This New House

If you prefabricate it, will they come? George Little Management hopes so.

The White Plains, N.Y.-based firm for the first time at its Intl. Contemporary Furniture Fair May 20–23 will feature a public exhibition of full-scale contemporary prefabricated houses — in New York's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

With the help of exhibition sponsor Dwell magazine, it shouldn't be too difficult for GLM to reach curious consumers. The contemporary home design consumer publication has helped propel the prefab home concept into the mainstream over the past few years.

A prefab home is generally defined as a dwelling where a significant portion of the house has been prepared or assembled off-site, according to self-described prefab evangelist Michael Sylvester, publisher and edit- or of the Web-based magazine Fabprefab.

The prefab home exhibition at ICFF is a smart concept, Sylvester said, because prefab is "a hot topic in the shelter media and it continues to attract great interest. In a general sense, it's great to have a tradeshow with prefab."

The prefab housing development of 15 to 25 homes is to be featured within 12,000 square feet of the Javits center's 54,400-sq. ft. North Pavilion tensile structure, adjacent to ICFF's 145,000 sq. ft. showfloor. Dwell will also hold its Dwell Prefab Now II Conference in the pavilion on May 20.

GLM Senior Vice President Phil Robinson said the prefab homes and Dwell conference should nicely complement ICFF exhibitors' displays.

"It's an exhibition that has a lot of relevance to our core audience at ICFF," Robinson said. "It's certainly an interest that they have."

ICFF is expected to feature 550 domestic and international exhibitors, including designers and manufacturers of contemporary furniture, flooring, lighting and wall coverings for residential and commercial interiors. ICFF's attendees are primarily interior designers, architects, retailers, facility managers, wholesalers, store design professionals, hotel and restaurant designers, manufacturers and students.

One exhibitor, Mike Iannone, co-owner of iannone:sanderson, a Philadelphia-based handcrafted contemporary furniture company, said the prefab home exhibition couldn't do anything but make ICFF more attractive to attendees.

"It's only going to help, because I don't think a lot of people are aware (of the concept)," Iannone said. "I'm looking forward to it."

However, another exhibitor, Patrick McDarrah, president of Litchfield, Conn.-based Emma Gardner Design, said he hoped the pavilion wouldn't be too much of a distraction. "I want people on the showfloor," he said. "I have questions, but I'm interested in seeing how it turns out. It could be a plus. I love prefab homes; I think it's a brilliant idea."

Robinson said he expects the 18th annual ICFF (a Tradeshow Week Fastest 50 show in 2003) to experience a 19-percent increase in attendance — from 21,000 to 25,0000 — not including public attendees at the prefab home exhibition, which is expected to draw about 15,000 trade and consumer visitors. Trade visitors' badges will allow them into the pavilion; a separate ticket will be issued for consumers to enter the area. The 2005 show, also at Javits, spanned 120,000 sq. ft. As in previous years, ICFF will be open to the public on its last day.

Dwell President and Publisher Michela O'Connor Abrams said the magazine had always planned to introduce an East Coast version of its conference in New York in May, so it "marries beautifully" with ICFF.

Abrams expects the conference to attract 400 people, 100 more than the first Dwell conference in Los Angeles last fall. The conference will take place on the West Coast again this fall, this time in San Francisco.

Dwell has partnered with ICFF before, in 2003, to announce the winner of its first Dwell Home Design Invitational, where a reader won a prefab home. In 2005, Dwell sponsored a prefab home that was built on the ICFF showfloor in the booth of exhibitor InterfaceFLOR.

Abrams said the additions to ICFF are very timely. "This is a movement," she said. "There's going to be a significant and growing percentage of homes built (as prefab homes)."

The types of prefab homes featured at the show will vary, Robinson said, from homes on vehicles to prefab children's play houses. Exhibitors will pay $15 per sq. ft. (including drayage). Empyrean Intl. will be the lead exhibitor for the prefab exhibition.

Robinson said it's too early to tell whether ICFF exhibitors will decorate the prefab homes. However, he added, "that's a synergy that we will encourage."

Looking ahead, Robinson and Abrams both hope the prefab exhibition will either continue to complement ICFF or become a standalone event.

Another show featuring the prefab concept is CA Boom 3, a West Coast design show March 23–26 at the Santa Monica (Calif.) Civic Auditorium, where Sylvester will sponsor a Fabprefab zone of 12 exhibitors.

The Javits center, in cooperation with GLM, constructed the half-moon shaped, column-free pavilion in 1998 to help alleviate what was expected to be a short-term need for additional exhibit space, especially for several GLM shows, during a period when Javits expansion talks were dragging.

Organizers this year will also launch ICFF Studio, a juried section that was conceived as a way to help young and promising designers with prototypes hook up with ICFF's manufacturer attendees and media.