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Bogalusa Blitz Build 2007

Bogalusa Blitz Build Restores Homes in Record Time with Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD

Bogalusa Blitz Build is an initiative to help restore homes for victims of hurricane Katrina. Solid Rock Carpenters, a Habitat for Humanity affiliate group of volunteers who help people in need acquire decent and affordable housing, is wrapping up its latest “Blitz Build” of homes in Bogalusa, Louisiana. Solid Rock Carpenters consist of 1,000+ volunteers of all ages, genders and experience levels who have participated in Katrina-related construction and rebuilding projects, helping more than 70 families in the Gulf Coast area to date.

The Glenview, IL-based organization raises funds to buy construction materials, as well as donating their own time and contributions to Habitat for Humanity.
The Bogalusa Blitz Build is the latest rapid-construction project in the organization’s history. Having recently completed a two-home project in Franklinton, Louisiana, this summer, approximately 400 volunteers converged on Bogalusa to best their own record.

As many Habitat houses in the United States are designed in ArchiCAD, the organization was able to leverage the 3D Building Information Model (BIM) to dramatically accelerate estimating and construction coordination of the Bogalusa project, according to Mark Benner, architect and Solid Rock Carpenter volunteer.

“Volunteers came together on weekends and evenings to precut, layout and build all the walls and building components, shrink-wrapping them into neat packages for assembly by our on-site volunteers,” Benner said. “The ArchiCAD models enabled me to quickly and easily generate all the construction documents to be utilized by a largely unskilled workforce, while also helping to coordinate material delivery and construction sequencing to speed up the process. This level of preparedness enabled our professional volunteers to move into supervisory and quality control roles, which ultimately produced more homes of better quality in less time using the same number of volunteers. It was a huge success.”

ArchiCAD is used to design and construct Habitat for Humanity projects throughout the U.S. and in many other countries across the globe. Graphisoft has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of software to architects working at Habitat regional offices and affiliates.

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