LG Electronics said on the 29th that it donated an LG Smart Cottage to be used as housing for the monks of Gounsa, a thousand-year-old temple in Uiseong County, North Gyeongsang Province, which was damaged by a wildfire.
The LG Smart Cottage will be used as a monks' quarters, a space where monks live and practice. LG Electronics decided to donate after learning that it was difficult to live there because a pavilion at Gounsa was completely destroyed by a major wildfire that swept through the Yeongnam region in March. Gounsa is a temple founded by Uisang in the first year of King Sinmun of Silla (681) and holds many treasures, including the Seated Stone Buddha, making it historically significant.
LG Electronics provided a 14-pyeong (45㎡) two-story model (Duo Max 45). The first floor is equipped with essential appliances such as a refrigerator, a washing machine, and an induction cooktop to enhance practicality. Beyond simply providing living space, LG Electronics' high-efficiency appliances and solar panels were applied to minimize energy consumption.
Cho Yeon-woo, head of LG Electronics' Smart Cottage business, said, "We hope this will help Gounsa, which is working hard to recover from wildfire damage," and added, "We will leverage LG Electronics' technology and capabilities to fulfill our social responsibility to the local community as a corporate citizen."
The appliances, HVAC system, and IoT devices installed in the LG Smart Cottage can be conveniently controlled using the LG ThinQ app. In addition, it is built with a prefab method in which more than 70% of materials—such as the modular structure, windows and doors, wiring, bathroom, and kitchen fixtures—are premanufactured and shipped, allowing construction time to be cut by up to more than 50% compared with conventional reinforced-concrete methods.
Recently, an LG Smart Cottage in Gimje achieved an energy self-sufficiency rate of more than 120% and, among all prefab buildings including modular dwellings, obtained Korea's first ZEB Plus, the highest grade for net zero energy buildings. The net zero energy building certification is a system by the Korea Energy Agency (KEA) that assigns grades to green buildings that minimize energy demand by using renewable energy.