Brazil's I-House, The Innovative House, a manufacturer of high technology equipment for households based in the city of São Paulo, is going to open a showroom in Miami and another one in Dubai. According to the president of the company, Leonardo Senna, the showrooms should be up early next year.
I-House designs solutions for luxury households and boats, such as a bathtub that prepares baths automatically, and fingerprint- or password-activated door locks.
The tub, named Smarthydro, has already won two awards in Europe. It is programed through a panel. The user sets the water temperature, the number of people that will use the tub, the essences to be used, the emptying process and even the final cleaning. The system then automatically prepares the bath. One detail: everything can be activated from afar through a cellular telephone, while commuting from work to home.
The I-House also manufactures the Smartshower, an electronic mixer for showers that replaces valves and balances the amount of hot and cold water, and the Smartdoor, which reads the owner's fingerprints in order to open the door, or opens it by means of a password.
All the equipment can be controlled from a cellular phone. Other high-technology household solutions include an automatic sauna, an automation system for window blinds, air conditioning, and lighting, among others.
The I-House was established by Senna in the year 2000 and started developing its products in 2002. "We realized that the residential real estate market was not keeping up with the auto industry, the telecommunications industry and other areas," explains the businessman. "Technology had not arrived at the real estate segment," he says.
Coming from a computing company, which he had owned approximately twenty years ago, and having imported automobiles of the Audi brand, Senna then decided to innovate the field. He is a brother of three-times world Formula-1 champion Ayrton Senna.
According to the president of I-House, the company's products are already present in more than 200 apartments in the states of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Amazonas. By the end of this year, the total should rise to around 500. The company has already confirmed its participation in real estate projects in other states in the Northeast and South of Brazil.
"It is a very new line of business, and our output is still low, given the existing market in Brazil and abroad," explains Senna. The products are used in luxury condominiums.
International expansion should begin next year. Miami and Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, were chosen as the company's leading target markets in foreign countries. Senna believes, however, that the Emirates will tend to become his main market in the future, even surpassing Brazil.
"I believe so due to the type of market that they have. The construction industry is booming and there is a demand for differentiation. That much is already certain with regard to architecture, and we are approaching the market from the other side, the inner side [of houses and apartments]," he says.
The showroom is also going to cater to other countries in the region, such as Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which have similar luxury markets. The I-House is putting together, in Dubai and in the United States, lofts in which the company's products will remain on display for potential clients, including an office.
According to Senna, some business contacts have already been made in the region, but it is still too early to discuss sales and projects.
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I-House
Telephone: (+55 11) 3074-8888
Website: www.ihouse.com.br
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