John Lewis’ flagship store on Oxford Street, UK was chosen by Electrolux to preview the finalists. The store offered a glimpse of the future for home appliances by exhibiting six of the final eight finalists of Electrolux’s Design Lab competition, which revolved around the theme of ‘compact living’. The design concepts were on display from 16-21 September 2010.
The brief of the contest asked industrial design students to consider how people will prepare and store food, wash clothes, and do dishes in the homes of 2050, when 74% of the global population are predicted to live in an urban environment.
French designer Nicolas Hubert has proposed External Refrigerator, which can be fixed directly on the outside wall of residential buildings. The concept is an elaboration on a way of life in northern China where food is kept on balconies in the winter to save space and energy. An all-in -one laundry concept named ‘Clean Closet’ by Swedish designer Michael Edenius is a closet that washes clothing. Textiles are scanned for impurities and cleaned accordingly with molecular technology that removes dirt and odour.
The Bio Robot Refrigerator by Yuriy Dmitriev from Russia is four times smaller than a conventional refrigerator. The Bio Robot cools biopolymer gel through luminescence. Rather than shelves, the non sticky, odourless gel morphs around products to create a separate pod that suspends items for easy access.
Peter Alwin from India has designed a portable heating and cooking device based on magnetic induction processes named ‘The Snail’. The Snail can be stuck directly on to a pot, a pan, or a mug to heat the contents.
Electrolux Design Lab 2010 invited global undergraduate and graduate industrial design students to create home appliances that consider shrinking domestic spaces. The winner will be announced on 23 September 2010 at 100% Design in London. Visitors to the Electrolux Design Lab website can vote for their favourite project. Every vote cast will count towards the ‘Electrolux Design Lab 2010 People’s Choice’ award and voting is open until the day before the final.
The contest is organised by Electrolux, a Swedish producer of household appliances and appliances for personal use. It sells more than 40 million products to customers in 150 countries.
