Open fridge design wins silver at international awards

Third-year industrial design student Ben de la Roche’s open wall refrigerator design has been placed second at the international Electrolux Design Lab 2012 Award.

The 21- year-old, from Dunedin, who studies at Massey’s College of Creative Arts, was one of ten finalists selected from more than 1200 entries from 50 countries globally. The competition, which held its final in Milan, Italy, overnight, challenged undergraduate and graduate industrial design students to ‘present innovative ideas for household appliances of the future.’

Mr de la Roche’s design is of a refrigeration wall that holds food and drinks out in the open rather than behind closed doors. It was described by competition judges, as “a visual experience that is energy saving and simplifies the users life.” The judges based their assessments on intuitive design, innovation, aesthetic qualities and consumer insight. The refrigeration wall does not refrigerate when it is empty and uses less power when fewer items are pressed into it.

Mr de la Roche, who had to give a presentation in person before the final competition judging, wins 3000 Euros (about NZ $4,700). A revolutionary air cleaning and filtering system developed by a young Polish designer was declared the winner.

Mr de la Roche’s design uses a motor in its back to act like a piston to send vibrations that resonate through the inner chamber to create cold air,

His concept is modelled on the children’s toy pin art where a boxed surface made of an array of pins slide in and out independently of each other.

In Mr de la Roche’s design the horizontal pins that make up the wall are designed so that it can contain both ceramic plates as well as drink cans and bottles.

“It’s well suited to the flatting environment as it allows everyone’s food to be placed in separate sections of the wall,” he says.

Before leaving for Milan, Mr de la Roche said he was “more excited than nervous” about getting to present his concept in Italy and long term hoped reaching the final would help kick-start his career in industrial design.

“My passion is science fiction so it would be good to eventually get into concept and movie design.”