Electrolux Design Lab ‘08 Finalists

Home appliance brand Electrolux recently announced the finalists in their annual Design Lab contest, highlighting the top nine design concepts from industrial design students tasked with coming up with “tomorrow’s home appliances for the Internet generation.” The submitted ideas had to be designed for use 2-3 years into the future and be related to food storage, cooking, and/or washing. Designers from over 49 countries participated, resulting in over 600 entries.The winner of the contest won’t be announced until October 9, 2008, but here are a few of our favorite picks:

- iBasket: this hamper-for-the-lazy turns into a washing machine once it reaches a predetermined weightload. And it’s even wifi-enabled, meaning you can start the load without even getting out of your seat. By Guopeng Liang, Tongji University, China.

- E-bag: this tote-able cooler bag is powered by its own kinetic energy. Cool. By Apore Püspöki, Moholy-Nagy University of Arts and Design, Budapest.

- Scan Toaster: and finally, possibly the strangest but most endearing idea – a toaster that ‘prints’ out pictures, short news reports, and weather updates on pieces of toast (information is fed via USB). By Sung Bae Chang, Sejong University, South Korea.