26th, in the test bed of the three-story Samsung C&T "Next Home" located in Dongbaek District, Giheung-gu, Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, there were two apartment units with an exclusive area of 84㎡. Unlike typical model apartments for sale, here, even with the same area, the size, number, and location of rooms, kitchens, and bathrooms were all different.
A Samsung C&T employee said, "You can change the interior space of the unit as you wish," and pressed a button. Then, the joints of the furniture fixed to the floor and ceiling loosened. After the employee applied slight force, the furniture slid back and connected to the adjacent room. The employee said, "By moving walls called 'Next Wall' or furniture called 'Next Furniture,' you can adjust the number and size of rooms."
The Next Home unveiled by Samsung C&T is a future housing model that breaks away from uniform apartment unit layouts and offers a differentiated living experience through customized spatial changes based on residents' lifestyles. Most apartments use a wall-bearing structure, so for the same unit type, the location, number, and size of rooms, kitchens, and bathrooms are all identical. The structure is set at the construction stage, leaving residents no authority to choose.
In Next Home, you can change the unit's layout whenever needed, like "Lego blocks," a modular toy. You can rearrange the home's structure as you want, like moving furniture. If you want to use a room more widely, just move the wall or furniture. If you need separate spaces, you can install walls or furniture in existing rooms to increase the number of rooms. It is also possible to move a bathroom placed next to a room toward the window.
A Samsung C&T official explained, "When you are single, you can reduce the number of rooms and instead increase their size to use the space for hobbies, and after marriage, when you have children, you can install walls to create a child's room," adding, "If you move to a new place, you won't live as the previous owner did, but you can create rooms where you want and for the purposes you want."
◇ Next Ramen structure and dry materials enable free space planning
The reason you can change the apartment's interior layout as you wish is that the new-concept plan "Next Ramen" structure, which removes columns inside the unit, has been applied. The Next Ramen structure widens the interior space by adding beams, which are horizontal members, to vertical columns. In the conventional wall-bearing structure, where the building's entire load is supported by walls, columns and walls are fixed inside the unit, making it difficult to change the number or location of rooms.
A Samsung C&T official explained, "The Next Ramen structure places columns outside and plans integrated PD spaces for various piping on the left and right sides of the plan," adding, "This allows free changes not only to rooms but also to water-using spaces such as kitchens and bathrooms." The official continued, "We applied electrical infrastructure technology to the ceiling to respond to various plan changes."
With the larger space secured, Samsung C&T adapted floors, walls, bathrooms, and furniture in ways suited to Next Home to allow freer space planning. It applied the so-called modular dry-material "Next Infill" system. Next Infill consists of ▲ Next Floor, a dry floor ▲ Next Bath, a movable modular bathroom ▲ Next Wall ▲ Next Furniture.
Unlike wet floors that use water to cure concrete for heating systems, Next Floor is a dry floor, allowing space to be created under the floor. Samsung C&T installed various piping in this space so that water-using spaces such as kitchens and bathrooms can be freely arranged anywhere within the unit. It also became the first domestic builder to receive Grade 1 certification for dry-floor impact sound insulation, solving the problem of noise between floors.
Next Bath is a factory-prefabricated bathroom based on the off-site construction (OSC) method. It is less prone to defects than bathrooms built by hand on-site. If remodeling is needed due to aging, you can simply order and install a new bathroom.
The dry wall "Next Wall" is also a modular, assembled type. Unlike conventional walls fixed to the floor and ceiling, it can be freely moved and rearranged to expand or divide spaces. The wall finishes are detachable, enabling various interior designs such as wallpaper and marble according to residents' tastes. "Next Furniture," where the furniture itself becomes a wall, is functional furniture that can freely divide or consolidate spaces according to residents' lifestyles and preferences. There are various types of furniture, not only wardrobes but also display cabinets.
◇ Construction time drastically shortened… easy structure change applications via Homeniq
Samsung C&T plans to apply Next Home to supertall apartments being built along the Han River, including Seongsu. Byun Dong-gyu, managing director of the housing technology innovation team at Samsung C&T's construction division, said, "Next Home technology can all be commercialized immediately. We will first apply it to supertall apartments that cannot be built with wall-bearing structures," adding, "The issue is that we need to win orders, but many supertall buildings will rise along the Han River, including Seongsu, so we will present alternative designs that can apply Next Ramen."
Some Next Home systems can also be applied to apartment remodeling projects that keep the frame without building new apartments. Byun said, "Next Floor and Furniture are also possible," adding, "There are height limitations, so for Next Bath, models where the floor and walls come separately can be installed. Samsung C&T's Next Remodeling and Next Home are not separate; they will be closely linked."
Samsung C&T ultimately plans to build a structure in which Raemian residents whose homes have Next Home applied can easily apply for unit remodeling through its own residential platform, Homeniq.
There are concerns that hyper-personalizing apartments will cost a lot. However, Samsung C&T believes that Next Home can drastically shorten construction time and thus reduce costs. For example, supertall apartments of 40 floors or more take five to six years from groundbreaking to occupancy. But Next Home introduces the OSC method to the structure to innovate the frame construction cycle, and bathrooms are made in factories, enabling faster and safer construction.
A Samsung C&T official said, "Next Home can drastically shorten construction time and improve quality, reducing social expenses such as relocation expenses caused by reconstruction delays."
Byun said, "At present, when applying the Ramen structure, the cost of making one (Ramen) itself is at the sample-making level, but if long-life dwellings and systems are supported and the market is activated, cost reductions through mass production systems will become possible," adding, "Elements other than the frame, such as furniture and floors, are not as big a factor in raising the original cost as you might think. When recliner sofas became popularized, prices fell by half; this will be similar."
Byun added, "Remodeling an existing apartment generally takes more than a month, but with Next Home it would take seven days," and "It is cheaper than doing unit interior work."
Samsung C&T plans to build a co-prosperity ecosystem with new partners, as Next Home can change the subcontracting-based apartment construction structure. Byun said, "If necessary, we can produce the foundation to realize Next Home in-house, and in fields where there are companies that can implement the technology better than we can, we will grow together through win-win cooperation."