The Australian section of the 2004 Electrolux Global Design Laboratory competition, held in New York, unveiled few very innovative design concepts for ultramodern household appliances. Students from New South Wales (UNSW) had designed “˜Rockpool’ a waterless dishwasher.
Designed by Douglas Nash, Oystien Lie and Ross Nicholls, the washing system uses pressurized carbon dioxide instead of water. It creates a supercritical fluid that acts as a powerful solvent, scraping out the grease on plates and cutlery.
Supercritical carbon dioxide is usually used in some industrial cleaning processes. This is the first time it has been considered for a dishwasher.
The design challenged several other contesting designs from seven design schools coming from Europe, China, South America and the US.
Other interesting concepts included a fridge that doubles as a household information centre; a wall-mounted washing machine with removable basket; a combined food preparation area and cook-top; a modular fridge comprising portable containers for shopping; and a fold-up kitchen.
Local design experts including Ian Moore (Iarchitect), Mark Armstrong (industrial designer) and Jennifer Sanders (Power House Museum) judged the designs. They selected Rockpool as the most relevant proposal, praising the creative insight of UNSW students Douglas Nash, Oystein Lie and Ross Nicholls.
The annual event strives to inspire young minds around the world. “The target of the project is not just to create amazing designs”, said Sean Carney, Director Brand Design Strategy at Electrolux. “The work of the students for the Design Laboratory project started with intense consumer research. What problems are consumers having when using their appliances? What tasks do they want to have solved? All student teams interviewed consumers and even filming then when interacting with products in their homes. Based on these questions, the students started developing the innovative solutions which were presented on 5 October.”
Electrolux is one of the world’s largest producers of powered appliances for kitchen, cleaning and outdoor use, such as refrigerators, washing machines, cookers, vacuum cleaners, chain saws, lawn mowers, and garden tractors. Every year, customers in more than 150 countries buy more than 55 million Electrolux Group products for both consumers
If everything goes well Rockpool may be even picked up by Electrolux for worldwide production.
From Earth Times