Designers Rethink Home Appliances With Intelligent Mobility In Mind

The annual Electrolux Design Lab competition for industrial design students and recent graduates recently revealed their 25 semi-finalists for 2011. This year’s challenge involved developing home appliance ideas around food cleaning, preparation and dish cleanup which consider ‘intelligent mobility’ as a feature. We’ve selected five finalist concepts to share here. To see all the ideas in the running for the grand prize of a six-month paid Electrolux internship and prize money, check out the Design Lab site or Top 25 Flickr Gallery.

Breez, Andrew Parsons, Canada
Breez is a portable and easy to stow away dish dryer that helps you quickly dry your hand washed plates, ensuring you avoid bacteria and germs that can spread when drying many plates with the same cloth. A digital pulse motor concentrates air to a thin stream that blows the plate dry when once moved through the machine. The air travels at a speed of 400 MPH (644 km/h) and leaves the plate completely dry and ready to place directly into the cupboard.

Take-Away Stewart, Hatao Qin, China
The Steward is a food delivery postbox system designed to keep delivered take-away food fresh at your home or work place until you can collect it. With the aid of an integrated electronic system within the ‘steward’ you can pre-order your food and set a pass word to the delivery company. When the food arrives, the deliverer uses the password and places the food in the postbox. The Steward will intuitively keep the food at its optimal temperature. The postbox is made of a solar panel coated material that provides all necessary power.

Ringoo, Jacek Chrzanowsky, Poland
Ringoo is a small circular microwave heater for warm drinks that helps us use less water and lead more ecologically friendly lives. Water (or any liquid for that matter) when poured through the ring becomes hot. This addresses the wasted energy that comes through the heating of more water than required for e.g. a cup of tea. The Ringoo will heat the water to the desired temperature allowing you to sit back to enjoy your tea and your contribution to the protection of the planet.

Portable Washing Machine, Adrian Mankovecký, Slovakia
An innovation welcomed by every traveler – whether you’re a back packer or a business traveler you will love this small portable washing machine. Four pre-installed cleaning programs are available for quick and easy use. Pull the two components apart, place on either side of the garment with a stain or odor and choose the suitable cleaning program. The machine does all the work using negative ions and steam. Powered with a sugar crystal battery, you can use it practically anywhere in the world.

MyWash, Saba Zare, Australia
‘Mywash’ is a communal washing machine designed for use with personalised laundry baskets that double up as washing drums. Operation is performed by simply loading the baskets with your laundry and then you’re able to control the process via a smartphone, connected via 3G, anytime and from anywhere you wish. The phone application let’s you decide on the timing when you want to wash your clothes as well as what washing programs you prefer, including specific preferences such as a longer soaking time.

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