“Samsung and LG are planning to build houses in the future… Why are they so serious about the small modular home business?”
Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics competed in a small modular house at Europe’s largest home appliance exhibition held in Berlin, Germany. LG Electronics set up a huge small modular home experience space in the center of the exhibition hall, and Samsung Electronics also displayed a single-person household concept housing in cooperation with a local German company outside the exhibition hall entrance. The battle between the two companies appears to be spreading beyond home appliances to the entire residential space. A small single-person household living space was set up in the outdoor space at the entrance to the Samsung Electronics exhibition hall at IFA
2023 held in Berlin, Germany on the 1st (local time) . Visitors showed interest in the fluorescent Genesis GV60 vehicle parked in front and even tried riding it.
The space in question is ‘Tiny House’, an eco-friendly future residential type prepared by Samsung Electronics. In the experience zone, visitors were able to experience Samsung Electronics TVs , various Bespoke home appliances, Galaxy devices, and heat pumps. In particular, home solar inverters and batteries from SMA Solar Technology, a major partner of Samsung Electronics , smart meters and switches from ABB , and smart light bulbs from Philips Hue were displayed.
Park Chan-woo, head of the Service Biz Group at Samsung Electronics’ Home Appliances Division, said, “Tiny House was created in collaboration with the No. 1 small modular house business in Germany. The price is 70,000 euros, or about 100 million won in Korean won.”
“Because second homes are not something you live in every day안전놀이터, it is very important to manage them remotely,” he said. “This is why energy management, storage, and monitoring through smart homes are important.”
Samsung Electronics is also preparing a small residential space solution targeting the domestic market. It is expected to work with domestic construction companies to create a space suited to the domestic market.
LG Electronics also put a small modular house on display at its exhibition booth. When I visited the LG Electronics exhibition booth on the 1st (local time), the first thing that caught my eye was a huge house model. LG Electronics decorated this exhibition hall as ‘ LG Sustainable Village’, which symbolizes a forest road , and placed a small modular house ‘ LG Smart Cottage’ at the entrance of the exhibition hall. Smart Cottage is a residential solution that integrates high-efficiency energy technology.
Although it was said to be small, when I went inside, it was larger than I thought. It was a duplex structure, with a bathroom, living room, and kitchen located on the first floor, and the bedrooms on the second floor. Inside, energy-efficient premium home appliances incorporating various technologies, including LG Electronics’ Objet Collection Wash Tower Compact, were installed.
Various outdoor energy-saving devices attracted attention. A heat pump cooling and heating system called ‘Therma V Monoblock’ was installed on the exterior wall of the house. The roof of the building had a 4kW solar panel that self-produced some of the energy used, and there was also a charger at the back that could charge electric vehicles.
The Smart Cottage installed in this exhibition is a product customized for the European market. LG Electronics has been working with GS Engineering and Construction since May to develop smart cottage commercialization. “It is meaningful in that we have created a smart package by efficiently designing everything from housing modules to built-in home appliances,” said Lee Hyang-eun, executive director of customer experience (CX) at
LG Electronics. “ LG Electronics will take responsibility for everything from modular housing construction to after-sales service .” “We plan to launch it first in North America and Europe,” he said.