood rainscreen façade is a study of the modern expression of vernacular Cape Cod architecture while reducing embodied carbon. Early lifecycle assessments identified the immense carbon savings of wood over fiber cement. The design team did not stop there, furthering reductions by peeling back unnecessary finishes like carpet and ceilings. Together, these decisions enabled a 19% reduction in embodied carbon.
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