Show Village 2009: A Hands-On Display of Home Building Innovation

If you read this magazine and have attended the International Builders' Show once in the past seven years, you've likely seen Professional Builder's Show Village and all its splendor. Show Village has offered a close-up look at a wide variety of products — both new and tried-and-true. Show Village has also become a place where home builders, remodelers, contractors, architects, interior designers and others in the industry can learn about the products and see them performing in their intended setting. Visitors have marveled at how the modular homes are seamlessly put together on site in a matter of weeks on the surface of a parking lot.

This year's Show Village is our best yet. Welcome to our guide to Show Village 2009.

Although home builders who attend Show Village will see the latest products within the Show Village homes, there's another important component that adds a whole new dimension to the experience: education.

The Learning Center at Show Village will feature complimentary hour-long mini-courses on topics including project planning efficiencies and how to build high-energy-performance homes. Demonstration sessions will run the gamut from how to apply spray foam insulation to how to properly install doors.

Marquee home building industry experts, including ASHRAE Fellow Joseph Lstiburek, Building Science Consultant John Tooley and green building experts Ron Jones and Carl Seville will be on hand to share their expertise.

As the green home building movement matures, it's important for those in the industry to stay informed on the latest resources, innovations and products in the supply chain. That's where the Green Home at Show Village 2009 enters the picture.

The Green Home provides a platform for exhibiting energy and water efficiency, indoor environmental quality and structural durability. Products featured in this home work in tandem to provide comfort, reduce energy use and produce healthy living conditions.

Technology for the home has come a long way from the “smart home” proof of concept prototypes that took center stage in the 1980s. Similar to today's green building trend, smart home technology back then was touted as the next home buyer's Siren song.

Although ultra-high-tech homes still haven't quite made it into the mass production mainstream, innovative electronic and technological advances have pushed builders to include much more than the basic garage door opener and plain, old telephone and electrical wiring into practically all of the homes they build today.

The Media-Enhanced Home demonstrates how builders can incorporate new and innovative technologies to meet the expectations of the next generation of buyer that has grown up in a digitally-enhanced world.

We're besieged by noise. A host of factors from an endless range of sources come into play: street traffic, air traffic, neighbors' yard maintenance, the blare of kids playing Guitar Hero. Dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, televisions, fans, blowers, pumps, and HVAC equipment contribute to the racket. All homeowners want is a little peace and quiet so they can concentrate on work or get beyond the first sentence of the novel they've been trying to read. Quiet sleep is hard to come by, too. The Quiet Living Home incorporates products that work to contribute to the sounds of silence.