A Foundation of Innovation: 50 Years of LG’s Gasan R&D Campus

This year marks a special milestone for LG Electronics: the 50th anniversary of our Gasan R&D Campus, the birthplace of many innovations that have reshaped how people live.

To celebrate the occasion, we held a commemorative event at the Campus located in Gasan-dong, southwestern Seoul, under the banner “50 Years of Technology and Passion, a Promise for Tomorrow.” The event brought together key figures from the Campus’s past and present – including research center heads and former division leaders – to reflect on a shared journey and reaffirm our commitment to advancing the global home appliance industry.

Founded in December 1975 as the Goldstar Central Research Lab, and at that time located within the company’s headquarters, the Gasan R&D Campus was the first privately established research facility in Korea. At a time when most companies maintain small R&D teams inside their factories, LG made a bold and forward-thinking decision to establish a centralized campus in the Seoul metropolitan area. Decades later, this decision appears prescient, with the Gasan R&D Campus having time and again proven itself invaluable to our company’s mission – to make life better for customers around the globe.

Beginning with just 10 researchers in a small, crowded workspace, the team quickly made history by developing one of Korea’s first domestically produced electronic POS cash registers in 1977. Energized by this early success, the lab continued to set new milestones for the nation’s electronics industry. It pioneered Korea’s first electronic Korean-English bilingual typewriter and independently developed Custom ICs, establishing in-house capabilities for semiconductor design and manufacturing. Building on these achievements, the lab rapidly expanded its scope from office and banking equipment to everyday home appliances – transforming fans, refrigerators and washing machines into electronically controlled, microprocessor-equipped devices. As projects multiplied and talent grew, the lab relocated to the Guro Industrial Complex, laying the foundation for what would ultimately become a powerhouse of home appliance innovation.

Today, the Campus spans 20 floors above ground and five basement levels, home to specialized laboratories like the Clothing Science Lab and Air‑Science Lab. It has powered the development of category‑leading and life‑improving innovations to market.

Among these are the LG Styler clothing care system; the world’s first Direct Drive (DD) motors for washing machines; linear compressors for refrigerators; and ThinQ UP appliances, which constantly evolve to meet users’ changing needs.

The Campus also drives breakthroughs in advanced materials. Observing that enamel glass powder is commonly used on interior metal surfaces of electric ranges in major global markets, our researchers set out to create an easier to clean alternative. This led to the development of the LG EasyClean™ oven in 2013, enabling cleaning with only water.

More recently since 2023, we have expanded our advanced materials business under the LG PuroTecTM brand – another milestone supported by the world-class capabilities at Gasan.

As we reflect on 50 years of progress, the Gasan R&D Campus remains our strategic core – a place where technology meets empathy, where innovation is fueled by purpose and where our commitment endures:

To deliver a Better Life for All.

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