Over the past two weeks, North Carolina Modernist Houses’ Project BauHow gave away 200 CAD systems to rural high school students – powerful desktop computer and monitors they get to take home and keep. As a result, students can practice CAD all they want. Later, with class instruction, they will test their knowledge through an NCMH design competition featuring a Modernist house project.

Winners at each BauHow school also receive a scholarship to the NC State University College of Design’s Design Camp next summer.

“And, wow, are they ever pumped about NC State,” said NCMH executive director George Smart, who has posted videos of the students’ comments and excitement on the NCMH Vimeo site, with profiles on six of this year’s 11 Project BauHow Schools:

“High school drafting students are the future of North Carolina architecture,” Smart said. “it is critical that they get better opportunities to learn and master CAD [computer aided design] software. Up to 60 percent of rural North Carolina high school students are in families without the means to provide a CAD-level computer at home. Yet for students interested in a career in architecture, or any kind of professional design, high school drafting classes simply can't provide enough class time to achieve the proficiency, or portfolios, required for college. This severely limits career opportunities especially in rural areas.”

Project BauHow provides computer and software access so that drafting teachers and give students meaningful homework assignments. “It also encourages and rewards the study and creation of Modernist residential design through the design competition,” Smart noted.

For complete information on Project BauHow, go to www.ncmodernist.org/bauhow. To see the list of schools participating in this school year’s initiative, go to www.ncmodernist.org/bauhow2016.