Electrolux Design Lab

Electrolux Design Lab is an annual global design competition held by Electrolux, a leading household appliance company. It is designed to support talented design students in their future careers as well as provide "Electrolux" with smart and "out of the box" insight into future product design possibilities.

The first edition in 2003 was the company's direct collaboration with four design schools in Europe. The Hungarian University of Art and Design, Budapest, the Les Ateliers/ENSCI Ð National School of Industrial Ceramics, Politecnico di Milano and the Stuttgart State Academy for Art and Design from Germany where those distinguished institutions Electrolux picked to participate in the first round. The competition won by two Hungarian students; Tamás Cosován and Gergely Hosszú, whom developed their patented design under the leadership of Professor Denis Feigler. For the final presentation all the participating students and professors were invited to the Electrolux's Global Design office in Pordenone, Italy to present their final argument end exhibit their work. Since then Electrolux has developed the project to a global scale and opening it up to design students from schools around the world.

The competition is currently on its fifth consecutive edition and has been run in Budapest, New York, Stockholm and Barcelona. In 2006, the Design Lab Award went to Nevale, a portable food carrier that lets consumers keep up to four different home-cooked meals at the right temperature, while featuring an intuitive, ecological and sleek design.

In 2007, the eight finalists are invited to participate in the final event November 27-28 in Paris, where an international jury will review the finalist entries and select a winner.

Students who make the finals are invited to attend a competition in a different country each year. The competition is attended by leading designers and journalists from across the world who act as jury members. Prizes are awarded as well the opportunity for the winning team to gain a lot of attention in the media, boosting their future profiles to the design community.

The Design Lab 2007 has a First Prize of 5,000 Euro and a six-month internship at one of the Electrolux global design centers.

2005

In 2005 the competition attracted over 3,000 students from 88 countries. The Award went to "Airwash", a waterless washing unit that uses negative ions, compressed air and deodorants to clean clothes featuring an intuitive and ecological design.

2006

The theme for the 2006 "design lab" is healthy eating habits and lifestyle. The design brief asks for ideas based around food preservation and preparation.

2007

The theme for the 2007 "design lab" is sustainability. Students are asked to create eco-friendly sustainable household appliances and solutions for 2020.

External links

* [http://www.electrolux.com/designlab/ Design Lab Website]