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Meet your kitchen of the future. Electrolux Design Lab has announced the finalists in their annual design competition. Undergrad and graduate industrial design students were challenged to envision new home appliance ideas for the year 2100 that create new ways to prepare and store food, wash clothes, or do dishes. Of 900 entries, these eight were selected as the most inventive, eye-catching, and forward-thinking.
The finalists have conjured ideas that make food appear from thin air, grow herbs on Mars, clean clothes you’re wearing, photocopy meals, and grow a steak. Check out the gallery to see them all.
Last year’s winner, Austrian designer Stefan Buchberger, took the prize for a compartment-style fridge. The Flatshare has individual, stackable modules so that people living with roommates can keep their food separated and avoid pesky things like putting initials on milk cartons or yelling at someone who just ate your last cupcake.
The winner will be announced in London on September 24 and will receive 5,000 Euro and an internship.
How often do your clean dishes never make it from the dishwasher to the cabinet? Toma Brundzaite of Lithuania has a design that makes the washer and cabinet one in the same. The dual-sided, wall-mounted dishwasher stores dirty plates on one side and clean on the other. To start a wash cycle, just swing the door to the dirty side.
Cocoon
Half-microwave, half-magical food generator, the Cocoon by Swedish designer Rickard Hederstierna “grows food.” And we’re not talking veggies: Cocoon can grow meat or fish. Pop a pre-packaged, genetically engineered envelope inside and it sets its own cooking time based on what it detectd (via RFID) and generates a meal.
Le Petit Prince
We can colonize Mars all we want, but Le Petit Prince by Martin Miklica (Czech Republic) will make sure there’s something to eat once we do. The Prince carries a plant inside its glass shell and searches for nutrients to help the bud thrive. Once it finds what it needs, the Prince remembers where it was and can message other ‘bots to make sure they know, too.
Moléculaire
Germany’s Nico Kläber figured out the best way to make the same great dish over and over again: make a three-dimensional food printer. Moléculaire is a food printer for both professional and domestic kitchens to automatically create perfect meals layer by layer.
Naturewash
Naturewash by Zhenpeng Li of China is true dry cleaning. The machine uses negative ions to clean fabrics. The Naturewash can be propped up on one end like a lounge chair, so you can plop down for a quick refresh for the the clothes you’re already wearing.
Renew
The Renew steams, cleans, and Febreezes. The design by American Louis Fioloa scans specially designed clothing labels to properly treat different fabrics. Simply slide your clothes between its plates for one-step cleaning. It will also shut down if an unlabeled item is inserted, so you won’t scald your hands.
Teleport Fridge
Imagine instant deliveries. Dulyawat Wongnawa’s Teleport Fridge can make it happen. Its touch-screen interface allows you to order fresh groceries from stores and farms, and they will then appear in eithr the fridge or freezer.
Water Catcher
There’s a lot of moisture in the air, which Chinese designer Pengbao Shun sees as more than humidity: it’s drinking water. The Water Catcher deploys pods to catch rainwater and return it to the purifying tray where it’s made drinkable. The pods then deliver the purified water to whoever’s thirsty.
Corinne Iozzio is the former Editor-in-Chief of Popular Science. In that role, she oversaw an award-winning crew of science journalists—both editors and writers—who are obsessed with shining a light on the thousands of ways science and technology transform our lives daily. She lives in Washington Heights in New York City (or, as she affectionately refers to it, “Upstate Manhattan”) with her partner, an ever-expanding collection of vintage hand-blown glass, and a talkative tuxedo cat hellbent on knocking it all to pieces.
