electrolux

The Electrolux Design Lab is a yearly competition that challenges design students across the globe. This year's competition asked students to create home appliances that would "provide a fuller sensory experience." Perhaps one day, some of these entries will be used in the home kitchen. Below are a few highlights:

Ingresure (seen above) is by Jongwoo Choi. It is a gadget designed to be a taste tester. Instead of chef's tasting their own creation, they would use the device to taste it for them. The idea is that the Ingresure would give amateur chefs the assurance … Read more

Even if you're not into home appliances, Electrolux's Design Lab 2011 competition is something worth watching, not least because a neat robot vacuum made it to the finals.

After a field of 25 semi-finalists was announced last month, the judges recently narrowed the hopefuls to eight crushworthy concepts.

One is the Robo TAP Cleaner by Gyu-Ha Choi of Handong Global University in South Korea. This design improves upon automatic vacuums like Roomba by giving users more hands-on (well, make that feet-on) control.

Robo TAP makes use of an indoor positioning system as it follows its own route to vacuum household floors. But when you want it to pay attention to a particularly dirty spot, you just tap your foot twice to summon it. … Read more

Food on the go is an essential part of modern life. It's a wonder it took as long as it did for the food truck thing to catch on, but the important thing is, it did. Good food no longer has to be subject to long periods of idleness. If you're wondering what might be the next big thing concerning mobility, you are not alone. Electrolux, with its 2011 Design Lab exhibition, has just released the 25 semi-finalists for the competition. The theme is "Intelligent Mobility." Here are a few examples of the concepts that perhaps … Read more

Electrolux is at it again. The appliance manufacturer supports forward thinking in design every year in its Design Lab competition. This year, in the run-up to the last call for entries on May 1, they have challenged students at the Domus Academy in Milan to provide presentations for a separate exhibition titled Electrolux ReSource. In Electrolux's words:

The ReSource concepts include sustainable thinking and cultural reference points - both of which are increasingly important issues for product design as our planet's resources disappear and our changing habits and lifestyles are fed by multi-cultural influences in our quest for … Read more

Every year, Electrolux holds a worldwide competition it calls the Design Lab, and every year the competition reveals some far-out designs. With the 2010 competition currently ongoing, Electrolux has announced the 25 semi-finalists, proving once again that there is no lack of imagination for what the future may hold. Judgment is based on "intuitive design, innovation, and consumer insight," and the current crop of semi-finalists were chosen for their designs that "offer the most interesting solutions for future living and best consider efficient use of domestic space."

Some highlights:

• The Kitchen Hideaway, designed by Daniel Dobrogorsky of Australia, consists of a virtual-reality headset that communicates with physical robotic chefs. Envisioned for use in multi-dwelling buildings, hungry participants would select a recipe from a database that would then be prepared in a communal "Food Factory." The robotic chefs would pass along the finished meal to be delivered directly to the user.

• Yuriy Dmitriev of Russia dreamed up the Bio Robot Refrigerator, a food storage concept that replaces familiar shelves found in today's refrigerators with a biopolymer gel that would suspend food items wherever they happen to be placed. With food items visible at all times, users would simply reach in through the non-sticky, odorless gel and select what they wanted.

• The Qumi is a "flexible cooking unit" designed by Ilia Vostrov, also of Russia. The versatile induction cooker is egg-shaped and able to fry, steam, or heat ingredients in a manner similar to today's multicookers. However, unlike anything on the market today, the concept appliance has absolutely no control or display panel, and instead would be operated entirely by a mobile device. … Read more

The Electrolux Design Lab is at it again. Understanding that the kitchen is a place for inspiration, the Electrolux "Heart of the Home" Kitchen Concept integrates recipe creation into an all-in-one appliance. By combining a cooking surface with a countertop and throwing in a recipe reader for good measure, Electrolux paints a future where kitchen appliances can inspire everything from dinner to the conversation that goes with it.

Meal planning with the "Heart of the Home" starts with, what else, ingredients. The design concept is an imagining of a future where the cookware has a say … Read more

This week, Donald will just not_shut_up already, so Jasmine tries to impose a word cap on his ramblings (it fails). Items that are babbled upon include the overly bass-heavy Dr. Dre Beats Solo headphones, a potential Zii war between Nintendo and Creative, an itty-bitty $9 MP3 player, and a potential HD video player from Cowon. Also, Donald shoots Jasmine with lasers, and we drool over an ultraquiet vacuum with a built in iPod speaker.

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Cleaning is no fun. Making a mess is sure fun, but the aftermath can be a downer. But, regardless of the state of the house, the cleaning simply has to (at some point) get done. Cleaning while listening to music is one way to make the chores go by in a more enjoyable manner. However, sooner or later you're going to have to put down that duster and plug in the vacuum cleaner--and there goes the music. Unless of course, you have a vacuum cleaner that also plays music.

The Electrolux UltraSilencer Music Edition Amplified iPod Vacuum is a … Read more

Every year, Electrolux invites industrial design students worldwide to design appliances that will help shape how consumers think about cooking, cleaning, and storing food and other items around the home. At stake for the 2009 competition is an internship at an Electrolux design center and a cash prize. This year, contestants were asked to design appliances that will change the way we live over the next 90 years, allowing for personalization, learning, and time constraints.

As is the trend every year, the finalists have developed some astonishingly beautiful and innovative concepts. The group of eight finalists will battle it out … Read more