Domestic appliances for the next 90 years: what will they do?

Electrolux is organizing an International competition Design Lab 2009 for undergraduate and graduate industrial design students around the world.

The theme for this year is: «Domestic appliances for the next 90 years»

The brief for the competition’s 7th edition is to create thoughtfully-designed home appliances that will shape how people prepare and store food, wash clothes, and do dishes over the next nine decades. The design ideas should address key consumer insights such as being adaptive to time and space, provide learning and allow for individualization.

2008 1st prize winner, Flatshare refrigerator by Stefan Buchberger

For more information, rules and registration visit Electrolux Designlab.

A jury will select 3 winning entries that will receive cash prize awards. The Design Lab has a First Prize of 5,000 Euro and a six-month paid internship at one of Electrolux’s global design centers. Second prize: 3,000 Euro. Third prize: 2,000 Euro. All cash prize awards include VAT.

2008 2nd prize winner, iBasket by Guopeng Liang

A selected number of students (students are persons who are officially registered as undergraduate or graduate—Bachelor’s or Master’s degree—students with a university at the time of submission of the design idea), will have their idea developed into a 1:1 full scale model of their design. The finalists will be invited to London, England for the finals and be available September 23 & 24, 2009 for this purpose. An exhibition of the finalists’ entries will be shown during a press event in London. Afterwards, the exhibition will travel around the world.

2008 3rd prize winner, Coox, by Antoine Lebrun

Applicant registration and submissions will be accepted through May 31, 2009.

Photos from the 2008 contest courtesy of Electrolux.

Special Event:Design of Modern Greek Furniture

Today opens the 2nd International Furnidec Business exhibition in Thessaloniki. It hosts, just like last year, the 3rd Design Show, which has known Greek designers exhibiting their work. In a specially designed space for this, in Pavilion 14, this special show is a celebration of design furniture and home accessories, outside of the usual commercial styles and norms.


Avant guard designers and architects project a special concept in objects concerning furniture. The prerogative for participation is the original idea and construction based on innovation, functionality and high standards in strength, style and unexpected forms and shapes. Most of the participating designers had previously shown in BARTESERA in Athens last month.



For the very first time, a Pan-Hellenic competition for furniture design took place, under the Helexpo-Furnidec co-ordination, in collaboration with the Greek Secretariat for Industrial Design. Any individual or team represented by a professional in the field of design and also graduate of any design school was eligible. There are 7 equal awards that will be given on Sunday. All the participants exhibit their designs and models along with their more well know colleagues, in Pavilion 14, in the special area designated for them.

The design of the whole space was done by my colleague Ioanna Papadopoulou, and we both supervised the set up of the exhibition space for the company we work for, Tetragon. I will post photos after the event.

The show is from the 25th until the 28th of January at the Thessaloniki International Fair grounds.