Intelligent Mobility, Scandinavian Design Sensibilities and Existing Technologies were the key words for consideration while designing the Electrolux Design Lab entries for 2011. For booty of 5,000 Euros and six-months paid internship, thousands of designers set to the task of designing appliances that can be used at home and beyond. Looking at the shortlisted 25 entries it’s really hard to predict which one will wear the crown. Last year’s winner Peter Alwin pitched the bar up high with his Snail Concept; this year the competition gets tougher, so good luck designers!



Breeze Dish Air Dryer by Andrew Parsons

Breeze is a dish dryer meant for those households that don’t use a dishwasher. My side of the globe relies on hand washed dishes that are towel dried, so this concept kinda rings home true. The appliance uses an airblade with a digital pulse motor that beams out a thin strip of air for drying the dish as it passes under it.

Cooker EMS by Simona Hruskova

Cooker EMS has a bracelet kind of contraption that goes around your wrist and harnesses kinetic energy with your every movement. Unfurl the bracelet to use the kinetic heating plates to cook food or warm your coffee! The power of YOU!

EcoWash Dinner Set by David Stockton

EcoWash is a portable dishwasher that works with a hand crank. A few good swirls gets the inner mechanism working to clean the dishes in an eco-friendly way. You can read the details on this project here.

Gull Air Purifier by Tomasz Siemek

Gull is an air purifying system that uses lemon oils to cleanse the air. Inspired by a bird’s flight, the device uses kinetic energy to work its mechanism.

Heat Grenade by Sam Evans

Heat Grenade is a simple induction-cooking platform for emergency situations, blackouts and outdoor cooking. As a closed structure the cooker hardly occupies any place, but once open its is big enough to hold a pot. It is powered by paper thin batteries made by Cenimat.

Honeycomb Modular Induction Tiles by Alfred Ching

Honeycomb is a set of induction cooking tiles that can be expanded or detached, to suit your purpose. It hooks up with Bluetooth to the remote control, allowing you the freedom to change the settings from a distance.

Intelligent Mobility Scale Bag by Karel Vránek

Intelligent Mobility Scale Bag holds your goodies and keeps them cool. Expand it to use as a shopping bag for groceries or keep it compact with a drink and fruit inside!

Marbles by Eduardo Nauiack

Marbles is a set of individual mixers that you throw into a bowl to work collectively as a blender. Knead dough, make juice or simply churn some milkshake. To increase the intensity of the mixing, just keep adding more ‘marbles’!

Mobile Induction Hot Plate by Tommi Moilanen

Keeping in times with the smartphone generation, the Mobile Induction Hot Plate can be controlled via Bluetooth and can be paired with your smartphone. It’s controlling app keeps recipes and adjusts the cooking time for your convenience. The portable cooker can be charged via induction, cable and batteries. A great appliance in all!

Mobile Kitchen Kit by Elizabeth Reuter

Cook from a box, literally! The Mobile Kitchen Kit includes a cutting board, flexible induction cooking pad, strainer, spatula, wooden spoon, cutting knife, peeling knife, skillet, saucepan and a strainer. All the tools that help you cook a variety of meals, even on the go!

Mohe by Krzysztof Luchowiec

Mohe is a smart way of storing homemade food. The specialized pack can be vacuum-sealed and the package itself contains a thin layer of water activated exothermic chemical heater and an additional isolation layer. This is that you can reheat your food in the package itself, without getting your fingers burned! Hot homemade food on the go!

MyWash by Saba Zare

MyWash is a system where we stack the laundry basket above the washing machine and once the basket is full, it automatically empties into the wash-bin. A smartphone app notifies us that the load is ready and we can use the program apt for that particular cycle. What this system basically does is that it eliminates the need for manually loading the machine with a washload.

Onda by Matthew Schwartz

Onda is a portable microwave that works with a special compatible food container. It reheats food and is ideal for office.

Ozel Kinetic Mixer by Uzer Abdul Rashid

Ozel is a kinetic blender that blends in a jiffy. The handle of the jar is the main unit where the kinetic energy is stored. A few good revs powers up the unit and is ready to be used.

PingPong Kitchen Helper by Arthur Kenzo

PingPong and its bowl of sensors eliminate the need for the cook to be watchful over his dish. For example if you are boiling milk in a pot, just hook the Ping on its rim and carry the Pong to the next room, where some urgent task awaits you. Color sensors on the Pong warn you in time to return to the kitchen, before the milk boils over. Simple!

Portable Washing Machine by Adrian MankoveckÏ

The Portable Washing uses a combination of steam and negative ions for the cleaning process and is powered by a high-density sugar battery. The washer is meant for target washing i.e. specific areas of the cloth…like a coffee stain or sweaty underarms of the shirt.

Ribbon by Enzo Kocak

The Ribbon swings between being a warming and a cooling device for your food and beverage. Wrap the black lining to heat the dish or the white lining to chill a bottle of wine!

Ringoo by Jacek Chrzanowski

Ringoo is a portable microwave that is circular in shape for a reason. The loop in the ring holds the heating element and when water (or any other liquid) is poured through, it heats it up. Good enough to heat a precise cup of water for coffee!

Robo TAP Cleaner by Gyu Ha Choi

Robo TAP is a robotic vacuum cleaner that works in sync with a remote clip hooked onto the users shoe (or slipper). Coordinated taps by the foot indicate cleanup or cancelling of a cleaning command. Kind of a tap dance to get the cleaning done!

Salvé Bagel Toaster by Kent Madden

Bagel lovers who don’t find enough time to toast some, this one is just for you! The Salvé toasts bagels by rotating them under the heating element in a circular manner. Sugar Crystal Batteries power the toaster and an alternate of ceramic induction charging is also possible.

Smoobo Blender by Roseanne deBruin

The new way to make smoothies is to bounce the Smoobo! The bouncy ball encloses a rotary blade that uses kinetic energy to work. Simply put in the ingredients and bouncy the blender to make a really cool thickshake!

Sous-vide Cell Cooker by Adam Miklosi

The art of slow cooking requires a lot of patience and given the current time constraints, the present generation cannot afford to indulge in this. The Sous-vide Cell Cooker brings back this art form with a modern twist, where you can control the temperature and cooking styles remotely from cellphone. You can even plan the entire week’s cooking in advance that the intelligent cooker helps you with details like ingredients and precise control of cooking.

Takeaway Steward by Hatao Qin

If you love to order take-away but can’t keep up to the delivery times, then this postbox-esque system is right for you. Integrated online meal orders get delivered into your Takeaway Steward, and kept fresh till you retrieve it. Solar panels on the outside power the system and keep it running.

Warm N Cold by François Hurtaud

Warm N Cold is storage box with dual functionalities. A part of it works like a fridge to keep the food cold and a little box-switching later, the container functions like a microwave to heat the food. Thermo-electric batteries are used for the job, and the system looks pretty neat overall!

Wave by Kim Min Seok

Wave is basically a washing machine assistant that reduces the stains on clothes in a prewash state. It uses ultrasound, hot air and water to remove stubborn stains on clothes before they can be dumped into the machine. This process reduces the stress on the machines when tackling larger loads and help in saving water and resources in the long run.