Fast-forward 20 years and the people coming to work here are no longer harvesting rice, they are working on some of the latest technological innovations – cupboards that dry-clean your clothes, centimetres-thin smart TVs that control your refrigerator, robots that serve you drinks or mow your lawn… you name it.

In April, South Korean conglomerate LG Group opened the doors of its £2.7bn LG Science Park – which at 11.9m sq ft is the largest corporate research campus in the world. When construction work on the site completes in 2020, its 18 buildings will be home to nearly 25,000 employees.

The aim? To bring scientists from eight of LG’s affiliate companies together for the first time to work collaboratively in a stimulating environment with all the amenities they need.