Students enrolled in Orange Coast College’s Architecture A158 BIM Project Integration course this summer will gain valuable hands-on experience while helping families half a world away who are still suffering more than 30 years after a devastating earthquake in Armenia.
In December 1988 the Spitak earthquake killed approximately 50,000 Armenians and left more than half a million without homes. Governments around the world quickly rallied to offer assistance to the battered USSR nation, which was in the middle of a freezing winter. Shipping containers filled with rescue equipment, food and water, and other aid items arrived in the country and were quickly repurposed into temporary housing units for families who had nowhere to go. Today, more than 4,000 families remain in these temporary housing containers (Domiks), including some 2,400 children.
Orange Coast College’s architecture program has partnered with the Armenian Relief and Development Association (ARDA) as well as architecture firm Form Found Design, Walter P. Moore Engineering, and Piur Panels to provide a solution to the temporary housing crisis in Armenia. Utilizing a recently acquired FrameCad Machine — which forms, punches, labels, and cuts custom, steel studs for rapid manufacturing of homes — students enrolled in the College’s BIM Project Integration course this summer will work to create cost effective, efficient and dignified housing structures for Armenian families in need.
“This class will be structured more like a research seminar than a traditional community college class,” says instructor Joseph Sarafian. “The class is built around the FrameCad machine, but we will be teaching students how to use the software, and no prior experience is necessary. It’s a great way for students to build their portfolios while gaining valuable skills.”
Students will work in tandem with the client — Armenian Relief and Development Association — and the architecture and engineering firms. They will also have an opportunity to coordinate with a local architect in Armenia. “The students will develop the construction details for the home and begin construction of the prototype,” says Sarafian. “The home will be manufactured and assembled locally in Los Angeles, then shipped in panels to Armenia.”
Sarafian encourages students from technology majors to consider enrolling, including those in welding, robotics, and machine technology. “The skills students will learn in this class will help them build any future structure,” he says.
ARDA eventually plans to purchase a FrameCAD Machine to have on-site in Armenia to mass-produce homes for a fraction of the time and cost typically expended in traditional methods. To learn more visit http://ardausa.org/
To enroll in A158 BIM Project Integration, visit OCC’s class schedule