13 October 2008

A Fridge Divided

Do you share a house? Ever had problems with housemates eating your food? This may be the solution.

The winner of the 2008 Electrolux Lab ’08 may just have solved the biggest of housemate hassles. Young Austrian designer Stefan Buchberger created a unique solution to sharehouse living.

‘Flatshare’ is a modular refrigeration system, with stackable units atop a ‘base station’. The units are easily customisable, with different coloured skins and interchangeable accessories helping to define each person’s own little fridge.

“With ‘Flatshare’ fridge you can customise your own fridge unit and that’s really, I think for the IGeneration, a really good opportunity to live this individual life,” Burchberger says.

The competition sought to find designs for the iGeneration (internet generation). The nine finalist designs included a kitchen assistant with a ‘virtual tongue’ (‘Sook’), a clothes basket and washing machine in one (‘iBasket’) and a kinetic energy powered cooler bag (‘Ebag’).

With over 600 entries from 49 countries, the awards were announced on Thursday 9th October in Zurich Switzerland.

electrolux.com/designlab