Graphisoft's ArchiCAD helped Habitat for Humanity and an army of volunteers build five houses in five days in partnership with families who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina. Solid Rock Carpenters, a Habitat group of volunteers who help people in need acquire decent and affordable housing, is wrapping up its latest "Blitz Build" of homes in Bogalusa, La. Solid Rock Carpenters consists of 1,000-plus 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, Ill.-based organization raises funds to buy construction materials, as well as donating 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, La., 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 3-D 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.

The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association and the Portland Cement Association have once again teamed with Sustainable Land Development International to offer the seminar Pervious Concrete — A Stormwater Solution in eight cities in 2008.

This program provides detailed instruction on how to implement pervious concrete pavements as a solution to reducing stormwater runoff from building sites and other paved areas. Attendees will learn the details of pervious concrete pavement systems, engineering properties and construction techniques. This course will help civil engineers, architects, landscape architects, and public works officials develop details and write project specifications for pervious concrete pavement systems. Contractors, product suppliers and land developers will also benefit from this seminar.

Pervious concrete is a performance-engineered concrete with a 15-percent to 30-percent void system that allows rainwater to percolate through it. When pervious concrete is used for parking areas, streets, plazas and walkways, it minimizes stormwater runoff to surrounding streams and lakes, allowing for natural filtration to recharge local groundwater supplies.

Although pervious concrete has been used in some areas for decades, recent interest in green building and recognition of pervious pavements by the U.S. EPA as a best practice for stormwater management has heightened interest in its use throughout North America. Its use supports national initiatives such as Cool Communities and Low Impact Development and provides a potential for credit in the LEED® rating system for sustainable building construction. Pervious concrete reduces the need for expensive stormwater drainage and wet pond retention systems, thereby allowing for more economical and beneficial land use.

The seminar has been offered in 19 cities over the last 18 months. The 2008 seminars will kick off February 11th in Little Rock, Ark. See our calendar on page 35 for additional dates, or visit www.ldbreakthroughs.com.