THE CANSTRUCTION OF FAMOUS BUILDINGS
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During the last 10 years, a number of charity and medical research societies, in cooperation with aluminium can recycling companies, have sponsored and organized in several Italian cities large scale models of famous buildings by using... CANS!


THE COLOSSEUM (Coccaglio, 1987)
THE ARENA (Verona, 1989)

Their main aim is to raise funds for these societies, and to make people become aware about the importance of both medical research (for man) and the recycling of aluminum products (for the environment).
...Even though collectors would never recycle their OWN cans, would they?

These replicas are built using an incredible number of cans gathered from dumps, trash bins, litter boxes, 'keep the country tidy' campaigns, etc.; they are bound together with the only aid of adhesive tape and thread (quite a lot, though!).
Individual panels are built from loose cans, and they are later assembled into elements such as columns, domes, roofs, etc., and finally bound together on the given location to obtain the actual model.

All of them are temporary exhibits, kept on display only for a few months, and later dismantled and recycled.


THE SCALA (Milan, 1989)
ST.ANTHONY (Padua, 1992)

In 1987, the first model ever built was the copy of the Colosseum in Rome, although this event took place in Coccaglio, a small town in the north of Italy. Then, in 1989, replicas of the ancient Arena in Verona and of the Scala opera house in Milan were built in their respective cities. Then St.Anthony's basilica in Padua followed them in 1992.

Finally, in December 1997 the replica of one of the most famous buildings in the world, the basilica of St.Peter in the Vatican, was built in Rome.
The model's scale is about 1:5, a breath-taking building almost 100 metres long, and over 25 metres high, surely the biggest among the ones built so far.
ST.PETER'S BASILICA (Rome, 1997)
And it holds over 10,000,000 cans... yes, TEN MILLIONS of them!!!
For this reason, the model has already entered the Guinness Book of Records.

the colonnade

Most of the architectural details of the original building have been fairly preserved; in the pictures you can see the colonnade surrounding on both sides the vast St.Peter's Square, with the Egyptian obelisk in the centre, and the famous, huge dome, which romans popularly call "er cuppolone", the most outstanding feature of the city's skyline.
the dome


the façade		 Coke cans have been used for most of the model, red being therefore the dominant shade, even though the colour of some of the cans has slightly faded because of the long exposure to the sun and bad weather (can collectors know very well that problem...).
Other colours too have been skilfully added for special details: silver (simply the cans' bottoms!) for the dome's rims and most details in relief, blue/green (Sprite cans, of course) for the doors and windows, and a mixture of colours (beer and different soft drink cans) for the column capitels, and the pavement in front of the church.


Only a few details have not been made of cans: the two fountains in each half of the square and the statues above the colonnade, but they anyway give a further touch of perfection to the model.

on the back
between the columns


windows in detail
A number of volunteers from the sponsoring societies offered visitors any information about the model; they also patrolled the site and - just as for any other monument - they carried out a little restoration, when required.

side view of the basilica

Unlike the famous Vatican building though, this model was not born to last; more or less at the beginning of March 1998 it has been dismantled, and all the cans it was made of have met an ungenerous yet inesorable fate: crushed by a press at first, then melted into a recycling plant's furnace!
(I can almost see can collectors shivering...)



other view of the square

the obelisk through the colonnade


the special can produced for the event


 But now brand new products will be made from this scrap aluminium, and every collector will be able to claim proudly that one or more cans in his collection might, one day, have belonged to the columns, or the dome, or the obelisk of the famous St.Peter's basilica.


MAIN SPONSORS
A.I.D.O.
(Italian Association
of Organ Donors)		 A.V.I.S.
(Italian Association of
Voluntary Blood Donors)

TECHNICAL DETAILS
MODEL OF ST.PETER'S BASILICA

  • Scale 1:5
  • Dimensions: Height 26 metres; Width 49 metres; Length 93 metres
  • People who worked on the making of the model: 300
  • Total weight of the cans: 12.000 Kg.
  • Number of panels: 2.179
  • Number of columns: 284
  • Cans required: 12.000.000 (10.000.000 of which in aluminium and 2.000.000 in extruded steel)
  • Adhesive tape required: 850.000 metres
  • Thread required to tie the panels together: 10.000 metres
  • Time required to plan the model: 24 months
  • Time required to select and clean the cans: 18 months
  • Time required to make the panels: 12 months
  • Time required to assemble the panels into elements: 18 months
  • Time required to build the model: 45 days
    older models
    COLOSSEUM (Coccaglio, 1987)
  • Dimensions: Height 4.8 metres; Width 16 metres; Length 19 metres
  • Cans required: 1.250.000

    ARENA (Verona, 1989)
  • Dimensions: Height 8 metres; Width 28 metres; Length 37 metres
  • Cans required: 2.000.000

    SCALA (Milan, 1989)
  • Dimensions: Height 8 metres; Width 13 metres
  • Cans required: 127.816

    ST.ANTHONY (Padua, 1992)
  • Dimensions: Height 17 metres; Width 23 metres; Length 29 metres
  • Cans required: 3.245.000
    • THANKS TO EACH OF THE VIRTUAL VISITORS



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