The participating students in Design Lab 2004 came from design institutions in Australia, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States.
New South Wales, Australia-November 19, 2004-Jobwerx News-Students from the University of New South Wales, Australia, won the top prize for "appliance of the future" at the Electrolux Design Laboratory 2004 competition in New York.
The winning concept from Australia is the "Rockpool" dishwasher. It is a unique dishwasher that combines a highly sophisticated waterless cleaning technology with a simple user interface. Carbon dioxide is used in a closed loop operation to clean the dishes.
"The unique appliance concepts developed by the students demonstrate the power of creating products directly related to consumer needs," said Henrik Otto, Global Head of Design at Electrolux. "These concepts and ideation will make a significant impact on our product and design innovation efforts," said Otto.
In Electrolux Design Lab 2004 students from leading schools of design in nine countries representing five continents competed to create the most outstanding new appliance concept. The students have been challenged to design products for a daring but not too distant future. The design concepts are free from the constraints of tradition, yet are they the result of the students' in-depth research into consumer needs and innovative ideas on how to "make life a little easier."
Participating institutions were the University of New South Wales in Australia, Umeå University in Sweden, Central St. Martin's College in the UK, Porto Design School in Portugal, ESDI Design School in Brazil, the University of Notre Dame in the U.S., the Design School of Southern Yangtze University in China and a collaboration between VSUP in Czech Republic and Bratislava Design School in Slovakia.
Keeping in line with Electrolux's brand strategy, the institutions targeted specific consumer segments identified as "those seeking extra time and ease of use from their appliances" and "those seeking appliances that reflect their particular lifestyle in extraordinary design and features". The segments were based on recent research conducted by Electrolux, where more than 6.000 face-to-face interviews with consumers in key markets were held. Each school was to design and develop their own concepts, building the first prototypes for initial presentation. The goal of the teams was to satisfy the consumer segments' needs as interpreted by them.
The jury selecting the winner included leading design personalities, such as Ross Lovegrove, designer of Walkmans for Sony and computers for Apple, Suzanne Trocme, editor of Wallpaper Magaziner, Florence Perchuk, former president of the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA) Manhattan Chapter and Chee Perlman, a design expert who writes for The New York Times, Newsweek and Wired.
The Electrolux Group is the world's largest producer of powered appliances for kitchen, cleaning and outdoor use, such as refrigerators, washing machines, cookers, vacuum cleaners, chainsaws, lawn mowers, and garden tractors. Every year, customers in more than 150 countries buy more than 55 million Electrolux Group products for both consumer and professional use sold under famous brands such as AEG, Electrolux, Zanussi, Frigidaire, Eureka and Husqvarna. In 2003, Electrolux had sales of SEK 124 billion and 77,000 employees.
