Design Lab is a competition that Electrolux introduced six years ago and which is destined to award the home appliances of tomorrow. This year the competition is held in Zurich on October 9th, 2008 and the jury has chosen nine finalists that will create the home appliances of the future for the Internet generation.

Here are the finalists:

#1 Flatshare Fridge by Stefan Buchberger

The refrigerator features a base unit and four stackable modules that each person can customize depending on their needs and tastes. The great thing about this fridge is that if you want to move then you can take you own module to your new home “and hook it up to the base station in your new flat.”

#2 E-Bag by Apore Püspöki

This bag is perfect for the times when you leave town or when you go out in the nature as it will help you to keep your drinks and snacks cool. E-Bag is powered by kinetic energy and it was designed Apore Püspöki from the Moholy-Nagy University of Arts and Design, Budapest.

#3 Coox by Antoine Lebrun

Well, I an kitchen there is always a need for a cooking table therefore Antoine Lebrun from L’Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique, France decided to create one. It’s a very cool design and the rollaway cooking table has a good chance of winning an award.

#4 Vesta by Matthias Pinkert

Another interesting design which clearly deserves to be among the nine finalists, is Vesta, a foldaway cooktop. It was designed by Matthias Pinkert from the HTW Dresden University of Applied Science, Germany and being such an illustrious student, Matthias provided the cooktop with an RFID scanner. Well, let’s hope that this is enough for him to impress the jury.

#5 Stratosphere by Attila Sáfrány

Well, it seems like the Moholy-Nagy University of Arts and Design from Budapest, Hungary is doing a pretty good job in preparing their students as another designer, Attila Sáfrány, has reached the final with his Stratosphere, a sanitizing clothes rack or valet. Let’s wait and see if one of the Hungarian designers wins.

#6 Sook by Adam Brodowski

Here is the first non-European finalist of the Electrolux Design Lab contest which comes from the USA and he is called Adam Brodowski from the Savannah College of Art and Design. His home appliance is called Sook and it’s a social networking recipe generator with an electronic tongue.

#7 Scan Toaster by Sung Bae Chang

The second non-European finalist is called Sung Bae Chang and he comes from Sejong University, South Korea. This home appliance is the most futuristic from all others as it’s an USB toaster which is capable of printing news, weather and snapshots on the slices of toast. Thanks to this technology, the Scan Toaster has a good chance of winning an award.

#8 iBasket by Guopeng Liang

iBasket is a Wi-Fi connected home appliance which hampers and washes clothes. This washing machine was designed by Guopeng Liang from Tongji University, China. I don’t think that the “i” in front of the “Basket” has anything to do with Apple, but it surely is a nice strategy to draw the jury’s attention.

#9 Drawer Kitchen by Nojae Park

The Drawer Kitchen is a desk-drawer hotplate and fridge which was designed by Nojae Park from Chiba University, Japan. It looks really nice and the Japanese designer had a really good idea to integrate a mini-fridge into the desk-drawer and it could bring him some votes the jury.